Death Records Now

I live in Texas- my parents diviorced 15 years ago and since then unaware to me she has kept all of his letters and any form of communication hidden from me. I was informed 2 days ago thru the attorney generals office – that my father was now listed as deceased. Thats it I ran a search and the only info I could get was that he died september 24,2008 in port richey florida and he was cremated. I need help finding my rights as his daughter to access his information such as siblings, last will and testimonys, and offical cause of death. Basicialy I want to find out as much as possible about him as I am not able to even visit a grave site? Please help- my family hated him and I have no support I have search online for for days finding anything I can and this is all I have. I f anyone knows of anything I can do please let me know?

Facts: Lewis william wood
02/07/1953 – 09/24/2008 died at age 55
Born in michigan- died in new port richey, florida (online it said ss listed as california)
divorced from: Tina Wood- Texas
known children: Ashley & Adam Wood Juanita (half sister I only heard of but no other info)
No alive relatives on his side
Please help in my search to know my deceased father – also why was I informed 2 years after the fact? Why Did it take that long?
~*~*~*~ Thank you for taking the time to help- as stated below-
The TEXAS attorney general sent the notification to my mother because of child support- back pay

I looked at the letter and althought I know she would not of told me the letter was mailed out 2 days before I saw it

And yes I did ask her and she ofcourse denies any letters were ever sent or recieved by him to us

Yes found funeral home and called but b/c privacy laws they could tell me nothing but he had past and he was cremated- thats where I hit a road block

thank you so much for any help- it truly means the world to me

> she has kept all of his letters and any form of communication hidden from me.

You could threaten to sue her for them. She might just burn them, though, and lie about it.

> the only info I could get was that he died september 24,2008 in port richey florida

You’ll have to write to the county there, prove you are related (A Xerox of your driver’s license and birth certificate should do it) and buy a copy of his death certificate. It will have cause of death and who did the cremation. The funeral home may have a copy of his obituary; it may not. If not, you can try writing to the county library, sending a SASE and a small donation. They will usually look it up for you. I looked for 20 minutes and didn’t see any obit on-line.

> siblings,

That will be in the obituary, maybe.

> last will

You’ll have to write to the probate court in his county, and will probably have to buy a copy.

> official cause of death.

Death certificate,, above.

> Basically I want to find out as much as possible about him

If his obit says he was a member of the Elks Club and First Methodist, you could write to both, explain your problem and ask if any member who knew him would send you their memories.

> also why was I informed 2 years after the fact? Why Did it take that long?

Just some guesses:
a) Your mother hates you
b) Your mother didn’t think it was important
c) He left you a million dollars and she is spending it as fast as she can
d) None of the above

I have already contacted the records clerk in Hill County, Texas that handles the birth, death & marriage certificates, but she said she doesn’t know who to contact. Any suggestions?
Update – I don’t need to know where they are buried or dates – I have pictures of their graves. My questions are pertaining to the data on the stones – discrepancies to other records on same people. If there is such a thing as a cemetery office, I can’t find a number or a address

If you’re looking for information related to their burial, doesn’t the cemetery office have the information you’re seeking?

————

Sorry for the delayed reply .. let me see what I can find out and I’ll write again in a few minutes (it’s Friday, 5:00PM in Chicago)

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Okay, here’s a website with a list of the names of those buried there. The website also has a phone number for info on plot availability and an email address of the person who assembled the list of names. Sounds like the email addy may be useful to you.

It’s a small cemetery that may have begun as a family burial place. So you’re right that there’s no office.

I hope there’s something helpful here…

I have many ancestors and relatives who have lived in Texas, but I occasionally need to access birth, marriage, death records from other states, and many of them are not accessible through Ancestry.com or any other site.

Hmmm, I don’t know — it sounds unlikely that Texas has determined its policy on public records access entirely as a way to make money off of one specific website.

More likely, they just want to have a high level of customer service.

There are different reasons why people search for death records but one of the most common reasons is for genealogy. Death records can play a very important role in genealogy because they can tell you a great deal about the living ancestors. You can learn about the other family members of the deceased such as parents, spouse and children. In many cases, you can also learn more about extended family members or you can trace the death records through of one person to another, matching the family tree.

