Death Records Now

I am trying to find out if a person has died in Michigan.

It depends on the year, but Michigan does release a death index. Here’s a link to it: http://www.mdch.state.mi.us/pha/osr/gendisx/search2.htm

The only caveat is that records from the City of Detroit are often missing. If that’s your situation, the only hope is the SSDI, but a lot of people are missing from it. It also doesn’t include many records pre-1984 and none pre-1960
http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/

William walter toney died in detroit michigan 1978 dob 2-08-43

The City of Detroit, Wayne County, and The State of Michigan will have a death certificate.