Death Records: The Linchpin of Genealogy Research – Webinar Recap

Written by Regina Fitzpatrick
Published on October 5, 2022

Thanks everyone for joining us for yesterday’s class on death records.  As I mentioned in class, when most of you write to me, you’re looking for information that can be found on an individual’s death record (even though your question may have nothing to do with the person’s death).

This is because the information provided on the record often includes the following:

• Name
• Birthdate
• Marital Status
• Parents’ Names
• Place of Birth
• Information on Illness and Death
• Undertaker and Place of Burial

During class, we reviewed information on New Jersey Deaths May 1848-Present (the vital records era) and New Jersey deaths outside of the vital records era, as well as non-New Jersey deaths.  Remember, for New Jersey deaths, the records themselves are not digitized.  However, indexes to NJ Death Records through 2016 are available online.

• Deaths May 1848-May 1878
• Deaths June 1878-December 1900
• Reclaim the Records indexes 1901-2016 (searchable by name interface available via Ancestry.com)

Note: Order NJ Death Records May 1848-December 1930 from New Jersey State Archives.  Order 1931-2016 records from NJ Department of Health Office of Vital Statistics and Registry.

Resources

Here are some of the great resources to help you research deaths:

• Findagrave.com: images of gravestones, may have exact date of death. Available from home 24/7/365.
• FamilySearch Wiki: great for finding out of state death records information. Free website available from home 24/7/365
• Estate Papers (state level see Index to NJ Wills or Abstracts to 1817, order from State Archives)
• Census (NJ State 1855-1915 and Federal 1790-1950)
• City Directories (NJSL has over 1000 NJ directories and 258 non-NJ)
• Military
• NJSL Genealogy Collection (mostly 17^th, 18^th, 19^th Centuries)

If you have any further questions about death records and why they are so useful to your research, please let me know!