attempt to list states that these sites encompass because, just like everything else on the internet, they're ever‐changing. Your job is to explore the sites and determine if the state that you need is included, and to keep checking back to those sites every once and awhile to see what's been added. •
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FamilySearch.org's Record Search – Before typing in the name of your ancestor, choose to browse the collections that are available for the U.S. This will let you know if there are digital images available of death certi-icates in the state you are researching. In addition, some of their digitized death certi-icates are actual links to archive databases within a particular state, such as is the case with the state of West Viriginia. In the example above, Henry Lewis Vaughan's death certi-icate was found using FamilySearch.org's Record Search. [ LINK ] Footnote.com – [$$] Again, browsing their collections by location would be the best way to determine if they, indeed, have digital images of death certi-icates for the state you are researching. In the example above, Daniel Rook Vaughan's death certi-icate was obtained using this database. [ LINK ] Ancestry.com – [$$] While they don't have images of death certi-icates, they do have indexes. [ LINK ]. They also now allow you to search by location [ LINK ]. Just scroll down to the map and click on a state to see what collections are available.
So what do you do when it's not online? Some states' archives have digitized their death certi-icates (like West Virginia mentioned above), some have indexes of death records that are available in their archives, and some have no death certi-icate information online. So how do you -ind them? • • • • •
Consult a reference book such as The Family Tree Resource Book for Genealogists edited by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack and Erin Nevius, Consult Cyndi's List for death/vital information [ LINK ], Consult Joe Beine's Online Searchable Death Index [ LINK ], Consult FamilySearch.org's Research Guides [ LINK ], Perform a Google search for the particular state you're interested in and the phrase “state archives” (e.g., “Illinois state archives”), or try the name of the county, state, and the term “death certi-icates”. Sometimes Google can be your best friend.
In the death record example above for Nelson Martin, I consulted the Illinois Regional Archives Depository (IRAD) [ LINK ] and veri-ied that for the possible year of death a death record might be in their archives, and then I wrote them a letter of inquiry. After several weeks, I received photocopies of the page that Nelson's death was recorded on. Cost? $1 for
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