How to Find Death Records: A Comprehensive Guide

Death records are among the most requested types of public records in the United States. People search for them for all kinds of reasons -- settling an estate, researching family history, verifying a death for insurance purposes, investigating potential fraud, or simply trying to find out what happened to someone they lost touch with decades ago.

But finding death records isn't always straightforward. The records exist across multiple systems at the federal, state, and local levels, and each system has its own rules about access, cost, and what information is available. This guide walks through all of it.

Types of Death Records

Not all death records are the same. Understanding the different types helps you figure out which one you need and where to find it.

Death Certificates

A death certificate is the official government document that records the facts of a person's death. It's issued by the state or jurisdiction where the death occurred (not necessarily where the person lived). Death certificates typically contain:

• Full legal name of the deceased
• Date and time of death
• Place of death (specific address, hospital, or facility)
• Cause of death and contributing factors
• Manner of death (natural, accident, homicide, suicide, undetermined)
• Date of birth and age at death
• Social Security Number (on some versions)
• Marital status and surviving spouse's name
• Occupation and industry
• Parents' names (including mother's maiden name)
• Place of burial or cremation
• Informant's name (the person who provided the biographical information)
• Certifying physician or medical examiner
• Funeral home

There are two versions of death certificates in most states: certified copies and informational copies. Certified copies have a raised seal or watermark and are accepted as legal documents for probate, insurance claims, and other official purposes. Informational copies contain the same data but are clearly marked as not valid for legal use. Some states restrict who can obtain certified copies to immediate family members and authorized representatives, while informational copies may be available to anyone.

Social Security Death Index (SSDI)

The Social Security Death Index is a database of deaths reported to the Social Security Administration. When someone dies and their death is reported to the SSA -- usually by a funeral home, family member, or state vital records office -- a record is created in the SSDI. The index has historically included:

• Name
• Date of birth
• Date of death
• Last known ZIP code
• Social Security Number
• State where the SSN was issued

However, access to the full SSDI has been restricted in recent years. In 2011, following concerns about identity theft, the SSA began limiting public access to records less than three years old. The complete, unrestricted file is now available only to certain government agencies and authorized entities. The publicly accessible version through free genealogy sites is essentially a historical snapshot that gets more limited over time for recent deaths.

Obituaries

Obituaries are not government records -- they're published notices, typically written by family members and published in newspapers. But they're often the easiest death records to find online because newspapers have been digitizing their archives for decades.

Obituaries contain information you won't find in official records: biographical details, family relationships, career highlights, community involvement, and funeral arrangements. For genealogy research, obituaries are goldmines because they often name surviving family members and their locations.

The downside is that not everyone gets an obituary. They're optional, and publishing one in a newspaper can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Deaths among younger people, those without strong community ties, or those whose families can't afford the cost may not have published obituaries.

Probate Records

When someone dies and their estate goes through probate court, it creates a series of records that effectively document their death along with their assets, debts, heirs, and the distribution of their estate. Probate records are court records and are generally public in most jurisdictions.

Cemetery and Burial Records

Cemeteries maintain records of who is buried where, including date of death, date of burial, and sometimes additional biographical information. Many cemeteries have put their records online or made them available through genealogy databases like Find A Grave.

How to Find Death Records Online

The internet has made death record searching dramatically easier than it was even 15 years ago. Here are the main approaches:

Free Online Sources

FamilySearch.org. The largest free genealogy website, run by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. FamilySearch has digitized millions of death records from across the country, including state death indexes, cemetery records, and obituaries. Registration is required but there is no fee.

Find A Grave (findagrave.com). A volunteer-maintained database of cemetery records with over 230 million burial records worldwide. You can search by name and find burial location, dates of birth and death, and often a photograph of the headstone. Completely free to search.

State vital records indexes. Many states have put historical death indexes online. These typically cover older records (the cutoff varies by state, but records older than 50-75 years are commonly available). The index gives you enough information to request the full certificate.

BillionGraves (billiongraves.com). Similar to Find A Grave, this site uses GPS-tagged photographs of headstones contributed by volunteers. It's a good complement to Find A Grave because it covers some cemeteries that the other doesn't.

Legacy.com and newspaper websites. Legacy.com aggregates obituaries from hundreds of newspapers. Many individual newspaper websites also have searchable obituary archives. Coverage is best from the late 1990s onward, when newspapers started publishing online.

People search services. Services like OpenDataUSA aggregate public records including death-related data. These can be useful for quickly determining whether someone is deceased and finding associated records across multiple databases.

Paid Online Sources

Ancestry.com. The largest commercial genealogy platform has extensive death record collections including state death certificates, the SSDI, obituary collections, and cemetery records. A subscription is required, but many public libraries offer free access to Ancestry's Library Edition.

Newspapers.com. If you're looking for obituaries specifically, this site has a massive collection of digitized newspapers going back to the 1700s. It's a subscription service but offers a free trial.

GenealogyBank.com. Another large newspaper archive with strong coverage of obituaries and death notices.