Certified copies of death records have been around for a long time now. While records have been kept for many years, they are now considered a legal document while also being a public record, meaning anyone can access what is contained within.

There is important information found within the death record that can help with genealogy but the most important information is that of the other relatives. You can look up full and complete history for a family by checking the death records. This is also a great way to verify that people really did live and die where they said they did and that they lived how they were said to have lived.

If you want to trace your family’s roots or build a family tree, an online death records database will be an important tool in helping you do this. Since you will probably need to search through multiple records, it will make the process faster, more affordable and easier. Just be prepared for some of the snags that might come along the way.

There are some problems that can come into play when searching for death records for someone. For example, depending on the period of time you are searching for, women are sometimes harder to locate records for. This is because during some times and locations, death records were only kept of men. Women were considered to be property of the men and those men were not required by law to keep records of their vital history on the women. This means that if a woman died, her husband was not required to document this death legally.

But the problems extend further than just women. There are some men that you might have trouble locating records for, again depending on the period of time in history and the situation. If you run across a problem, you can often fill in the gaps with other family member death records or with school records, prison records, military records and more.

Tracing your family tree is a big job and not one to be taken lightly but there are now many tools out there that make it easier than ever before. Why not take advantage of these tools such as using the Internet to trace your death records? It’s fast and easy and can help you search for multiple records all in the ease and comfort of your own home. While no one said that making your family tree would be easy, it is certainly a rewarding experience when you have completed.

Rose Quadee
http://www.articlesbase.com/relationships-articles/death-records-for-genealogy-694605.html

Say you lived in California but were visiting relatives in Texas and then died on the visit, would the death certificate be Texas State issued or California?

It would be issued by the coroner’s office with jurisdiction. Usually this is the the on for the county/city in which you died, rather than the actual state.

If you died in Texas, it would have the Texas stamp on it.

His father name was Harold and his mother name was Shirley. Both his parents had kids from previous marriages. He had 2 brothers and 3 sisters from this marriage. All the initials were KEM
He had a sister named Kim and she had a daughter named Kayla who would be about 19 or 20 now. I have already searched in the counties of Whiteside, Lee, Carroll, Ogle, Bureau, Henry, and Rock Island. Ill. No record of his death. He was born on Jan 10, 1958 Died Sept. 21, 2005 He was born in Illinois and spent time in El Paso, Texas. I need to locate where his death certificate is. I have already search thru many obits and the ssdi to no avial. Please help for my daughter’s sake

Many of the SSDI’s on the web are not current. The one below has the reference for the Keith E. Miller you are seeking, so that means that Social Security has his death certificate. In light of this, I recommend that you check with them, and again with Whiteside county.

http://www.newenglandancestors.org/research/Database/ss/default.asp

Also, if you do an *advanced* search at www.zabasearch.com, you will locate Millers in Sterling, Illinois. Miller is a common name so you will also have to use the beginning letter of the first name, in this case, K when you do your search.

Best of luck to you.

I did a search of Hawaii records, when the issue of his citizenship first came up. It was interesting. While copies of the documents could not be obtained, there was 3 live birth, and 3 death certificates for a person with Obama’s name. I have dealt with immigration issues. Identity theft was not an offense back then. Even today, it is common if a US citizen child dies, large families with non-citizen children, relatives, or friends in the community are given permission to use the birth certificate, to gain access to our great Nation.

Is it possible that everyone is focusing on the wrong issue – instead of birth certificate, perhaps access to death certificates would be revealing. This would make both the State of Hawaii accurate in their statement that an Obama was born there, and Obama’s grandmother correct in that knowing she was present at this man’s birth. – If it is not the same person.
I do not know Obama’s nationality. It is a citizens right to know. I was thinking that maybe, if irregularities with the certificate of live birth are accurate, the issue may not be the birth, but ability to trace a death certificate to that birth.
The interesting part to me was how unusual the name is; and the matching number of death and birth certificates.

|You have the mind of a detective and I would not want to be in the position of being your enemy.

Maybe you should use your investigative skills in law enforcement.

As for your observations my thoughts are:
1. hmm no one had come up with that angle before
2. this guy is a smart cookie
3. wow, if there is such a devious way of becoming a US citizen- that is one good way. I betcha it costs a LOT of money.