Vital record
Encyclopedia
Birth certificate
A birth certificate is a vital record that documents the birth of a child. The term "birth certificate" can refer to either the original document certifying the circumstances of the birth or to a certified copy of or representation of the ensuing registration of that birth...
s, marriage license
Marriage license
A marriage license is a document issued, either by a church or state authority, authorizing a couple to marry. The procedure for obtaining a license varies between countries and has changed over time...
s, and death certificate
Death certificate
The phrase death certificate can describe either a document issued by a medical practitioner certifying the deceased state of a person or popularly to a document issued by a person such as a registrar of vital statistics that declares the date, location and cause of a person's death as later...
s. In some jurisdictions, vital records may also include records of civil unions or domestic partnerships.
In the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, vital records are typically maintained at the state level. In the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, vital records are recorded in the civil registry
Civil registry
Civil registration is the system by which a government records the vital events of its citizens and residents. The resulting repository or database is called civil register or registry, or population registry. The primary purpose of civil registration is to create legal documents that are used to...
.
Various European countries are members of an International Commission on Civil Status
International Commission on Civil Status
The International Commission on Civil Status, or ICCS , is an European intergovernmental organization and the first organization created after World War II in order to work for European integration. Established in Amsterdam, Netherlands on September 29 and 30, 1948, it predates both the Council of...
which provides a mutually recognized convention on the coding of entries appearing in civil status documents, with common codes and translation tables between the language of the member states. They also provide an English unofficial translation.
In the fields of Records Management
Records Management
Records management, or RM, is the practice of maintaining the records of an organization from the time they are created up to their eventual disposal...
and Archival Science
Archival science
Archival science is the theory and study of storing, cataloguing, and retrieving documents and items. Archival science evolved from mankind's need to classify the world around them...
the term vital record is used to mean "records, regardless of medium, which are essential to the organization in order to continue with its business-crucial functions both during and after a disaster. They need not be permanent, might be active or inactive, originals or copies."
Note that only the life events meaning is restricted to government; the records management meaning in this article applies to both government and non-government organizations.
External links
- Where to Write for Vital Records in the US - National Center for Health Statistics
- New Horizons Genealogy specializes in New England and New York Colonial American Vital records, Barbour Collection, State Census records, Census Mortality Schedules, Cemetery records.
- Vital Records and Records Disaster Mitigation and Recovery: An Instructional Guide published by the National Archives and Records Administration of the USA.