How to Request Official Death Certificates

If you need an actual certified copy of a death certificate -- for probate, insurance claims, or other legal purposes -- you need to request it from the appropriate government agency.

Where to Request

Death certificates are filed in the state where the death occurred, regardless of where the deceased lived. Contact the vital records office for that state. In most states, this is the Department of Health, but names vary (Bureau of Vital Statistics, Office of Vital Records, etc.).

Some states also have local (county or city) vital records offices that can issue certificates. Local offices sometimes process requests faster than the state office.

What You'll Need to Provide

Most requests require:

• Full name of the deceased
• Date of death (or approximate range)
• Place of death (city, county, or state)
• Your relationship to the deceased (if the state restricts who can get certified copies)
• A valid government-issued ID
• Reason for the request
• Payment (fees typically range from $10 to $30 per copy)

Who Can Get a Certified Copy?

This varies significantly by state. Common categories of eligible requestors include:

• Spouse or domestic partner
• Children, parents, grandparents, grandchildren, or siblings
• Legal representative of the estate
• Attorney for an eligible requestor
• Government agencies
• Funeral directors

Some states (California and Texas, for example) are relatively restrictive. Others are more open. If you're not an eligible requestor in a restricted state, you may still be able to get an informational (non-certified) copy, which contains the same data but can't be used for legal purposes.

Processing Time

Standard processing typically takes 2-6 weeks. Expedited processing (for an additional fee) can reduce this to a few days in many states. Some states now offer online ordering through VitalChek or similar services, which can speed things up.

Using Death Records for Genealogy

Death records are one of the three pillars of genealogical research, alongside birth and marriage records. Here's why genealogists value them:

They confirm identity. A death certificate pins down key facts -- exact date and place of birth, parents' names, spouse's name -- that help you confirm you've found the right person in other records.

They bridge generations. The parents' names on a death certificate (especially the mother's maiden name) connect one generation to the previous one. This is often the only source for a mother's maiden name for people born before birth certificates were universally required.

They fill gaps. For ancestors who moved frequently, death records establish where they were at the end of their lives. Combined with census records, immigration records, and other sources, this helps reconstruct a life timeline.

They reveal causes. Cause of death information can indicate hereditary health conditions, occupational hazards, or historical events (epidemics, wars, industrial disasters) that affected your family.

A practical tip for genealogists: when you find a death record, work backwards. The informant listed on the death certificate -- the person who provided the biographical details -- is usually a close relative. That person often holds additional family knowledge and records.

Death Records and Fraud Prevention

Death records play an important role in preventing identity fraud. When someone dies, their Social Security Number and other identifiers are supposed to be flagged so they can't be used to open new accounts, file tax returns, or claim benefits.

In practice, this system has gaps. The SSA's Death Master File doesn't capture every death immediately, and some deaths are never reported at all. This creates opportunities for identity thieves to use deceased individuals' information.

If you suspect that a deceased family member's identity is being misused, you should:

• Report the death to the SSA if it hasn't been already
• Contact the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) to place a deceased alert on the credit file
• File a complaint with the FTC at IdentityTheft.gov
• Notify the IRS if fraudulent tax returns are involved

Limitations and Challenges

A few things to be aware of when searching for death records:

Coverage gaps. Before the early 1900s, many states did not require death registration. Records from this period may be incomplete or nonexistent, especially in rural areas. Standardized nationwide death registration wasn't achieved until 1933.

Spelling and transcription errors. Older records were handwritten, and names were sometimes recorded phonetically. "Schmidt" might be filed as "Smith." Nicknames might be recorded instead of legal names. Be flexible with spelling when searching indexes.

Privacy restrictions on recent records. Most states restrict access to death certificates for a period after death -- commonly 25 to 75 years, depending on the state. During this restricted period, only authorized individuals (typically close family members) can obtain certified copies.

Cause of death sensitivity. Some states redact or restrict access to cause of death information, particularly for recent records. Deaths by suicide, overdose, or other stigmatized causes may be subject to additional privacy protections in some jurisdictions.

Jurisdictional confusion. A person might have lived in one state but died in another (during travel, for instance). The death certificate is filed where the death occurred, not where the person lived. If you can't find a record in the expected state, consider searching neighboring states.

Where to Start

If you're looking for a death record and aren't sure where to begin, here's a practical sequence:

1. Start with a free search. Try OpenDataUSA, Find A Grave, or FamilySearch. You may find what you need without spending anything.
2. Search obituary databases. Legacy.com and newspaper archives can quickly tell you when and where someone died.
3. Check the SSDI. Available through FamilySearch and other genealogy sites. Best for deaths reported before the 2011 access restrictions.
4. Contact the state vital records office. If you need an official certificate or can't find the record online, this is the definitive source.
5. Try local resources. County clerk offices, historical societies, church records, and funeral homes may have information that hasn't been digitized.

Death records are a fundamental part of the public records landscape, and knowing how to access them is a practical skill for anyone dealing with estate matters, family research, or identity verification. For more on navigating public records, see our guide to understanding public records and our overview of public data sources in the US.