27 Key Facts to Extract from a Death Certificate

Last year I paid for a copy of my grandfather's 1992 Bronx, NY, death certificate because my brother, my first cousins and I wanted to be sure of his cause of death for our own health records.

When it arrived I was surprised and disappointed that it did not include his cause of death.

My grandfather's death certificate.

I had seen many New York City death certificates while doing research at the New York City Municipal Archives, but they were from decades earlier. I don't know if my grandpa's certificate was abbreviated because he died less than 25 years ago, or if that is what the Bronx death certificate form looked like in 1992.

So I've gone through my records and compared death records from four decades—three certificates from the Bronx and one from Warren, Ohio, near Youngstown.

The following table compares the 27 pieces of information found in different years. These certificates can be an amazing find if you didn't already know every little fact.

1925 Bronx, NY	1940 Bronx, NY	1970 Warren, OH	1992 Bronx, NY
Full name, sex and age	Full name, sex and age	Full name, sex and age	Full name, sex and age
Race	Race	Race
Place of death and characterization of place (e.g., hospital, hotel)	Place of death and if it’s a hospital or institution	Place of death and if it’s a hospital or institution	Place of death; if in a hospital, date of admission
Date of death	Date of death	Date of death	Date of death
		Time of death	Time of death
Attending physician and dates tending to the deceased	Attending physician and dates tending to the deceased	Attending physician and dates tending to the deceased	Attending physician and dates tending to the deceased
Primary and secondary cause of death	Primary and secondary cause of death	Primary and secondary cause of death
Last residence	Last residence	Last residence	Last residence
Marital status	Marital status	Marital status	Marital status
	Name of surviving spouse	Name of surviving spouse (maiden name if wife)	Name of surviving spouse (maiden name if wife)
Date of birth	Date of birth	Date of birth	Date of birth
		Social Security Number	Social Security Number
Occupation	Occupation	Occupation	Occupation
		Whether served in armed forces	Whether served in armed forces
	Date last worked at occupation
Birthplace	Birthplace	Birthplace	Birthplace
		Citizen of what country
How long in U.S. if foreign born	How long in U.S. if foreign born
How long resident in City of New York	How long resident in City of New York
			Level of education
Parents' names	Parents' names	Parents' names	Parents' names
Parents’ birthplaces	Parents’ birthplaces
	Name of informant, relationship to deceased, and address	Name of informant, relationship to deceased, and address	Name of informant, relationship to deceased, and address
	Autopsy and laboratory tests dates	Autopsy
Name and location of cemetery	Name and location of cemetery	Name and location of cemetery	Name and location of cemetery
Date of burial	Date of burial or cremation	Date of burial or cremation	Date of burial or cremation
Funeral director's name and address	Funeral director's name and address	Funeral director's name and address	Funeral director's name and address

Are you scouring your ancestor's death certificate for every possible scrap of information?

7 Free Resources for the Frugal but Fanatical Genealogist

In high school my son had an assignment to create a document of his family tree. He laughed and said, "Mom, print that out for me?" That's as far as many people get: parents, grandparents, and a portion of their great grandparents.

But for those of us who keeping researching and researching, genealogy is a project that is never finished. And we don't mind at all.

Here are some free resources that won't "finish" your family tree, but they can make it stronger, broader, and more satisfying for you.

Census form

1. Free U.S. Censuses

Did you know that there's more to the census than the Federal census taken every 10 years? Some states also had their own census halfway between the Federal censuses. You can find the state and Federal versions for free on FamilySearch.org

2. Free New York Passenger Lists

Spanning the years 1820 through 1891, this free online collection can be searched or browsed by microfilm roll number, each roll spanning months. Another collection includes the years 1909 and 1925 through 1957.

Marriage certificate

3. Free U.S. Social Security Death Index

Search by name for SSDI records between 1962 and 2014. The results show the person's age, full name, birth and death dates, the state in which they died, and their last place of residence.

4. Free England and Wales Censuses

England and Wales censuses are available online from 1841 through 1911. Check out the full list of England resources on that page. You'll be impressed.

5. Free Canada Censuses

The Canada census is available online from 1851 through 1911 with a bonus year of 1906.

6. Free Find-a-Grave

Ship manifest

Have you considered trying Find a Grave for cemeteries worldwide? When you view their search form take a look at the pull-down menu next to "Cemetery in" and you may be surprised by the number of countries included. While the non-U.S. listings are slim, they are growing.

