People for Better Pennsylvania Historical Records Access (PaHR-Access)
links to online death certificate
databases for other states, etc.
Note:
The links below are for those states (and one county) for which there is online access to scanned images of their older death certificates. Our goal is to have a similar free access database of Pennsylvania's older death certificates. Additionally New Hampshire and Vermont are in the process of having their older state death certificates become available online (no projected dates for when they will be online). The death records for New York City up to 1948 will also become available free online through the Genealogy Society of Utah (again no projected date for when they will be online). Interestingly the death records for the City of Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) from 1803 to 1915 are currently available free online. These are death records that were kept by the City and not any of those kept by the State (see link below).
Extracted data from the older state death records of Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, New Mexico and Washington are also available online also courtesy of the Genealogy Society of Utah (familysearch.org). But these databases currently do not include the scanned images of the death certificates themselves at this time.
In a number of states most of the vital records are considered open public records. Private companies have sporadically extracted the information and it is available on different websites which often require payment for access. There have also been a number of indexes developed with some state run and some privately run (See "Online Searchable Death Indexes for the USA" below). Where To Write For Vital Records" will take you to each state's health or vital records agencies' websites where you can find further information on the various requirements and restrictions in each state.
Arizona (Arizona Department of Health Services)
Georgia (Georgia Archives)
Kentucky (Kentucky Vital Records Project)
Massachusetts (Family Search Lab)
Michigan (Seeking Michigan/Michigan State Library)
Missouri (Missouri State Archives)
North Carolina (Family Search Lab)
Ohio (Family Search Lab)
South Carolina (Family Search Lab)
Texas (Family Search Lab)
Utah (Utah State Archives)
West Virginia
(West
Virginia Division of Culture and History)
http://www.wvculture.org/vrr/va_dcsearch.aspx
or
(www.wvculture.org)
(Archives and History) (Births, Deaths, and Marriages) (Deaths)
Philadelphia, PA. 1803-1915 (Family Search Lab)
Shelby County, TN. (Shelby County and the Register of Deeds)
(under the Archives logo change Search Type to "Death Records 1848-1956")
Additionally this website includes a statewide index of deaths from 1949 to 2005.
Alabama (Family Search Lab) (contains only extracted information from death certificates and no images)
Florida (Family Search Lab) (contains only extracted information from death certificates and no images)
http://search.labs.familysearch.org/
Idaho (Family Search Lab) (contains only extracted information from death certificates and no images)
Louisiana (Family Search Lab) (contains only extracted information from death certificates and no images)
New Mexico (Family Search Lab) (contains only extracted information from death certificates and no images)
Washington State (Family Search Lab) (contains only extracted information from death certificates and no images)
Additionally the State of Washington, in cooperation with Microsoft Research, is digitizing many of the state's public and historic records. Eventually images of the death certificates will be available online but no date is projected.
Social Security Death Index (GenealogyBank.com)
Online Searchable Death Indexes for the USA
Where To Write For Vital Records
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/howto/w2w/w2welcom.htm
We would enjoy hearing from you
(updated July 1, 2009)