records guide
Death records — the paper trail after a life ends
Short answer
Death records include state-issued certificates, newspaper obituaries, cemetery burial lists, funeral home ledgers, and the Social Security Death Index. Together they establish when and where a person died and — often — who survived them. Read certificates critically: the informant's memory determines the quality of everything except the cause of death.
- Certificates: state vital records office, or FamilySearch for older records.
- Obituaries: Chronicling America for 1777–1963, paid databases for later.
- Cemeteries: Find A Grave and BillionGraves for photographed markers.
- SSDI: post-1962 deaths reported to Social Security.
This guide is being expanded. In the meantime, the linked pages below and the FAQ answer the questions readers most often send us. If yours isn't here, write the desk and we'll add it in the next revision.