| Death Certificates | | | | make an extensive family research refer to this |
| The United States began authorizing in the early | | | | guide - Obituaries Research Guide |
| part of the 20th century. - a directory of online | | | | Cemeteries and Burial Indexes |
| death indexes listed by state and county. Included | | | | If you don't know where someone is buried, |
| are death records, death certificates indexes, | | | | death certificates often list place of burial. Some |
| death notices and registers, obituaries, probate | | | | cemeteries have placed their burial indexes online, |
| indexes and cemetery and burial records. You can | | | | while others have been transcribed by volunteers. |
| also find information here about searching the | | | | Probate Records and Wills |
| Social Security Death Index Online. You can also | | | | Wills and Probate Records are also vital resources |
| utilize its digitized copies of death certificates are | | | | for tracing one's family history. They can provide |
| available for online downloading for five states. | | | | information about a person's heirs, their family, |
| These are: Arizona (1878-1956), Kentucky | | | | spouse, children, siblings, relatives and other |
| (1911-1953), Missouri (1910-1937 & 1945-1956 with | | | | personal information. Some counties now have |
| more being added), Utah (1904-1954), and West | | | | recent probate indexes online. The LDS Family |
| Virginia (1917-1956). For links to those and links to | | | | History Library in Salt Lake City is a treasure box |
| online death certificate indexes for many other | | | | for old probate records and wills. You can also try |
| states (and some counties). | | | | the death index directory I gave earlier or do a |
| | | | Google search. Microfilms can be ordered and |
| Obituaries are vital for family research as they | | | | viewed for a fee at local Family History Centers. |
| give date and place of death and burial. Obituaries | | | | You might also be able to find probate records in |
| usually provides the following information: | | | | the courthouse where the will was probated or a |
| - death or burial notice - names of surviving and | | | | local or state archive or other repository if the |
| deceased relatives | | | | records were moved there. |
| A good source of finding copies of obituaries for | | | | Social Security Death Index (SSDI) |
| your family research can be found at local public | | | | Deaths reported to the Social Security |
| libraries and more recent listings can also be found | | | | Administration are listed in this useful index. It's |
| online. Be adviced that you will not always find | | | | available online at several websites and some of |
| these kinds of newspaper listings for everyone | | | | them update it each month. |
| who died. For some additional tips on how to | | | | |