7. Free Genealogy Forms and Charts

If it helps you to have some paperwork to carry with you on your research travels, these genealogy forms and charts will be very useful. Print out ancestor charts, research logs, census forms, family record sheets, and more.

Everyone likes a bargain, and it is certainly worth your time to see what resources are out there that you haven't tapped into yet.

And speaking of free resources:

• What Language Barrier?
• Free Resource Provides Graphic Genealogy Research Basics
• Free Resource Lets You Plot Family Tree Locations

What's Napoleon Got to Do With Italy?

As I continue downloading thousands of birth, marriage and death records from my grandpa Iamarino's hometown in Italy, I find that the online archive I'm using has each town's documents split into three categories. These are worth explaining to anyone with Italian ancestors.

I live on this website 24/7 now.

From 1806 to 1815 the communities of Italy were required to keep official documentation of births, marriages and deaths. Before this period your best source of such information is handwritten church documents. The requirement was known as the Stato Civile Napoleonico (Napoleonic Civil Registration). During this period of time, Italy and many regions were under the rule of imperial France, so, you know, all hail Napoleon.

The period of time between 1815 and 1865 was known as Stato Civile della Restaurazione (Civil State of the Restoration) when ruling authorities in different parts of Italy also required formal record keeping for births, marriages and deaths. During this time Italy was not a single, united country, but a collection of kingdoms and city-states.

Italy became a unified country in 1861 under the leadership of King Victor Emmanuel, although for several more years a handful of wars resulted in annexations to form the Italy we now know. The country issued a decree at the end of 1865 calling for Stato Civile Italiano (Italian Civil Registration) which continued the practice of keeping meticulous records. And I want to thank them sincerely.

So that explains the excellent documentation and the way they are categorized and stored.

Italy is subdivided into 20 regions, each containing a few provinces (96 total), which contain cities (città metropolitane), municipalities (comuni), and hamlets (frazioni).

You can compare Italy's regions to states, and its provinces and counties. Lucky me. All of my ancestors are from the same county.

What To Do When You Have No Birth or Death Record

I've made it clear in my welcome message that I never trust someone else's family tree if they don't show their sources and I can't reproduce their facts. So even if I'm given facts by someone I trust, I will still do my due diligence and search for factual proof.

A good resource to use when you don't have access to someone's birth or death record is the Find A Grave website. If you're lucky, you may get to see an image of the headstone with full birth and death dates. A genealogist's giddy dream!

Here's an example of a situation where I wanted to verify the birth and death dates I'd been given for one relative, but you can also try this not when you're trying to prove someone else's work, but when you're trying to fill in missing dates.

I knew from census records that this man lived in Cleveland, Ohio and was alive in 1940. So I used the search form in Find A Grave to find an Edward Byrne who was born after 1855 and died after 1940 in Cleveland.

The search yielded five Edward Byrnes, but as my yellow highlighting shows, only two are buried in Cleveland. Focusing on those two, I see one was born in 1863 and died in 1941—that fits. The other, as it happens, is the son of the man I'm looking for.

When I click his name, I am not given an image of his headstone, but there are several facts recorded by someone I do not know. Once again, it's up to me to determine how many of these facts are trustworthy. But there is truly an abundance of facts, and I'm grateful for that.

I know from the census forms I've collected that he was a grocer. That fits. I know his street address in 1940. That fits. I have the names of many of his relatives, and I see them listed here. Short of seeing his birth and death certificates myself, this looks like credible data. And based on this information, I could attempt to purchase a copy of either his birth or death record from the state of Ohio.

Remember, the more resources you use to corroborate the facts about someone in your tree, the stronger your tree will be.

This Expanded Resource Provided an Elusive Maiden Name

Somewhere along my genealogical travels I found out that my great grandmother's mother—who never came to America—was named Maria Luigia. But I didn't know her last name. I did a little research to see if Luigia was her last name, but it was inconclusive.

Flash forward several years as Ancestry.com's resources continue to grow and grow. Now there is a resource called "U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1935-2007" which the ancestry.com website describes as picking up where the Social Security Death Index leaves off. If you're lucky enough to find an ancestor in this collection, you may learn things like:

• Their father's name.
• Their mother's maiden name.
• A woman's married name.
• Their date and place of birth.

