Are death records public record?
I know my great grandmother died in NJ, somewhere in Bergen county (Rutherford, NJ as far as I know). She had been an immigrant from England in 1942 (approx). Every web site I seem to find for vital records in NJ wants to charge just to search. I understand that there will be a charge for a copy of the record, but aren’t vital records public record?
Some are, some are not, and just because a record is public doesn’t mean the state / county has to spend the time and money to put it on-line.
Some do; West Virginia and Missouri both have wonderful web sites with some BMD records. Some don’t. RootsWeb has data bases of death record indexes from California, Kentucky and Texas, for selected years.
If you have ever read "Day of the Jackal", you may remember how the bad guy got a birth certificate for a child that was born about the time he was but had died young and pretended it was his; he then used it to get a passport. The authorities are more wary these days, but identity thieves are more sophisticated. So, may state and counties are less eager to give out information than they used to be.
States set limits on which records can be given on request to anyone and which can only be given to the person or their heirs. They also set fees for the time it takes their staff to locate the record and produce a certified copy. If a record isn’t found, they still charge a fee for the time a staff person spent looking for the record.
New Jersey seems to have gone to an extreme to protect their records. The death must have occurred more than 40 years ago (1968) even for a genealogy-only certificate. If this limit isn’t a problem, the NJ web site has instructions.
There is also a researcher for Bergen Co, NJ listed on the Random Acts of Genealogy Kindness site. They may be able to help you by searching locally.
References :
http://www.state.nj.us/health/vital/genealogical.shtml
http://www.raogk.org/
Each state has its own laws re who, when and where a person can obtain vital records on another whether birth or death. So the best thing to do is to call the County Clerk or equivalent in Bergen County and ask.
In Texas,unless you are immediate family, you cannot get a death certificate until 25 years after a person’s death. Birth certificates it is 75 years.
I was just looking at Ancestry.Com which probably has the most online records online than ny site, and they do not show birth records for New Jersey. Since it is a website that many public library has for the convenience of people I thought I could find it there.
You might try Cyndi’sList.Com. She has links to lots of websites, some free, some not.
References :
Yes and no. And maybe (depends on the state).
A public record is maintained by the Govt. and is "open" in most cases. It still is govt, and yes, you have to pay for it. Unless you want to travel to the location, and walk it to the copy machine.
And, since recent death records can be used for id theft, as well as privacy of persons who still may be related.. most states have restrictions of some kind.
The social security death index contains almost all US deaths since ABOUT 1960. That can be searched free at http://www.rootsweb.com. That gives you dates and locations.. not the certificate itself.
On the other hand.. death certs from Texas, up to ABOUT 1975 are now scanned and searchable at http://www.familysearch.org (it is a pilot project). I’ve picked up a bunch of family documents there recently.
In short.. what you can get is depending on WHEN and where (state laws), how old the record is; how you are related, and condition of the budget.
Oh, and yes.. there are companies out there whose business is based in finding records. It is a service. There are other ways around it, when you get your feet wet on the under the radar ways to find the info.
psst.
if she lived long enough to become a citizen and has a social security file, there is bunches of info in those. You need the ss# and $28.
References :
I thought they were. I have no idea why they charge to search. I have never heard of that. I thought that you can search for free but if you want to see the document you must pay or order it. Today, I just recieved my Great, great grandmothers (on my mothers side)Death Certificate in the Mail, and I have requested her Social Security Application from the SSDI. I am about to do this on my grandfather on my fathers side. So it can be done for sure. But for searching… ummm. I have never heard of that. I have searched death records in SC and they never charged me for a search. Have you tried calling the vital recs department in NJ and asking them to do a search for you? I am not sure if its that helpful because I did that after I mailed in my request for my great great grandmothers DC and they said she was not in the database. I think they did that on purpose because I started arguing with them for their rude attitudes. But try that too. Is the info you stated in your question the only info you have on her? Did she go back to England for her funeral and burial? Does anyone else in your family have any bits and pieces of information on her at all? Also when I called in my state and city they told me that they only go back to a certain year. I forgot the year though. Find out how far they go back in NJ.
I was able to find her Social Security Number, and I knew the names of her parents. Not the mothers maiden name though. I also found the cemetery she was buried in online, and I did not know the Cemetery she was buried in at all. Finding her in the SSDI can be extremely helpful. If you need more info on her.
You can try familysearch.org and see if you can pull up their information for free. Thats where I found mines. Ancestry.com has information also but they give you free trial for 14 days. I found information on there too. I found information on my great great great grandmother there. I am not sure if its really her though. I got a good feeling it is. But it just shows a death index. Its a list of people that shows their ages at the time of death, place of death date, death records number and a bunch of other things.
BTW, what site did you go to?
If you went to Publicrecords.com it only takes you to intellius.com
If you went to http://www.vitalrecordsus.com/new_jersey-vital-records.html. What about this site http://www.vitalrec.com/nj.html? you are going to get a similar response. I just went there now and typed in a name of a family member who died in NJ. Not helpful at all.
Have you tried the National Archives? I will be heading there next for information. I have never heard of a fee for a SEARCH. I thought there was a fee for viewing the information.
Try these:
http://www.state.nj.us/state/darm/links/archives.html
http://www.state.nj.us/state/darm/links/databases.html
Nationalarchives.gov
I think the NJ state Archives may have some volunteer researchers who may do a search for you for free. Yes and its only a search. I did that with SC state Archives.
Okay let us know what happened and what site you went to.
Sorry my response was so long. I always do that.
References :
Experience and currently doing something similar.
Some are, some are not, and just because a record is public doesn’t mean the state / county has to spend the time and money to put it on-line.
Some do; West Virginia and Missouri both have wonderful web sites with some BMD records. Some don’t. RootsWeb has data bases of death record indexes from California, Kentucky and Texas, for selected years.
If you have ever read "Day of the Jackal", you may remember how the bad guy got a birth certificate for a child that was born about the time he was but had died young and pretended it was his; he then used it to get a passport. The authorities are more wary these days, but identity thieves are more sophisticated. So, may state and counties are less eager to give out information than they used to be.
References :