Public records are vital events in people’s lives, such as births, marriages and deaths. These records are a documentation of the event. When you launch a genealogy search to trace your roots your family tree, these records are an important part of the research process. It's important to know what types of public records are available, the information contained within these, and how to go about obtaining records for your own database. All records are kept on file at local or state government. Some are kept in archives by these agencies as well. Understanding how many public records are available today, it will become easy to see why these information packed files become such a big part of any project. Records also come in handy in personal reasons. Whether you are looking for records for genealogical, personal or legal reasons, the search and retrieval process is fundamentally the same.