One of the main goals for genealogists is finding birth, marriage, and death (BMD) information about their ancestors.
Over the past few decades, thanks to volunteers, librarians and archivists (as well as the largest of them all - FamilySearch), a great number of indexes to birth, marriage, and death collections have been provided for free online. These searchable indexes provide specific BMD information, and sometimes scanned images of the actual birth, marriage, and death certificates themselves. These free online collections have hundreds of millions of records in them in total.
There are a great number of online and offline collections that may include birth, marriage, and death information that are not included in the lists below. For example, newspapers, draft registration files, naturalization records, etc. have BMD info. To find out which types of other records may include BMD information, please see:
- 27 Ways to Find Ancestor Birth Information
- 22 Ways to Find Ancestors Marriage Information
- 21 Ways to Find Ancestors Death Information
The lists below are specific birth, marriage, and death indexes and record collections that are available for free online for the state of South Dakota.
Note 1: Many of the links listed below take you to a FamilySearch Collection of digital images. In many cases there is a link to the digital collection in the middle of the page, but also near the bottom of the page under Film/Digital Notes is the name of each sub-collection. If there is a camera icon at the right of the name (in the Format column) then the collections' images are browsable. If there is a camera with a key icon, it is only available at a Family History Center or affiliated library. If there is a film reel icon, then it is only available in microfilm format, not digital. Please also note that I have listed below only BMD databases that are accessible digitally from your computer (or tablet/phone)
Note 2: I have included links to Free Ancestry records and indexes. You do not need a subscription, but do need an Ancestry account. Without a subscription you can view indexes. If there is an image associated with a record, in most cases you will need a subscription, but the index does include very usable information.
(Updated May, 2020; recently added links are in BOLD)
General U.S.
- United States Births and Christenings, 1867-1931
- United States Deaths and Burials, 1867-1961
- United States Korean War Battle Deaths, 1950-1957
- United States Marriages, 1733-1990
- United States Social Security Death Index
- United States, Freedmen's Bureau Marriages, 1861-1872
- Online Searchable Death Indexes
South Dakota
- Bon Homme County Marriages
- Brown County Deaths
- Brule County Marriage Records
- Butte County Deaths
- Cheyenne River Agency Agency Records, 1869-1951
- Clark County Births
- Clark County Deaths
- Clark County Marriages
- Crow Creek Agency Birth and Death Records, 1919-1939
- Crow Creek Agency Record of Births and Deaths--Lower Yanktonai Sioux, 1881-1918
- Crow Creek Agency Record of Marriage licenses--Crow Creek Agency, 1888-1922
- Dakota Territory Mortality records : Persons who died in the year ending 31 May, 1880
- Faulk County Deaths
- Hand County Deaths
- Hand County Obituaries and Death Notices
- Hot Springs State Soldiers' Home, Death register, 1890-1977
- Kingsbury County Marriages 1883-1886
- Lake County Marriages
- Lyman County Birth Indexes
- Lyman County Marriage Indexes
- Lyman County Deaths
- Minnehaha County Marriage Records 1872-1887
- Miscellaneous BMD Records by County
- Moody County Hegre and Salem Norwegian Lutheran Church Baptisms
- Online Searchable Death Indexes
- Pennington County Marriage Index
- Perkins County Delayed Births
- Pine Ridge Agency Agency Pension Records, 1926-1930
- Pine Ridge Agency Birth and Death Records, 1895-1950
- Pine Ridge Agency Family statistics ledger, late 1800's - early 1900's
- Pine Ridge Agency Marriage Records, 1888-1936
- Pine Ridge Agency Supplemental census, all Births and Deaths, 1946-1948
- Rapid City Journal Death Index
- Rapid City, Mortuary Indexes, 1879-1971
- Rapid City, Obituary Index, 1968-2012
- Rosebud Agency Birth and Death Records, 1900-1946
- Rosebud Agency List of Deaths reported between June 30 and Oct. 1, 1904
- Rosebud Agency Marriage Licenses, 1906-1917
- Sioux Falls Index to Births, 1880-1990
- Sioux Falls Death Index
- Sisseton Agency Birth and Death Records, 1928-1945
- South Dakota Birth Records
- South Dakota County Marriage Records
- South Dakota Death/Cemetery Index
- South Dakota, Department of Health, Index to Births 1843-1914 and Marriages 1950-2016
- Spotted Tail Agency Marriage Register, 1847-1878
- Standing Rock Agency Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1880-1942
- Todd County Marriage License Records - Rosebud Reservation
- Turner County Marriages
- Union County Death Index St. Peters Catholic Church
Check out the links for other states on the BMD Records page.
Good Luck and Happy Hunting!
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