Arizona Genealogy Search

Arizona family history has one of the best free starting points in the country: the Arizona Genealogy Birth and Death Certificates site, where the state posts images of birth certificates more than 75 years old and death certificates more than 50 years old at no charge. Behind it sit the Arizona State Archives in Phoenix, the territorial censuses taken between 1864 and 1882, and the county recorders and superior court clerks whose books go back to the counties' founding in 1864.

Arizona was Spanish and then Mexican territory until 1848 and 1854, so the oldest records for southern Arizona families are Catholic parish registers from Tucson and Tubac and Sonoran civil records across the border.

Official sources on this page were checked on September 25, 2026.

Arizona statewide genealogy links

• Arizona State Archives and LibrariesArizona Public Records Search
• National Archives Pacific RegionArizona Genealogy Research at the National Archives
• Arizona State Genealogical SocietyGenealogy and History Resources
• Arizona State Library Archives and Public Records Law and Research LibraryLibrary Law and Research Records

Arizona began statewide registration of births and deaths in 1909, with some county registrations from 1887, and the Arizona Department of Health Services Office of Vital Records holds the certificates. Under Arizona law, birth certificates 75 years old and death certificates 50 years old are public, and the state posts scanned images on its genealogy site free with a name index. Marriage licenses are issued by the clerk of the superior court in each county and go back to 1864, and divorce files sit with the same clerk.

• Arizona Genealogy Birth and Death CertificatesFree images of Arizona birth certificates over 75 years old and death certificates over 50
• Arizona Office of Vital RecordsBirth and death certificates from 1909
• Arizona Vital RecordsHow to order certificates and what is public

The Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records holds the territorial censuses of 1864, 1866, 1867, 1869, 1876, 1880 and 1882, Great Register voter rolls from 1866 to 1938, territorial prison records from Yuma, county records on microfilm and the Arizona Memory Project's free digital collections. The Arizona Historical Society in Tucson holds Spanish and Mexican era records, mission registers and pioneer biographies. Federal land patents for Arizona are at the General Land Office site, and the National Archives at Riverside holds Arizona's federal court and Bureau of Indian Affairs records, including allotment and census rolls for the Navajo, Hopi, Apache and Tohono O'odham nations.

• Arizona State Library, Archives and Public RecordsTerritorial censuses, Great Registers, county records and Arizona Memory Project
• Arizona Memory ProjectFree digitized Arizona records, newspapers and photographs
• National Archives at RiversideFederal court, land and Indian agency records for Arizona

Arizona county recorders hold deeds, mortgages and mining claims from each county's founding, and Maricopa, Pima and several other recorders post indexes online. The clerk of the superior court in each county holds marriage licenses, probate files, divorce cases and naturalization records from the territorial district courts, and the State Archives has microfilmed the older books. Mining claim records, unusually important in Arizona, are with the county recorder and the Bureau of Land Management. Cochise, Yavapai and Pima county records reach back to the 1860s and 1870s.

• Arizona County Public RecordsCounty recorders and superior court clerks for all 15 counties
• Arizona Court RecordsSuperior court case and probate searches

• National Archives, genealogyCensus, military, immigration and land records
• Library of Congress, genealogy guidesResearch guides for family history