Iowa Research Tips and Strategies

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Iowa

Research Tips and Strategies

Purpose of Research Tips and Strategies Wiki Page The Iowa Research Tips and Strategies page consists of links to specific research strategies for Iowa. It also contains general tips and other resources for finding your ancestors in this locality.

Iowa Research Strategies

Below are links to different research strategy pages to help you locate your ancestors in Iowa

• Finding Iowa Births, Marriages, and Deaths using Guided Research
• Iowa Online Genealogy Records
• How to find Iowa Birth Records
• How to find Iowa Marriage Records
• How to find Iowa Death Records
• Step-by-Step Iowa Research, 1880-Present
• Step-by-Step Iowa Research, 1850-1910
• Iowa Descendancy Research
• Iowa Record Finder
• Iowa Family History Library Research Outline

Iowa Research Tips

These tips will help you as you research your ancestors in Iowa.

• Birth information: Statewide registration of births began in July 1, 1880 in Iowa and was generally complied with by 1924. A helpful substitute record to find birth information is a death record. However, date and place of birth on a death record is considered secondary information, as it was not recorded at the time of the birth event. The birth information should be corroborated with other substitute records to improve accuracy.
• Finding Parents: Statewide registration of deaths began in 1899 in Iowa; however, general compliance did not begin until 1917. They often will list the parents of the deceased and their birth information. Search Iowa death records
• Look in all censuses: Always look for your ancestor in every possible census. There are clues regarding immigration, naturalization, and occupation that can lead to other records. Sometimes parents can be found living with their children later in life. Search U.S. Censuses.

Further Iowa Research

• IAGenWeb - Iowa GenWeb Project
• Iowa Genealogy Trails - collection of transcribed data for the state of Iowa
• Cyndi's List - Iowa genealogy websites
• Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness - State of Iowa Records Guide