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Family History

Genealogy in the Arizona History and Archives

Unlike the Genealogy Collection in the State Library of Arizona, which focuses on books, microfilm and computers, the Arizona State Archives contains many types of public records which may be useful to family historians. Among the many resources available are:

• Assessment Rolls containing lists of taxable persons and their property.
• Brand Indexes and Books.
• Coroner or Justice Court records detail inquests held for deaths that occurred by violence or under suspicious conditions.
• Great Registers containing personal information required of those who registered to vote. Great Registers before 1912 contains only men.
• Miscellaneous Books, as their name implies, contain land records, proof of labor, plat maps, court documents, a few marriage records and whatever fell under the Miscellaneous category.
• Records from the Territorial Prison.
• Superior Court records including pre-WW II marriage licenses, wills, probate cases, and civil and criminal cases.

Check out other resources by contacting us.

Please refer to our charts of resources most commonly used for local and family history. These are not all records available for family history research. However, they are the records to which most family historians refer.

• Apache-Maricopa Counties (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)
• Mohave-Yuma Counties (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)
  

Please visit our State and Local Government Records page or our Private Manuscript Collections page for access to our records.

Please vist our Services for Genealogists and Historical Researchers page to see a list of services we offer.

Birth and Death Records
The Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records is limited by law to those birth records more than 75 years old and death records more than 50 years old. The Arizona History and Archives currently maintains microfilm of Birth Records from the 1890s through 1930 and Death Records from the 1890s through 1955. However, Arizona did not have a law requiring the registration of births and deaths before 1909. Therefore, many births and deaths before that time simply were not recorded.

For newer records, contact
Office of Vital Records
Department of Health Services
P.O. Box 3887
Phoenix, AZ 85030
Telephone: (602) 364-1300

Certification
If you need a record for legal purposes, such as establishing age for Social Security, you must obtain a certified copy from the Office of Vital Records. Our Division can only certify that copies are from microfilm held by the Division.

For Additional Help
If you need extensive help, you may wish to check with the Arizona Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists.

Selected Family History Resources on the Web

The Genealogical Research Center within the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records holds the second largest genealogy collection in the state.

The Sharlot Hall Museum in Prescott is dedicated to the lands and peoples of Central Arizona. Their web site lists many genealogical resources.

The Arizona Genealogical Advisory Board consists of individuals and societies throughout Arizona. Its website contains a calendar of genealogical events, projects and other information about genealogy in Arizona.

The Association of Professional Genealogists also maintains a website.

Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet contains almost 48,000 links, categorized and cross-referenced, in over 100 categories.

The Social Security Death Index at Ancestry.com contains over 60 million names.

The Library of Congress hosts a variety of useful information for genealogists.

Brigham Young University in Idaho has created a Western States Marriage Record Index which may be useful to genealogists. The College's list of internet sites includes NASA, LDS Universities and an array of others.

Somos Primos is a publication of the Society of Hispanic Historical and Ancestral Research (SHHAR). Somos Primos means we are cousins.

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