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 free online access to their older birth, marriage and death records. So far the death certificates for twelve states (and two counties), birth records for four states and marriage records in three states have been scanned and the images are available online fee free. 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. 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).
Scanned images of the state birth and death records of Delaware and Vermont are available online through Ancestry.com. However access to the records requires a subscription to Ancestry (many libraries have a subscription to Ancestry and people can access these records without paying for subscription by going to these libraries). But at least they are available to the public at large by some means.
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)
Arkansas (Family Search Lab)
(county marriage records 1837-1957)
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)
Georgia (Family Search Lab)
(death records 1914-1930) (contains only extracted information from death certificates)
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)
Indiana: Grant County (Grant County Government)
(death records 1970-2009) (contains only extracted information from death 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)
(marriages records 1842-1915)
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 Hampshire: Conway (Conway Public Library)
(death records 1887-2003, marriages 1887-1947, births 1887-2000) (contains only extracted information)
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)
Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission)
(statewide marriage records 1885-1889)
Pennsylvania: Berks County (Berks County Register of Wills)
(marriage records index 1885-present, birth and death records index 1893-1905, website includes an estate index, City of Reading birth, marriage and death record indexes 1875-1905)
Pennsylvania: Chester County (Chester County Archives & Record Services)
(extracted data from birth and death records 1893-1905, marriage records 1885-1930, website includes many other indexes for the Chester County Archives)
Pennsylvania: Delaware County (Delaware County Archives)
(marriage records index 1885-1929, birth and death records index 1893-1905, website includes many other indexes for the Delaware County Archives)
Pennsylvania: Lancaster County (Lancaster County Register of Wills)
(marriage records index 1950-2009)
Pennsylvania: Philadelphia City/County (Family Search Lab)
(death records 1803-1915)
(marriage records index 1885-1951)
Pennsylvania: Schuylkill County (Schuylkill County Courthouse Archives)
(marriage records index 1885-May 1969)
Pennsylvania: Westmoreland County (Westmoreland County, PA's Electronic Government Solution)
(marriage records 1885-2009) (contains only extracted information from marriage records)
Pennsylvania: York County (York County Archives)
(marriage records index 1885-1929, birth and death records index 1893-1905, website includes many other indexes for the York County Archives)
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)
Tennessee: Shelby County (Shelby County and the Register of Deeds)
(under the Archives logo, Record Type, Shelby County, click on "Death Records 1848-1958")
Additionally this website includes a statewide index of deaths from 1949 to 2005.
Texas (Family Search Lab)
(death records 1890-1976)
Utah (Utah State Archives)
(death records 1904-1956)
Washington State (Washington State Digital State Archives)
(death records 1891-1960) (contains only extracted information from death certificates)
(all statewide marriage records)
(births records 1891-1907)
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 March 12, 2010)