Death Records

Would you like to trace your family tree or simply research your ancestors’ past lives? When uncovering invaluable information about relatives, death records are essential resources. The accuracy and legitimacy of your genealogical research will be greatly enhanced by verifying the death records of family members and distant relatives. Death records mark milestone events in the lives of families, and are crucial when investigating the history of your family – its role and place in historical events.

When someone dies, the authorities issue an official death certificate. In order to issue this certificate however, a doctor or physician must validate the cause of death, the person’s identity, and the relevant time and place.

It can be difficult to locate and access death records for the average person. Many of the service providers offering to sell you access to such records are in fact badly organized, time-consuming, with poor quality content being the end result. However there are many website services now offering access to death records in seconds, most for a small fee. By searching online you can bypass the wasted time and money loitering in courthouses and offices of other government agencies. Through a fast search of information relating to death records on the internet, it is possible to save time and money. Besides the efficiencies in time and money you can get information that can be extremely hard to come by about the people in your life past and present. The results from commercial internet providers relating to death records usually contain last residence, date of birth, age, place of death, place of birth.

In the wake of the HIV epidemic in the United States some jurisdictions revised the public status of death records. Privacy became an issue in the wake of HIV confidentiality rules. In most states in the Union, restrictions are imposed when accessing death records through official public channels. The person wishing to access records must be one of the following in most states

• “A Legal representative of decedent's estate”

• Family Members defined as “Immediate”

• “Extended family members who indicate a direct relationship to the decedent”

• Power of Attorney:  An individual who has been granted Power Of Attorney for a specific person is entitled to request death records as long as the person in question is eligible either as a family member, extended family member or legal representative of decedent’s estate. If such criteria are satisfied then the person granted Power of Attorney will need to include a notarized POA document with their submission. This document needs to include the original signatures of all the relevant involved parties, as well as original notary signatures and seals.

Generally the information required by government agencies when filing an application for death records is as follows:

• “Full name of decedent”

• “Date of death”  

•  Place of Death

•  Social Security Number

• “Undertaker, if known”

• “Father's name and mother's maiden name, if known”

• “Relationship to the decedent”

• “Reason for the request”

• “Applicant's signature”

• “Applicant's daytime telephone number, including area code”

• “Applicant's mailing address”