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 for which there is online access to their older birth, marriage and death records. For twelve states (and one county) there are actual scanned images of the death certificates. In three states there are actual scanned images of birth records. Our goal is to have a similar free access database of Pennsylvania's death certificates more than 50 years old and possibly of birth certificates more than 100 years old. 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 Commonwealth (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.
Alabama (Family Search Lab)
(death records 1908-1974) (contains only extracted information from death certificates)
Arizona (Arizona Department of Health Services)
(birth records more than 75 years and death records more than 50 years old)
Delaware (Family Search Lab)
(birth records 1861-1908)
Florida (Family Search Lab)
(death records 1877-1939) (contains only extracted information from death certificates)
http://search.labs.familysearch.org/
Georgia (Georgia Archives)
(death records 1914-1927)
Idaho (Family Search Lab)
(death records 1911-1937) (contains only extracted information from death certificates)
Illinois, Cook County (Family Search Lab)
(birth certificates 1878-1922)
(birth registers 1871-1915)
(marriage records 1871-1920)
Indiana (Family Search Lab)
(marriage records 1811-1959) (contains only extracted information from marriage records)
Kentucky (Kentucky Vital Records Project)
(birth, marriage and death records 1792-present, however, the collection is only partial)
Louisiana (Family Search Lab)
(deaths 1850-1877 and 1894-1954) (contains only extracted information from death certificates)
Massachusetts (Family Search Lab)
(death records 1841-1915)
Michigan (Seeking Michigan/Michigan State Library)
(death records 1897-1920)
Michigan (Family Search Lab)
(death records 1867-1897)
(birth records 1867-1902)
(marriage records 1868-1925)
Missouri (Missouri State Archives)
(death records 1910-1958)
New Hampshire (Family Search Lab)
(birth records to 1900)
New Mexico (Family Search Lab)
(death records 1889-1945) (contains only extracted information from death certificates)
North Carolina (Family Search Lab)
(death records 1906-1930)
Ohio (Family Search Lab)
(death records 1908-1953)
Philadelphia, PA. (Family Search Lab)
(death records 1803-1915)
Philadelphia, PA. (Family Search Lab)
(marriage records index 1885-1951)
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.
South Carolina (Family Search Lab)
(death records 1915-1943)
(death records 1944-1955) (contains only extracted information from death certificates)
South Dakota (South Dakota Department of Health)
(birth records 1905-1908) (contains only extracted information from birth certificates)
Texas (Family Search Lab)
(death records 1890-1976)
Utah (Utah State Archives)
(death records 1904-1956)
Washington State (Family Search Lab)
(death records 1907-1960) (contains only extracted information from death certificates)
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.
West Virginia
(West
Virginia Division of Culture and History)
(birth, death and marriage records from as early as 1840 to as late as 1970)
http://www.wvculture.org/vrr/va_select.aspx
Social Security Death Index (GenealogyBank.com)
Online Searchable Death Indexes for the USA
Where To Write For Vital Records
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/w2w.htm
We would enjoy hearing from you
(updated July 22, 2009)