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How can I find out for sure whether or not someone died?

  • How can I find an official record of someone's death to confirm that they did in fact die? Googling for his obituary turns up very little information, and his local newspaper has very spotty online archives that don't include the year of his death. My mother's second husband was an awful, abusive man, and even though we'd left him years before, we were both very relieved when we heard he'd passed away in the mid-1990s. For some reason I got it in my head to look for his obituary recently, and was a little freaked out that I couldn't find it. I did find a reference on one of the find-a-grave sites to the grave of someone with a similar name--he was John Winstead Smith, the reference I found was to John Winston Smith*--who died around the same time, but couldn't find an obituary or any other details to determine whether or not it was the same man. I live on the other side of the country, so can't drop by the county clerk's office or hit up my local library for a microfiche session. So how can I find an obituary or official death record? I feel like this should be much easier than it's proving to be! (And please don't advise me to just let this go, my mother still lives in the same county and if he's still alive that's information at least one of us needs to have.) *Not his actual name, of course.

  • Answer:

    Is the presumed decedent from America? If so, you can use the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_Death_Index to find more information. You can search for free at a number of places; http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=3693 is a good place to start.

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Admiral Haddock

There were some http://genealogy.about.com/b/2011/12/16/genealogy-sites-pressured-into-removing-ssdi.htm about the SSDI and many of them moved behind paywalls. Or there may be a delay with recent deaths before the data is added to the public information. The https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1202535 is current as of June 20, 2013 and free, though.

larrybob

Note that not everyone has an obituary in the paper -- I'd wager a guess that most people don't. It's not something that my family has a tradition of, and, well, there would have to be someone who cared enough to write it and pay for it for one to happen, which isn't always the case. You definitely want to look for official records like some of the ones listed above, instead of a possible wild goose chase into obituaries.

brainmouse

If it was mid-90s, it's possible a small obit blurb was in the paper and it just hasn't been put online yet. If it's in a location where there's really only one newspaper, I'd try calling them and asking for the archives department, in your nicest thank you so much you are just the best I really can't thank you enough voice, and seeing if they can help you track down an old obit.

phunniemee

Your state's vital statistics office would be able to assist. Most states will issue a death certificate to anyone so long as you do not inquire into the cause of death.

Tanizaki

Some counties have that or related information online. For example, I was able to find the record of the probate hearing for my father's will in Dallas County (though not the record of his actual death certificate). If the county your target died in does not, you might consider paying someone to look it up for you — it only takes a few minutes in the County Records building. You could also try calling the County Records department to see if they'll look it up for you over the phone, or by mail or faxed request.

ubiquity

Obituaries aren't that useful. I've buried a lot of family and haven't run a single one. Assuming he died in the county, give the county clerk's office a call.

griphus

In the US, the SSDI is as official as you can get - if the person is paid into it. As far as I can tell, the easiest way to do a quick check of the SSDI these days is via http://www.death-record.com/. A lot of the other indexes are now paywalled. State by state release of information is really variable; for example, Connecticut will sell anyone a copy of the death certificate, while New York requires significantly more proof of relationship (legal or straight-line geneological.)

cobaltnine

I embarked on a similar project a while back. A member of my family had a son who died in infancy many years ago. She was a single mother in a fairly small town, and there was a lot of clucking, hand-patting, and we'll-take-care-of-everythinging. The hospital and the coroner said she was "too distraught" to see the body, and she never received a copy of the death certificate. When I learned the full story and offered to help her, I called the bureau of vital statistics in the town where he died, and they told me that if I wanted to see this particular death certificate it would be "for genealogical purposes," and I would have to come to their offices and do it in person; they wouldn't mail me a copy and it wasn't online.

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