Help Needed About Death Records

[amandalouise]

Can somebody tell me how i go about perchasing death records for US as i live in the united kingdom.

Regards
Amanda

[Mikester]

Hi Amanda,

There is no centralised recording of vital records in the US. It's a matter left entirely to the 50 different states. To find a BMD you have to look to the records of the state in which the event took place.

Do you know which state the death occured in?

Regards,

Mike

[amandalouise]

Hi most of the deaths i am looking for occured in Illinois, there are several in Florida, Calofornia, Michigan etc.

Amanda

[nutkin]

As said before, it is all organized by state here.  If you know the state and county and township that the death occurred in , then contact the township.  They are the cheapest to get copies from.  In NY, a death record is $22 but to get it from a town is $10.  A much better bargain.  The census should help you be able to find out what town they resided.  Also, most governments have their own web sites and you can contact the Town Clerk for the record.  Clerks hold the vital records.

Hope this helps-K

[johnnyboy]

Hi Amanda: Came across this posting by following other posts. If you haven't yet found any sites for getting death records in the U.S., there is a post here on RootsChat's Emigrants to the U.S. board for finding Illinois vital records:

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/board,164.0.html

You can go directly to the Illinois Statewide Vital Records Databases by going to this url:

http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/databases.html

If you find a death that you to get a certificate for, there are two options.

(1) Just below the "Illinois Statewide Vital Records Databases" categories is a "Records in the Illinois Regional Archives Depositories (IRAD)" category. Click on the Local Governmental Records in the IRAD System link, search out the correct County in which the death occurred and submit. The result will tell you which Illinois regional archive holds the record. You can contact that archive for copies, i believe.

(2) You can find out the county in which the death occurred by searching the death index in the statewide database and then contacting the county directly. Hunt up the county's website through a goggle at Google or Yahoo. There should be a link to the appropriate office that can supply you with a record.

I think the second option is quicker and probably cheaper. But I don't live in Illinois and haven't dealt with offices there.

You can also go to the Illinois page of the USGENWEB project at http://ilgenweb.rootsweb.com/ for help in finding the records.

Hope this helps.

John