Home › State guides › Connecticut
Free Connecticut genealogy records
Where to find free birth, death, marriage, census, probate, land and newspaper records for Connecticut, and which offices hold what. Last checked Oct 2026.
Check before relying on these:
- Start of statewide registration: CDC gives no year for Connecticut. July 1897 comes from published genealogy charts, not an official source.
Birth, death and marriage records
When statewide registration began: Statewide registration is usually dated to July 1897. Towns recorded births, marriages and deaths long before that.
- Births, marriages and deaths are kept by the town clerk where the event happened, and also by the State Vital Records Office.
- Town vital records go back to the 1600s in many towns.
Current office addresses, fees and eligibility rules are on the CDC "Where to Write for Vital Records" page for Connecticut. Records that are too recent are usually restricted to close family. Older ones are often free to view as indexes or images on the free databases below.
Before statewide registration, births, marriages and deaths were recorded by town clerks, often back to the town's founding.
Census records
- Federal censuses from 1790 to 1950 are free to search on several sites. The 1950 census is free from the National Archives' 1950 Census site, and NARA's census research pages explain each year.
- Almost all of the 1890 federal census was destroyed after a 1921 fire, so families can "disappear" between 1880 and 1900.
- Ask the state archives whether any state or territorial census schedules survive for Connecticut.
- Census records only exist for years after statehood or territorial organization.
Probate and land records
- Probate: Probate districts (groups of towns, not counties) handle estates, and their boundaries changed over time. Deeds are kept by the town clerk. Older probate files are often transferred to the state archives.
- Land: Connecticut is a state-land state, so there are no federal land-entry files for most of it. Original grants came from the colony, state or earlier governments; look for them at the state archives or land office. Later deeds are recorded by the town clerk.
Historic newspapers
- Chronicling America: Connecticut newspapers is the Library of Congress's free archive of digitized historic newspapers, filtered to this state.
- Connecticut State Library is Connecticut's partner in the National Digital Newspaper Program, which digitizes the state's papers for Chronicling America.
- Obituaries are the best newspaper find for genealogy. If your family's paper isn't digitized, the local public library or historical society may have it on microfilm.
Archives, libraries and societies
- Connecticut State Library, State Archives: the state's official archives, with older government records such as court, land, military and often vital records.
- Connecticut State Library: state library with genealogy and local-history collections.
Tips for the local level
- In Connecticut the town, not the county, is the key unit for vital and land records. Write to the town clerk where the event happened.
- Call or email before visiting. Many courthouses have moved older books to the state archives or a county records center.
- Look for the local genealogical society and the county page of the free, volunteer-run USGenWeb Project, which often have transcriptions and cemetery lists.
- Connecticut has had no county government since 1960, so think in towns: land, vital and many court records are by town or probate district.
Big free (and freemium) databases
- FamilySearch Research Wiki: Connecticut: a free, volunteer-edited guide to Connecticut record types, useful for double-checking anything on this page.
- FamilySearch: a free nonprofit genealogy site with indexed records and digitized microfilm. You need a free account to search.
- Find a Grave: free, volunteer-built cemetery listings, often with headstone photos.
- BillionGraves: free headstone photos tagged with GPS locations.
- National Archives genealogy pages: guides to federal census, military, immigration and land records.
- Ancestry: a large subscription site. Some indexes are free with a free account, and many public libraries offer free in-library access.
Sources
- CDC/NCHS, Where to Write for Vital Records: Connecticut
- Family Tree Magazine, "US Statewide Vital Records" chart (2018)
- National Archives, State Archives list
- Library of Congress, National Digital Newspaper Program awardees
- National Archives, Census Records
Last checked Oct 2026. Offices, fees and web addresses change. If something here is wrong, the official office is always right.
New-records alerts coming soon.
We're working on a free alert that tells you when new free records turn up for the states you research. There's nothing to sign up for yet.