Pennsylvania Birth Certificates

Enter a name to search for Pennsylvania birth certificates. This website was created to provide genealogists with access to Pennsylvania birth certificates.. Additional information on how to obtain Pennsylvania birth certificates is available below.

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Birth certificates contain information about a person's birth, including the date of birth, place of birth, sometimes the names of the mother and father, and even the physician who attended the birth. Birth certificates issued by state and local governments will often include the place of residence, and the mother's maiden name.

Birth certificates can be used to establish a person's date and place of birth. Most birth certificates provide the mother's maiden name. Birth certificates are often required to obtain other documents, licenses or to prove eligibility.

This webpage gives you access to all of the online databases containing Pennsylvania birth records, Pennsylvania birth ceritificates, Pennsylvania birth notices, Pennsylvania birth indexes, and other related Pennsylvania genealogy records.

Birth records have long been used to help with genealogy research. They are considered to be "primary source" records, because the information is recorded by an eye witness, at the time the birth takes place. The Internet has allowed people to store birth records into various online archives. This has brought access to online birth records much more easier for genealogy researchers.

Newspapers frequently publish notices of births, and in addition to birth certificates, are a popular source of research by genealogists. Newspapers typically do not announce the names of the newborn, but list the sex of the child, the names of the parents, the place and date of birth.

On this page you will find the most comprehensive databases containing birth records of Pennsylvania. We also suggest searching for "Pennsylvania birth records" using Google.com, which will yield all such databases.

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How to Obtain Pennsylvania Birth Certificates

Pennsylvania began statewide registration of vital records in January 1906. The repositories for these records, however, are not centralized in one location.

For All Areas Except Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Erie and Scranton, for birth and death records from January 1906, write:

Division of Vital Records
101 South Mercer Street
Room 401
P.O. Box 1528
New Castle, PA 16101

Personal check or money order should be made payable to Vital Records. Cost for copy is $4.00. To verify current fees, the telephone number is (724) 656-3100. This will be a recorded message. Information on how to obtain certified copies is also available via the Internet at http://www.dsf.health.state.pa.us.

For earlier records, write to Register of Wills, Orphans Court, in county seat of county where event occurred.

Persons born in Pittsburgh from 1870 to 1905 or in Allegheny City, now part of Pittsburgh, from 1882 to 1905 should write to:

Office of Biostatistics
Pittsburgh Health Department
City--County Building
Pittsburgh, PA 15219.

For events occurring in City of Philadelphia from 1860 to 1915, write to:

Philadelphia City Archives
3101 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
(215) 685-9401.

The fee is $9.00 per copy.

All requests MUST include the signature and photo ID of the individual requesting the record.

Recommended Genealogy Websites

• DistantCousin.com - online genealogy databases, births, deaths, obituaries, military, others...

• CousinConnect.com - provides an online database of genealogy queries. Perform a surname search to find other Pennsylvania genealogy researchers, possible distant relatives, lost family members, etc.

• Death-Records.net - look up death records from their Social Security Death Index search engine, and learn how to obtain SS-5 forms.

• SexOffenderRegistry.net - enter your ZIP code to find out how many registered sex offenders are in your neighborhood.

• Interment.net - look up the names of veterans buried at Arlington National Cemetery using records provided by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

• BirthDatabase.net - Search for birth records using their online birth records search engine, and learn how to obtain birth certificates

• MarriageDatabase.com - Look up marriage records by entering a person's name into their search engine, plus get additional information on marriage certificates.

• ObituaryDatabase.com - Newpaper obituaries can be searched using their search engine, and you can browse other obituary websites with the collection of links.

• CityDirectoryRecords.com - Enter a surname into their city directories search engine to find persons living in a city during the late 1800's and early 1900's