I happened to find the record for my great grandmother's brother, Giuseppe (Joseph) Caruso, and it featured one heck of a bad transcription for his place of birth (there are no images available). For his mother's name it said Maria L. Gilardo. Another sibling's record listed their mother's last name as something very not-Italian, like Girandiu. I also discovered the actual death certificate for Joseph Caruso, which Americanized his mother's last name to Gerard.

So, weighing all of these alternatives, I felt the most logical last name was Girardi (like Joe Girardi, the New York Yankees' manager). I did some research to find out if anyone named Girardi had come to America from their town of Pescolamazza, and they had.

This was enough to make me about 85% confident that I had the correct name.

Then I discovered the unbelievably valuable (to any descendant of someone from the Province of Benevento, Italy) Benevento State Archives. There I managed to find the actual 1840 birth record for my great great grandmother, Maria Luigia Girardi.

The moral of this story is to keep checking for new resources that can help you fortify your family tree.

1840 birth record of my 2nd great grandmother, Maria Luigia Girardi.

How to Read a Free-form Italian Death Record

I've shown you some birth, death and marriage records from the Napoleonic era in Italy. These were somewhat easy to read because they used a fill-in-the-blanks form. But your ancestral hometown may not have used the same form—or any form at all. What then?

Here is a record of the 1789 death of Francesco Colasanto, written as a single paragraph in 1851. It was part of the 1851 marriage packet of his grandson, Francesco Saverio Colasanto. I have underlined parts of the image and underlined the text that corresponds with those sections to show you how to read this type of document. Granted, the handwriting can be difficult. Practice and exposure to many documents written by the same priest or town official can get you used to reading it.

Handwritten death record prepared for the 1851 marriage of the decedent's grandson

Extract of the death of Francesco Colasanto. It begins with words to the effect of "In faith the priest of the Church of San Leonardo Abbate of Basélice," and goes on to mention where the original death record is found: Volume VIII, folio 41(?), document number 5. In that book of death records was found Francesco Colasanto, son of Giovanni and Donata Ruggiero, husband of Errica Pettorossi, died at 23 January 1789 and was buried in the same church. It states that this record is being written only for matrimonial purposes on 15 August 1851. It is signed by the priest, Giuseppe Maria DelVecchio, and by the mayor of the town. It bears a stamp from the church and from the town.

After viewing many handwritten documents just like this, I became familiar with their format and was able to quickly pull out the pertinent facts. Don't forget to let Google Translate be your friend.

OK. I promise to leave Italy for a while and return to U.S. documents.

How to Read an Italian Death Record

My annotated Italian birth record received a lot of attention on Facebook and LinkedIn, so I'd like to continue with an annotated Italian death record. This is the 1830 death record for my great great great grandfather Giuseppe Leone of Basélice, Italy.

Where to find the key facts on an Italian death record.

The general format of many such documents from this era is to state the date, the name and position of the official recording the information, describe two witnesses to the facts, state who died and when, and provide the names of the person's parents and spouse. At the bottom is a somewhat generic official statement that everything above is true and here are our signatures to prove it.

Now for more detail. In this particular town the form begins with the words "Death extract" and the decedent's name is handwritten. The documents are numbered in the order in which they are recorded, so this is document 176 for the year.

Next is a long fill-in-the-blanks statement reading (in general): "The year 1830 the day 21 of the month of November at the hour 15 (3 p.m.) before me (Mayor's name) and officials of the state of the Comune of Basélice, District of Campobasso, Province of Molise, appeared …"

Next comes the description of the two witnesses: "Francesco Iampietro, age 49, a farmer who lives in this town, and Michele Marucci, age 50, a farmer who lives in this town, to tell me of the death on the day 21 of the month of November in the same year as written above, of Giuseppe Leone, at his own house, age 60, born in Basélice, whose profession was [missing], who was the son of the late Michele and the late Giovanna Pisciotti, and who was the widow of Lucia d'Abrillo."

That's a lot of information. At the very least you want to key in on the name of the decedent, when they died, their age and place of birth, and their parents' and spouse's names. In this town's records I have often seen "widow the second time", meaning here is the name of his second wife who also died before him. It is particularly helpful that you can tell by the word "fu" or "furono" that the parents have already died. I have seen several birth records for babies in this town whose father died before they were born. The word "fu" tells me this.

Like anything else, with enough practice and a basic knowledge of the key words, you can decipher these documents, too.