Using Death Records to Track Genealogy

When you want to track your Genealogy you can most likely find it more helpful to use death records. This is because a family tree searches work their way back from the present searching out information on recently deceased family members. The obituaries can be a great place for information on families, including siblings, parents, spouses, and even cousins, as well as the date of birth and death and the place of burial. Obituary notices may even help trace back to living relatives who can provide further information on your family tree.

There are several large obituary search engines online which can make the search a bit easier, but if you know the town where your family lived you will often have better luck searching the obituary archive of the local paper. Make sure to search out obituaries for siblings and cousins as well as your direct ancestors. Death certificates give the age of death and the address at the time and will also note the cause of death. After 1837, it was a legal requirement to register these events but people did not always do this in the early years. This is known as Civil Registration. A reference number will give the area information. Once the reference number has been found from these indexes, a copy of the certificate can be ordered for $6 and sent to you post free. Obtaining information in the indexes is free of charge.

Start with the first deceased male family member in the line. The first thing is to get his death certificate. You will have to do a lot of searching for it. To get a death certificate, you need to know where that person died, what country and county.

USGenWeb Project State Pages is a volunteer project that is hosted by RootsWeb. On this page you will find links to all of the states. Each state site is set up a bit differently. You will be searching for information on where the state's vital records are kept, specifically, death records. Once you find where the death record is located, there will be information on how to obtain it.

What information will you find on a death certificate? Besides the basics, date and cause of death, you may find information on where they were born, how long they have been in the United States and if they were an immigrant, or if they were a widow, their parents names, including their mother's maiden name, employment, and more. However, most of this information was given by another person, sometimes not even a family member. The death certificate will tell you who and what their relationship was to the deceased. This makes it second hand and it was given at a time when the person was mourning for the deceased. A death certificate will be just one of many documents you obtain to verify information on your family members. Once you find all your information for your first deceased relative, than you are ready to move on to your next family member. This will be your female that was most likely married to the male that you have finished researching. It can be exciting to learn so much history about your whole family and to also see who you were related to.