Monday, July 6, 2009

Tips for Getting Public Death Records

By Mark Pearson

Public death records are a great source of information for those who are investigating their ancestry. Public death records are documents which have been signed by a physician and detail a person's name, date of death, and the reasons they passed on.

When you're trying to piece together your family's history, death records can help you find out parts of the puzzle. From the early 20th century to today, certified copies of public death records have been available. The National Center for Health Statisticsm, or NCHS, is the best place to begin your search.

This center is part of the Department of Health and Human Services. Here, you can obtain birth, death, marriage and divorce records. There is no set price for the documents as the cost varies by state.

Most states require you to fill out a form or application to be submitted to your local Vital Records Department, a fee will be assessed at that time. The average fee for obtaining these records is about $15. Again, it varies from state to state.

Websites like Ancestry.com and Genealogy.com are great places to find ancestral death records. These records can stretch back hundreds of years! Some services offered by these websites are free, but others still carry a price.

If you're serious about tracing your family's history, it might behoove you to get a subscription plan so that you have plenty of access to records, instead of having to pay for each record you get. There's actually a free 14-day trial going on right now that you can use with absolutely no risk.

These are the different methods you can use to locate free public death records. There may also be records in your local library or municipal building, if the records you are looking for are close to home.

They can help you to locate the correct department where you can obtain a copy of the death records you need. - 23802

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