Track down death certificate?

Question

I have found a relative listed on the Soc. Sec. Death Index but there is no death certificate listed in that county under that name. He used many aliases. Is there a way to find out how the SSDI listing got there and by whom? (Death cert. needed for legal purposes.) Thanks for any information!

Answer 1

I have found that the SSDI is good if you know dates or the last name isn't common, but the town of last residence or last benefit pretty much useless. Try other surrounding counties.

Answer 2

Webfriends is right, the funeral home is the best source of information. The problem in the scenario is that you're assuming that he died in the place that he lived. But consider the following:

Uncle Steve and Aunt Eleanor take their dream vacation and drive their RV from Ohio across the Midwest, up into Canada until they reach the beautiful frontiers of Alaska. On the way home, somewhere between Barrow, Alaska and Columbus, Ohio, Uncle Steve dies from a heart attack. His death certificate is filed in the place where he actually died, not the place where he lived. He gets brought home for a quiet family funeral and there's only a brief little obituary with no real clues about where he died.

Grandpa has prostate cancer. He lives in a county with an OK little hospital, but they don't have a cancer treatment center. He has to go 2 counties over to the large regional medical center for treatment. His doctor tells him that the best hope for him is to go to the Barbara Karmanos Cancer Center in Detroit to join a research project. He doesn't want to stay in Wayne County because it's too expensive, so he stays with a family member in Macomb County during his treatment. He dies in his sleep at his cousin's home. His death certificate is filed in Macomb County, not in the county where he was being treated nor in the county where he lived. He gets brought home for burial and his obituary gives you no clues about the place of his death. It also says he was cremated and there won't be a funeral. What now?

There are any number of reasons why the county where your relative lived won't have the death certificate. Aliases are low on that list. It's most likely that he died somewhere other than the county where he lived and you have to figure out where that is. If you're telling me his death certificate is needed for a legal purpose, then the Court can find out where he died.

If you know the funeral home that handled the final arrangements, they can tell you the place of death and location of the death certificate. If there was no funeral home, you can also contact the County Health Dept. and find out where he died because in order to get a permit to bury someone there has to be a death certificate filed so that there's no hanky panky or inhibiting a police investigation.

The cemetery can also tell you who handled the final arrangements and they should be able to produce a copy of the death certificate unless the death was too old and predates burial permit laws.

The Social Security Administration won't give you much information. It publishes an index, but they don't release much more than that.



If all else fails, ask the person who made the arrangements for the funeral. Somebody in the family has to know where he died.

Answer 3

All I can tell you is try the state.  May cost a few bucks but its worth it.

I've done it before and I am about to do it again to get my Grandmothers certificate.   You will have to have some info about the person as well as verify your relationship to them.

Answer 4

Being a lic funeral director for over twenty years, I would first find out from Social Security the name of the funeral home that notified them that this person had passed. The form funeral directors are required to file with Social Secuirty to report a death is form SS721. Then contact that funeral home for answers such as county of death and most funeral homes keep a copy of dc's in their files for record. Be prepared though, a lot of mom and pop funeral homes have sold to larger corporations which means the name of the fh may have changed.