Find out how to locate a person's death certificate by state. Each state handles their own vital records, including information on death records and death certificates.
Laws are regulations that determine who can search death records and obtain certified death certificates can vary from state to state. Fees for obtaining a death certificate also vary by state.
The state vital records links on this page can help you find out more information on how to search and request a death certificate in a particular U.S. state.
Several genealogy sites allow users to search the SSDI database, including the ones listed below:
The Social Security Death Index ( SSDI ) is a database compiled by the United States Social Security Administration.
The database contains a list of deceased people whose deaths have been reported to the SSA since 1962. Most of the listings are for people who died after the age of 65.
Information listed in Social Security Death Index records typically contains first and last name and sometimes middle initial; date of birth; month and year of death; full or partial social security number; state where the SSN was issued; last location where the person lived.
Legacy.com hosts the internet's largest central collection of online obituaries and death notices. This is a good first search for a current or past obituary.
You can search nearly 100 million obituaries on the Tributes.com obituary search engine.
Google news is a good place to search for recent obituaries, since they pull current news items from all major online newspapers.
If you know the location of death for the person whose obituary you are searching for, you may want to try looking at the site(s) for newspapers in that area. You may be able to find the obituary on a local or regional newspaper site.
Locate grave sites by a person's name, location, birth date, death date etc. You can also find cemetary locations on this site.
Search for funeral home locations in the USA and Canada by location.
The US Department of Veterans Affairs provides this searchable database for burial locations of US veterans.
You can search for grave locations for veterans and family members who are buried in VA National Cemeteries, state veterans cemeteries, military and Department of Interior cemeteries as well as veterans who were buried in private cemeteries where the grave is marked with an official government grave marker.