Archive

Posts Tagged ‘County Courthouse’

Where can I search for death records for FREE?

July 10th, 2011 6 comments

I have gone to several different sites but they all end up asking for money. I thought death records were public records and anyone should be able to search for a loved one but I’m hitting dead ends everywhere.

I put some links below. I wanted to deal with a common misconception first.

> I thought death records were public records

They are, and if you send the name and death date to the appropriate county courthouse, plus a check, which may be as little as $5 or as much as $35, you can get a copy. There isn’t any law that says a state or county has to spend tax money on a web site to make death records available for free.

By contrast, some records are NOT public; sealed adoptions records, and agreements hashed out between two parties in a civil lawsuit, for instance. You cannot get them no matter how much you pay.

Below:

These are all free. Some have ads at the top, which sometimes ask for a name and take you to a pay site, so be careful to distinguish between the advertisement and the input form. An index will have name, date and maybe something else; death records – 500 KB jpg’s of death certificates – are rare. Some of these say "Records" – I copied the page title – but are really indexes.

Social Security Death Index
http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi
1960ish – now; almost 90 million entries in November 2010.

Find-a-Grave
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi
53 million entries in November 2010, mostly the USA. Entries range; they may have one or more of:
Exact birth and death dates
A short biography/obituary
Links to the person’s parents’ graves and/or and children’s graves
Picture(s) of the person
The best ones have all of the above; the worst ones have just a name and year of death; "J. Smith, b. ????, d. 1912".

Arizona genealogy
http://genealogy.az.gov/
Births 1855 – 1934; deaths 1844 – 1959. Real records, not an index. Number of entries not given.

California Death index
http://vitals.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ca/death/search.cgi
9,366,786 entries from 1940 – 1997

Kentucky Death Records
(Y!A only allows 10 links per answer, so I cheated. Change the "/ca/" in the URL for the California Death index to "/ky/" to get Kentucky.)
2,921,383 entries from 1911 – 2000

Maine Death Records
Change the "/ca/" in the URL for the California Death index to "/me/" to get Maine.)
401,960 entries from 1960 – 1997

Missouri Digital Archives
http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/deathcertificates/
Real records; Year range 1910 – "50 years ago", so the upper limit changes by one every year. Number of entries not stated, but it too would grow over time. Not all counties are here.

Texas Death Records
Change the "/ca/" in the URL for the California Death index to "/tx".)
3,963,456 entries from 1964 – 1998

West Virginia Birth, Death and Marriage records
http://www.wvculture.org/vrr/va_select.aspx
Real records; number of entries not stated. Years vary by county. Here are the first five counties, to give you a feel for it:

Barbour: 1853 – 1859, 1861 – 1969
Berkeley: 1871, 1875 – 1906, 1917 – 1970
Boone: 1865 – 1873, 1877 – 1883, 1885 – 1968
Braxton: 1853 – 1861, 1865, 1867 – 1969
Brooke: 1853 – 1860, 1862, 1865, 1867 – 1868, 1874 – 1880, 1885 – 1970

My ex-wife’s father died in Pennsylvania. Death taxes were paid on the funds left. Are there public records?

April 23rd, 2010 2 comments

The home is in Bucks County.

Maybe. Check the local courthouse.

Can Someone Please Help Me Out With Some Information…….?

January 24th, 2010 2 comments

Need to know how to go about getting an address registry, without cost, for People of the City of Utah. Especially the Salt Lake City Area. Met a Family on line who would like to do a Mass mail out, due to the death of Their Son. (Not For Money).

I know the Politicians can get them. Do They obtain the addresses from the Voter Registration Lists, City Water Department Records, or possibly the County Tax Office? If
so, is there a cost to Them?

Any Help would be GREATLY Appreciated…………….

Thanks To All, Truly Thank You!

try the county courthouse first there is usually no charge there if noy try calling your counsel person fir the area they can help u get the voter registration list if it is for a good reason if all else fails try doing a google search for that county check the google white pages using that county as the question

Divorce Records Free

January 8th, 2010 No comments

One of the greatest civil amenities that we enjoy from government agencies is Public Records. They come in various specific categories, with Marriage, Divorce, Birth and Death constituting the Vital Public Records group. We can learn a great deal about people from their vital public records and Free Public Divorce Records are popular for that.

Much information is contained in public divorce records. It includes the personal particulars of the people involved and details surrounding the divorce such as date and location, filing number, alimony, child custody, asset division and so forth. A Divorce Certificate can be present too although its certified copy may have to be separately requested.

Being public records, divorce records can be requested free-of-charge(FOC) at any government agencies tasked with the function. The best way to obtain divorce records free is directly from the county courthouse where the divorce proceedings were held. Anyone has the right to access anybody’s divorce records as long as procedures are followed.

There are variations among the different states in as far as laws governing divorce records are concerned. Some states are extremely stringent in the treatment of divorce records while some are virtually restriction-free. Apart from the originating courthouse, the majority of the states have a central repository where all divorce records within their jurisdiction are maintained.

People make use of divorce records in various ways most prominent of which are in background checking, applying for marriage license, establishing biological identity or relationship and genealogy research. Expert advice or verification with the authorities is often necessary to determine the permissibility of using the divorce records of others.

It’s easy to conduct a online Divorce Records Search. There are basically two options: DIY (do-it-yourself) or commercial record providers. If time and effort are constraints, turning to commercial record providers is more viable. A fee is incurred but it spares you all the hassle and very professional results are typically available within minutes.

Ben Dave
http://www.articlesbase.com/divorce-articles/divorce-records-free-687790.html

Public Death Records/Maryland/Aft. 1955?

January 5th, 2010 1 comment


They are probably restricted to next-of-kin, to avoid identity theft. Call the county courthouse and ask.

http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi
is a death index; it is nation-wide.

I need to know where to go to look up the will of my dad and his wife. Died in Rankin County Mississippi?

December 11th, 2009 3 comments

My father passed away in 1997 and his wife in 2005. I am searching for a record of their wills. My dad’s name was Sharp C Downs and her name was Faye V Downs and they lived in Brandon, Mississippi at the time of their deaths.

Need to go to the county courthouse in Brandon. If probate was filed, the records would be there. Can also check records in their names.