Many states now have some death certificates online, several of the states offer the certificates free of charge to print. I will use the example of Missouri because many of my ancestors hail from Missouri, lived and died there. Missouri is one of the states that offers several years worth of death certificates free to search and print. I have printed close to 30 certificates from Missouri. The website is through Missouri Secretary of State. If you have Missouri ancestors this site offers many other items besides death certificates, but that will be my focus.
The site is labeled as Missouri Digital Heritage, link is https://s1.sos.mo.gov/records/Archives/ArchivesMvc/DeathCertificates. The site offers certificates from 1910-1971 and about every 4 to 6 months another year is posted. The certificates are transcribed by volunteers.
Let’s look at one certificate:
The initial page asks for first and last name, year of death (or approximate), county of death. If you don’t know any of that information, there are options for the names. You can list full name, or name starts with, or name contains, or name ends with. You can leave the county blank if you don’t know it. There is a death year range option, but again you can leave it blank. At the bottom of the search page, there are other options to search for pre-1910 birth and death certificates, but this database does not have everyone listed. It is sparse. After you enter the information you know, click on search button and it will take you to page with all the listings from your parameters.
Once you get to the next page, it will give you listing of the names and an option to view image. Your full death certificate will show. You can print the certificate for no cost. This is a great resource, because some states charge up to $25 for a certificate.
We will use my 2nd great grandfather Jefferson Davis Blount for this example. See our earlier post.
Because I have searched for this man, I know that the information on the certificate is correct, but there are areas on the certificate that could be inaccurate. How is that so? The information on the certificate is only as accurate as the informant who gave the information for the certificate. This certificate does not have the informant’s name listed, the space is blank (it is on bottom left). The certificate does list accurate information as to the man’s age, what state he was born in, who his parents were, where he is buried, and date of death. So the information on this certificate is fairly accurate, but always remember this is a secondary source. It is a secondary source because it was completed after the actual death, the information was from another source. The information may not have been present at death and may not know certain information.
So let’s look at another certificate that is less accurate. This is my great grandmother, Eleanor Johnson.
This certificate is mostly accurate, except for 1 glaring item. Look at the date of birth, it is listed as 1-19-1891, with the 1891 crossed through and 1890 listed. This became a real cause for confusion in my search. It took several years before I was finally able to obtain an accurate birth year for my great grandmother. She lied about her age and her son’s birthdate through her life, probably to hide the fact that she was pregnant before marriage in 1905. Her son went through his life with completely wrong birthdate (month,day,year) too. She even lied about her birth year on her Social Security application, meaning that she shorted herself on receiving social security benefits. All this was done to protect her hiding secrets. Don’t take events at face value, find supporting documents for accuracy. My supporting document was her baptismal certificate in the Catholic church which baptizes babies. That gave me her accurate birth year which was 1888.
A few more examples:
- North Carolina – death certificates from 1909-1976 on Ancestry.com. The NC Department of Health will do a free 3 year search
- South Carolina – only immediate family can obtain certificate for $17
- Illinois – not public record, only for those with personal or property rights
- Kansas – from 1911, cost is $20 each
To find the state you are interested in, google “death certificates ……(appropriate state)”
Remember to always verify the information with other sources, as death certificates are secondary sources. You need primary sources to validate information.
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