How can I obtain the details of the death and cremation of someone in who died in California?
This person died in Oakland, Ca, in 2005. I have date of birth, death and full name and want to find the details of his death (by natural causes) and particularly the location of his ashes. I want to use public records and not a paid service.
You can write to the Alameda County Clerk-Recorder and buy an informational copy of his death certificate:
http://www.acgov.org/auditor/clerk/death3b.htm
"Public" doesn’t mean "free"; it just means "Available". By contrast, most adoption records and the details of some civil suits are "sealed". That means you cannot buy copies no matter what.
It is $14, something they hide on a different page,
http://www.acgov.org/auditor/clerk/vitalrecords.htm
for their own convenience. Government web designers don’t have to think of the public’s convenience.
Even then the death certificate may not reveal where his ashes are; they may have given them to the family, and the family may have scattered them somewhere illegally.
It is illegal to walk through a wilderness area, for instance, a place the deceased spent many a happy hour backpacking, and scatter his ashes here and there, paying particular attention to patches of lupine. My son has promised to do that for me, and fiddle dee dee to the USFS.
Um, Why?
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You could try looking in the obits in local papers. Many of them are online,youmight have to register but most accounts are free.
Check vital statistic records on line for that county.
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experience
You can write to the Alameda County Clerk-Recorder and buy an informational copy of his death certificate:
http://www.acgov.org/auditor/clerk/death3b.htm
"Public" doesn’t mean "free"; it just means "Available". By contrast, most adoption records and the details of some civil suits are "sealed". That means you cannot buy copies no matter what.
It is $14, something they hide on a different page,
http://www.acgov.org/auditor/clerk/vitalrecords.htm
for their own convenience. Government web designers don’t have to think of the public’s convenience.
Even then the death certificate may not reveal where his ashes are; they may have given them to the family, and the family may have scattered them somewhere illegally.
It is illegal to walk through a wilderness area, for instance, a place the deceased spent many a happy hour backpacking, and scatter his ashes here and there, paying particular attention to patches of lupine. My son has promised to do that for me, and fiddle dee dee to the USFS.
References :
You can request a copy of the death certificate from either Alameda County (where Oakland is located) or through the state office of Vital statistics. There are no details on cremation. The death records will indicate what facility performed the cremation and how the ashes were disposed, or who they were given to. It the ashes were in-erned the certificate will indicate where.
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Genealogical researcher 35+ yrs. also involved with CA research
I see you posted this is another country so just a little background first. In the U.S. "public records" are what some other countries call civil records or records kept by the government. They are generally accessible to anyone, but are not free. The fee for a copy is usually somewhere between $5 and $30 USD for the record and additional fees can stack up for searching, certifying, mailing, etc. Also, Oakland is in Alameda County. But here in California we tend to speak of our location in terms of the nearest major city. Someone that says "I’m from Oakland" might actually be from a smaller town in Contra Costa or San Joaquin County, for example. Lastly, because the death his recent, most free genealogical websites won’t be of much help.
The death certificate will give you exact medical cause of death, manner of death (homicide, suicide, accident or natural), who the body was released to and if it was embalmed or cremated. You can then contact the mortician listed for more information. These are (usually) private companies and they do not have to give you any information, but they often will.
You can order a copy of the death certificate from Alameda County here: http://www.acgov.org/auditor/clerk/death1.htm You want the "informational copy." You can also order it from the State: http://www.cdph.ca.gov/certlic/birthdeathmar/Pages/CertifiedCopiesofBirthDeathRecords.aspx
In both cases, if they can’t find the record based on the information you provide, they will not return the fee. If they come up with 2 possible hits (say 2 John Smiths died the same day) they will likely send you neither.
Some other resources, some free, some not:
Obituaries: see area newspapers. Some are online, some aren’t.
Links to Obit resources: http://www.cyndislist.com/obituaries/
find a grave: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi
http://www.deathindexes.com/california/index.html
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You might try his obit, see if your local library has a subscription website, patrons can use, of Newspapers archived issues for Oakland or the San Francisco Chronicle. may at least find out internment details.
NewsBank Inc has CA Newspapers for Death Notices, my local library lets patrons register to access database form home computers.
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