Genealogy Life Cycle- Death Records

We conclude our life cycle series with the documented conclusion of life, death certificates. Death certificates are fairly similar from state to state. Their completeness, however, varies. This variation determines their usefulness. In a perfect death record, you see the name of the deceased, marital status, name of spouse, birthplace, date of birth, date of death, names of parents and their birthplaces, the cause of death, physician, informant, funeral home, and burial location.

Be mindful that these are completed in some cases by the funeral home, by a hospital, or even by a prison. They utilize the best information they can find to fill in the blanks. The person providing the details is the informant. Often times, the informant is a relative. Knowing the informant can close the loop on a hypothesis when you find 2 people with similar names of similar age from the same area and you aren’t certain which is the deceased. If you know each of their relatives, and the informant clearly belongs to one, you have more evidence to support your theory. If there are 2 Sally Jacksons born between 1850 and 1855 in Charleston, SC who both married men named James, but one has a maiden name of Thomas and the other is Jones; seeing the informant on the death certificate is Jacob Jones may tell you this death certificate is for Sally Jones Jackson.

If the informant lacks knowledge of the deceased person, the information may be inaccurate. The parents listed may be the people who raised the deceased, but not their biological parents, or vice versa. Some people use the death certificate as an opportunity to tell the truth that may not be reflected in census records if the deceased lived with someone else.

Searching for death records online can pose some of the same obstacles as other documents. Names are often misspelled. Ages and birth years can vary drastically from what is seen in other records. The informant may not know the individual well enough to truly know their age. Also, as mentioned in last week’s blog, some women lie about their age in order to legally marry. Their actual age and birth year may be revealed at their time of death.

In the event that you are unable to find a birth record or marriage record, a well completed death certificate can provide the names you seek! Widen your search parameters if you find it challenging to find a death record. Consider the person you are seeking may have died away from home or with people who didn’t know them well enough to get their vital details correct. After all else fails, you may have to accept that it may not be your search methods, but that there is not a death certificate for the person you seek. Unfortunately some deaths were not recorded and over time, due to fires, flooding, etc, various records were lost. But like all passionate genealogy researchers, this will not stop you,because you know that there is a record out there somewhere that gives you insight on your ancestors.

Keep Searching,

The Tangled Roots Team