Death record/cert. for my greatgrandmother?

Question

She died between 1924 and 1926. We know from a census that she gave birth to a son in 1924/1925 then by 1927 her husband was married with another women and had a son together. My grandmother (her daughter) has always said her mother died and she was raised by her stepmother, so it was not a divorce. However, she does not show up in the NY state death records, they have them on microfilm at my city library. The lady said it covers all deaths for the state. She would not have died, as far as I know, in another state since her parents, siblings, husband, and children were in the same town here in NY. She is not buried in the cemetery in the town she lived in, we found her husband and his other wife though. The church she attended has no records from then on burial mass or whatever.

We can't look for an obit in the paper because we do not have an exact date she died. Is there any reason she would not show up on the state records? Any advice on where to look from here?

Answer 1

She might not be in the NY State records because of

1) Clerical error; they didn't transcribe her death certificate at all into the state records

2) Mis-spelled last name. They did transcribe it, but incorrectly. Clark / Clarke would be simple, but If you are looking for her under Frankenheim and she is filed under Prankenhiem because of a fly-speck on the "F", she could be 300 pages away. Chelton / Shelton is another example.

3) None of the above.

As to where to look:

1) Newspaper article about her husband's second marriage, if you can find the exact date; If it says "his first wife, who died June 10, 1926", you are all set.

2) County clerk's records. Maybe the death that didn't make it to the state level is still in the county books.

3) Another cemetery in the region.

4) About one library in 500 has an index to obituaries. If yours does, you are in luck and should consult it. If not, it didn't hurt to ask.

5) The funeral home that handled her husband and second wife, if it is still around.

Answer 2

County recorders(clerk) office for starters.

Answer 3

You've covered your bases well. The one that you haven't mentioned is the marriage record for the husband and wife #2. The application for the marriage license is what you want to find (it's separate from the license itself, but also available from the Clerk of the Court). There will be a question asking if anyone has been married before and when the marriage ended and whether it was due to death or divorce. If he remarried in a church, the sacramental register for the marriage should also mention whether he was a widower or not.

The other thing to realize is that it's possible the record is in her maiden name. At birth and death, it was customary to list a woman by her birth name in some eras.

NY clearly kept good records at that point, though it's possible the county is holding the record and the State never received a copy. I'd contact the County Clerk's office for the county where she lived to see if they have a copy of the record. Then I'd contact the Health Dept unit that issues burial permits and see if they have a record on her, too. If she died in a different place and her body was returned home, they would have been provided a copy of the death certificate from wherever she died so that there was clearance to bury the body. From there you can find out where she died. It's always possible she was on vacation when it happened and might have been visiting Canada or Pennsylvania and died in an accident there.