Source Information

Ancestry.com. Iowa, U.S., Births and Christenings Index, 1800-1999 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
Original data:

"Iowa Births and Christenings, 1830–1950." Index. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2009, 2010. Index entries derived from digital copies of original and compiled records.

About Iowa, U.S., Births and Christenings Index, 1800-1999

This database is an index extracted from more than 1.7 million birth, baptism, and christening records from Iowa.

What’s in the Index

Volunteers extracted the birth, baptism, and christening details in this index from microfilmed copies of church, civil, family, and other records of Iowa births. Note that the number of available records can vary widely by county, and this database does not necessarily represent a comprehensive set of birth and christening records for the state during this time.

Details included in the records vary depending on record type and how completely forms were filled out. Where included in the original records, this index may list the following:

  • name
  • birthplace
  • birth year
  • baptism date
  • death date
  • death age
  • race
  • gender
  • father’s name, age, birthplace
  • mother’s name, age, birthplace
  • paternal grandparents’ names
  • maternal grandparents’ names

Death dates and ages refer to children who died near or at birth.

The FHL film number refers to a microfilm copy of the source held by the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Because this database includes details extracted from family records, researchers will want to confirm facts with original and primary sources.