Record

Records in genealogical research
Records of persons who were neither royalty nor nobility began to be taken by governments in order to keep track of their citizens (In most of Europe, for example, this started to take place in the 16th century). As more of the population began to be recorded, there were sufficient records to follow a family using the paper trail they left behind.

As each person lived his or her life, major events were usually documented with a license, permit or report which was stored at a local, regional or national office or archive. Genealogists locate these records, wherever they are stored, and extract information to discover family relationships and recreate timelines of persons' lives.

Records that are used in genealogy research include:
 * Vital records
 * Birth records
 * Death records
 * Marriage and divorce records
 * Adoption records
 * Baptism or christening records
 * Biographies and biographical profiles (as in Who's Who, etc.)
 * Cemetery records, funeral home records, and tombstones
 * Census records
 * City directories and telephone directories
 * Coroner's reports
 * Criminal records
 * Diaries, personal letters and family Bibles
 * Emigration, immigration and naturalization records
 * Hereditary & lineage organization records, e.g. Daughters of the American Revolution records
 * Land and homestead records, deeds
 * Medical records
 * Military and conscription records
 * Newspaper columns
 * Obituaries
 * Occupational records
 * Oral history
 * Passports
 * Photographs
 * Poorhouse, workhouse, almshouse, and asylum records
 * School and alumni association records
 * Ship passenger lists
 * Social Security Administration (within the USA) and pension records
 * Tax records
 * Voter registration records
 * Wills and probate records

As a rule, genealogists begin with the present and work backward in time. Written records have the property of hindsight in that they only tell where a person might have lived and who their parents were, not where they and their descendants might subsequently reside. Two exceptions are when a genealogist might interview living relatives as to who and where their children and grandchildren are, or tries to locate long-lost relatives who may already have traced their families backward to an ancestor they have in common (which is forward in time from his/her point of view).