State of Missouri Announces Death Certificate Database

The state of Missouri has announced a death certificate database containing information on two million individual death certificates searchable by name, county, or month and year. The database will cover 1910-1955; at the moment only images of certificates from 1910-1920 are available. The database is freely searchable from http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/deathcertificates/.

The database is searchable by last name, first name, county, year, and month. An advanced search allows for some name fudging (exact, starts with, ends with, etc.)

I did a search for Kilkenny (Louis L'Amour character -- only name I could think of off the top of my head.), all dates, and got 21 results. Results are included in a table that includes name, date of death, county, city, and certificate number. For deaths after 1920, you can request a photocopy of the certificate. (You have to fill out a request form; photocopies of death certificates are $1 each. These are apparently not certified death records.) For deaths between 1910-1920, you can view an image of the certificate as a PDF file. It appears in a popup window that also includes guidelines for death certificates -- somewhat helpful in trying to read the cause of death etc.

Posted to US-Missouri