My Granddad past away in 1973, he worked for the Rail Road. How could I find out where his death benefit went to whom it may of been given. Also if there was a will at time of death. Would this all be public Record.
Wills are public records. Death benefits and beneficiaries of life insurance or annuities, are not.
http://vitals.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ca/death/search.cgi
California Death Records 9,366,786 records from 1940 thru 1997
Warning 1: It is an index; the most you’ll get is name, sex, birthdate, birth state, father’s surname, mother’s maiden name, residence at time of death, death date. That’s the most; many records have blank fields.
Warning 2: It is supported by advertising. The ads rotate. Sometimes the ad asks for a name and leads you to a pay site. Scroll down past the ad.
www.findagrave.com is nation-wide and free. It has some entries for California. The entries range from the simple (John Smith, 1903 – 1971) to the elaborate; some have biographies, cause of death (especially if the person died in an accident, in battle, or of a disease) and links to spouses and/or parents and/or children.
You can find obituaries in old newspapers on microfilm in libraries. They usually don’t mention cause of death, but they usually have a mini-biography.
I was born in new york and the courts sealed my records, but i know my mothers name and just cant find anything. Didnt think that dead people had privacy rights. If anyone cant help please contact me. Look for family so that my kids can know there family.
I believe death certificates are public record. You would need to go to the county in which she lived and go to the records department…usually listed in the phone book under government offices. As for info on death certificate…usually just the basics like the person’s name, date of birth, residence, date and approx. time of death, cause of death, and the medical examiner verified the death and/or performed the autopsy.
Does anyone know where the records are kept that the GENDIS database is transcribed from? Are they with the individual counties or is there a state repository that has these records?
My great great grandmother, Anje Ruiter Jansen was born on April 20, 1834 in Spijk, Groningen, Netherlands, the daughter of Tonnis Bartelds Ruiter and Imke Jans Lanting. She immigrated to America in 1883 and according to a printed genealogy, she died in Feb 1885. I’ve been unable to locate a record to verify this, but found a record in GENDIS that is close. Here is the link:
http://www.mdch.state.mi.us/gendisx/scripts/individual.asp?UniqueID=504803
As you can see, this death record is one year off from the printed genealogy I have, but it is the right month. The only thing that bothers me is that her age at time of death says 30 according to GENDIS; however, I believe that the original record may have been handwritten and her age of 50, may have been mistranscribed as 30. Any ideas?
They come from the records that were sent to the State Archives back in the 40s. Most are copies from the Secretary of State holdings and are copies of records from individual counties. Most counties weren’t keeping consistent death records in 1885.
Assuming she was either Dutch Reformed or Catholic, she either lived on the east side of the state in the Bay City/Thumb area or on the west side in the Grand Rapids/Holland/Muskegon area. Most recent immigrants stuck together for the first generation. It wouldn’t be hard to find the death records if you know the community where she died. Both the RCC and the DRC were wonderful record keepers.
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