Arizona Resource

If you are looking for information on a person who was born or died in Arizona, you will be happy to know that the Arizona Department of Health Services has an excellent free genealogy resource for you. On their website at present, birth certificates are available for the years 1855 to 1934 and death certificates for the years 1854 to 1959. Like many states, Arizona requires the birth be at least 75 years prior or the death 50 years prior. The database is updated annually to include those certificates who have reached this point.

The search interface is simple. There is a box for first name and last name, but both are not required. You also have the option of searching only the first couple letters of the surname, helpful if it's one that tends to have multiple spellings. One feature I really like is the check boxes that allow you to search the name as mother or father in addition to the person the certificate was for. This can be helpful in turning up children of the person.

You can choose to search births, deaths or both by simply checking or unchecking the boxes. Both births and deaths offer the ability to narrow your search with a year range or county the event occurred in.

The search results screen gives you the type of certificate, certificate number, name, birthplace, birth and/or death dates, parent's names and birthplaces, and the county. You can sort the results by column, another nice feature.

Once you have located the right person, you can click on their name to view the actual certificate. Adobe Acrobat is needed to view the certificate. As with most certificates in genealogy, some will have more data than others.