I love starting a search in California. Every since ancestry.com loaded up the California Birth Index and the California Death Index, it is just the best place to begin. Both indexes often list the maiden name of the person listed, and that is just pure gold in terms of confirming family relationships or beginning to look for maternal ancestors. Let's say I look for the birth of (fictional name) Jacob Green. I see that his mother's maiden name is Pettigrew. So I'm off to the census and marriage records to find Pettigrews married to Greens who lived in California. It leads to a good success rate.
It is perhaps a bit intrusive, as the listings do cover many living persons, but let's hope for ethical searching.
The searches are very easy. Just go to the birth/marriage/death records search, and either put in the name, or call up one of the indexes.
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