South Bay Cities Genealogical Society

Promoting Genealogical Education and Research in Southern California's South Bay

Beginner's Basics

The Vice Principle

by Connie Moretti

While we were in school, the Vice Principal's office was certainly a place to be avoided, but for our genealogy research, the two parts of the Vice Principle are important in our research. Once you have rounded up the information you have at home, you are ready to start collecting other documents and data.

First be sure you have Vital records, the first part of the Vice Principle, for as many family members as possible. In this day of concern over identity theft, the access to past vital records can vary greatly by locality. Some states have restricted any records less than 100 years old, while other jurisdictions are making them available on line. A useful web site for death records is www.deathindexes.com which has links to on-line records and information about ordering copies. At www.linkpendium.com you will find links for each United States county which includes vital records and ordering information.

While you wait for the vital records you have ordered to arrive, you are ready for the second part of the viCe Principle, the US Census records. Start by making a list of all your family members that were living in 1930, and if possible include their locations. Censuses taken after 1930 are not yet open to the public due to a 72 year privacy law. Armed with your list of relatives, you are ready for a census web site. Ancestry.com is available at the Torrance Family History Center and Heritage Quest is available via the Palos Verdes and Los Angeles libraries. You can use it from home with a current library card. Linkpendium includes a section for census records. There are also free sites such as www.censusfinder.com and www.census-online.com/links that can help you locate census information.

Be sure to print a copy of the census page where your family is listed. If they are enumerated near the very top or bottom of the census page, print the one before or after, in case other family members are living nearby. Before you leave the page, be sure to collect all the identifying information - State, county, roll number, page or sheet number, dwelling and family number. Sometimes you can turn your copy over, and run it through your printer again to capture those facts. It can also be helpful to mark an arrow next to your family, since some of these old hand-written documents can be difficult to decipher.

Keep searching back from 1930 to 1920 to 1910 to 1900 and printing each census. It can be very important to find your family in every census year; you never know when a widowed mother-in-law may be living in the household and will help you learn a woman's maiden name. Different questions were asked in each census year, and by compiling them you can learn a great deal about your ancestors and their lives.

[First appeared in The Beacon, July/August 2008.]