Death Certificate Tutorial
by Kevin May, Public Records Technician, Ohio Historical Society Archives-Library
Ohio state death certificates are public records that have been issued by the county health departments since December 20th 1908 and filed with the Ohio Department of Health. The certificates contain both personal and statistical information as well as a medical certificate of death noting the primary and contributing causes of death. Such information is of keen interest to researchers and genealogists and can be readily obtained by visiting, depending upon the year the certificate was filed, the state archives/library of the Ohio Historical Society (online or on-site), the Ohio Department of Health, the county probate court or county health department.
Background
In 1867 the Ohio General Assembly passed a law requiring all counties to record deaths occurring within their jurisdiction--a death record. Typically, the county probate court made a record in a ledger of all deaths that had been reported by a tax assessor to the court (other informants who reported deaths to the court included physicians, parents and midwives). Enforcement in reporting deaths was intermittent at best, as can be attested by the sparse number of ledger entries. This was partly due to the fact that only landowners (hence, probate court) were recorded. From December 20th, 1908 onward, through a bill passed by the Ohio General Assembly, death certificates were to be procured by the county health department and filed with the Ohio Department of Health. A standard death certificate form was issued to the counties by the state and in subsequent years, amended with additional fields on a number of occasions. As previously noted, an informant provided the personal 'particulars' and the manner of death (in collaboration with a doctor) while a doctor filled out the medical certificate of death section of the certificate and the county registrar filled out all other fields pertaining to record management. The county health department administered quality control measures such as returning incomplete (or those with vague field entries) certificates to the doctor. If personal information were incorrect, the informant would provide an affidavit. Once corrected, an amended copy was attached to the certificate along with an affidavit if the situation warranted it and, in turn, forwarded to the Ohio Department of Health.
Content
An Ohio state death certificate is typically a one-page form (unless it is an amended certificate) that has been divided into three sections with relevant fields therein:
- Filing data (file number, place of death, full name, residence, military service)
- 'Personal and Statistical Particulars' (sex, color, marital status, spouse, date of birth, age, occupation, birthplace, father's name and birthplace, mother's name and birthplace, informant, burial place, undertaker, registrar)
- 'Medical Certificate of Death' (date of death, principal cause of death, contributory causes).
The fields on the certificate form were completed by the informant (often a relative of the deceased but not necessarily), doctor and county health department registrar. Consequently, the amount of information provided and the accuracy thereof varies considerably. It is not uncommon to find the phrase 'not known' or 'cannot tell' written within a number of fields. Click on each link for an example of a death certificate and a death record.
Location
Death records and certificates are housed at one of three locations depending on the type of document and the year it was issued. Death records (1867-December 20th 1908) are available at the probate court of the county wherein the death occurred. Certain counties (e.g. Franklin, Delaware, Marion, Montgomery, Knox) have provided copies of their death records to the state archives at OHS and are accessible to the public via microfiche and microfilm. Death Certificates from Dec. 20th, 1908-1944, the original volumes and their microfilmed copies, are housed within the state archives at OHS and are available to the public via microfilm. The Ohio Department of Health sends their records over approximately 50 years old to the state archives. Death certificates issued after 1944 are kept at the Ohio Department of Health which manages and provides access to the records. Certain death records (not certificates) where the deceased resided in a county or state institution (e.g. county home or penitentiary) that did not fall within the probate court's jurisdiction, are housed within the state archives at OHS.
Access
Accessing death records can be achieved by visiting the probate court of the county where the deceased died. For a complete list of Ohio county probate courts and their contact information, see the following click here. For death certificates after 1944, copies ('certified' only) may be obtained either in person or through a mailed in request to the Ohio Department of Health (visit their web site for policies and procedures). All death certificates which fall before 1944 and after December 20th 1908, as well as certain death records (as noted above) are located at the archives/library of the Ohio Historical Society.
In order to obtain OHS on-site access to the death certificates, visit the society's archives/library division microfilm room on the third floor of the Ohio Historical Center. There, search the death certificate index (either on microfiche/film for December 20th 1908-1944 or online for 1913-1937) which is organized by ranges of years and then alphabetically by surname. Once the person's name is found, certain information is provided adjacent to it such as county, volume, file number, date of death. Only the year of death and the certificate number ('file number') are required to find the copy on microfilm. The death certificate microfilm cabinet is organized by year and then by certificate number (each microfilm roll has a label noting the range of certificate numbers). Viewing the microfilm can be done at an automatic or manual microfilm reader while photocopies can be obtained through one of the microfilm 'reader/printer'. When viewing the microfilm, follow the file number (certificate number) stamped on the upper right hand corner of each copy in chronological order until you arrive at the correct number. Check and make sure the name matches and note whether or not a second page (amended certificate or affidavit) is adjacent to the copy (both copies will have 'copy' or 'returned' stamped or written across them as well as the same file number while an affidavit will be in the adjacent frame as well).
