Does anyone know of a good website to search public records?

Does anyone know a website for family records that is free and has detailed birth,death and marriage docs?

• I've been trying to create a family tree by looking up family birth, death and marriage records but it seems like every website I go on either has limited resources or is asking for an extortionate amount of money to search for these records, or both. I'm just wondering if anyone who has made a family tree before could suggest good websites for this?

• Answer:

  No, there is no centralized location where all birth ,death and marriage records/certificates can be searched and very few -actual certificates are online and free; most of the available information will be in the form of an index with the exception of four states: Missouri, Texas, Arizona and West Virginia. Missouri has death certificates for the years 1910-1960 on their website at: http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/deathcertificates/ A few pre 1910 birth and death certificates are also available on the site but all of their records have not been transcribed yet. Texas death certificates that are available on the LDS websites at: https://www.familysearch.org/ Additional records may be added from time to time. Birth indexes may be available on the same websites and other records as well as they add additional databases as they become available. You asked for websites but I should mention here that the LDS also have Family History Centers where you can go to research and they hold a lot of records an could possibly have something that you need. Arizona birth/death certificates where at least 75 and 50 years have passed respectively are available at: http://genealogy.az.gov/ West Virginia birth indexes, death certificates, and marriage certificates are available at: http://www.wvculture.org/vrr/va_dcsearch.aspx The access is limited to births that occurred at least 75 years ago and deaths that occurred at least 50 years ago. Additional information about these databases: http://www.wvculture.org/history/vitalrecordsarticle.pdf You can search the Social Security Death Index, which is not the same as a certificate at: http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ or http://www.familysearch.org/ENG/search/frameset_search.asp once you have located it in the index you would have a better idea of where to either order the death certificate or where to search for it online. There are other birth/death Indexes that you can search, most notably the California Death Index 1940-1997 at : http://vitals.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ca/death/search.cgi?cj=1&o_xid=0000584978&o_lid=0000584978 , which is the (free version) at Rootsweb. There are many other indexes and possibly a few more birth/death certificates online but knowing the time period and state would go a long way toward helping someone locate one of possible value to them.