To request a copy of a death certificate through the mail, visit our web site and note the archives/library policies and procedures. Print a copy of a death certificate request form from the following web page. Search our online death certificate index for the deceased. Then, decide whether or not you want a death certificate copy request or a research request. A copy request requires the name, year, county and certificate number (if known) of the deceased. If the year and county are not known, then it becomes a research request and for a higher fee, two ranges of years are selected for archives/library staff to research the indexes and see if a match is made with information noted by the patron on the request form. Afterward, follow the policy, payment and mailing directions outlined on the form.
Death records are searched in a similar way to death certificates. Before visiting the archives/library or mailing in a request, check the online collection catalogue and determine if the county death records have been archived at OHS. If they have been, for instance Franklin and Delaware counties, check the microfiche index under the correct county and group of years via surname (microfiche indexes are organized by the first letter of the last name and thereafter by the first vowel of the last name which is noted on a key at the top of the microfiche and refers to a page number). Note the book/volume number and pages numbers next to the person's name. Then, retrieve the correct microfiche by searching for the book number and range of pages. Other county death records are indexed in a similar manner- chronologically by year and alphabetically by surname, although the format and medium might differ (e.g. microfilm rather than microfiche).
Issues
While searching for a death certificate there are a number of issues to be aware of, particularly if the deceased's name is not found in the index. If the person died outside of Ohio (across the border, in transit, etc), a certificate would not have been issued by Ohio, even though the deceased might be buried in Ohio or resided therein. Similarly, if a person died across a county line, that county would be responsible for issuing a certificate. Another common dilemma that often arises is misspelling. Misspellings or surname changes can occur any number of ways; an ethnic spelling that has been anglicized, variations of an ethnic spelling, the informant or doctor spelling the name in the manner they believed was the proper way, albeit incorrectly. Sometimes the handwriting is illegible and the index reflects an incorrect spelling. On a rare occasion, the index was improperly processed and part of the name might be incorrect despite being legible on the original. If the person died before December 20th 1908, the death records kept at the county level were far from comprehensive since they included principally landowners and enforcement was haphazard--many deaths went unreported.
Another issue involves stillborns. When the Ohio Department of Health sent the original volumes to be archived at OHS, the department kept some of the low numbered volumes that contained stillborns. When a number has been reassigned to a different name (the certificate number and name do not match) it is a likely possibility (especially if the certificate has a low volume number) that the certificate was for a stillborn which can be acquired through the Ohio Department of Health.
Errors on account of the microfilming process are rare but do occur. They include omitting; a certificate from the original volume (the certificate number would be missing on the microfilm despite it being listed in the index), an attached affidavit or amended certificate (second 'returned' or 'copy' page), or a copy of the reverse of the certificate if there's an indication on the front that information has been added (e.g. 'over'). Errors of omission can be corrected by archives/library staff retrieving the original volume and providing a copy. The online death certificate index has a number of scanning or OCR errors (optical character recognition), particularly for the years 1933-1937. This will cause misspellings and partial omissions of names and certificate numbers (e.g. a 7 is misread as a 2). If all other avenues of inquiry have been explored, one final, desperate measure is to look up all the 'unnamed' certificates with the same surname, especially for the same county. Also, if you do not know if the person survived infancy, check the stillborns of the same surname.
Research
There are a number of reasons why one might want to obtain a copy of a certificate. First and foremost are genealogical purposes. Death certificates are one of the principal vital records used to conduct family research and provide a primary source of information. The parent's names and birthplaces are of particular interest for they proved a lead to the previous generation and when collaborated with other sources (e.g. marriage, census, birth), form a foundation for one's family history. Other fields such as 'occupation',' residence', and 'cause of death' convey a personal element and add interest and depth to the raw data often found in vital records. Secondly, historical and medical researchers often use death certificates as part of the their raw data for either statistical use or at a personal level, verifying or determining a person's vital stats and family relations. The number of research topics that benefit from death certificate documentation is extensive and include studies on 'ethnicity', 'epidemics', and 'occupations'. Finally, death certificates play an important role in legal documentation either for determining one's medical history or resolving issues pertaining to inheritance.
Exercise
Choose a deceased relative who passed away in Ohio after December 20th 1908 and before 1944 (if no relative can be found or your family is from out of state, choose a name from the index with the same surname--you never know). After viewing the death certificate, see if you can use the information as a key to connect to other sources such as; obituaries from newspapers, census records, marriage records, birth records, et cetera. See if you can trace the family line back two generations and notice where certain public records or sources stop becoming a source of information and other materials need to be consulted (e.g. church records, land surveys, et cetera).
