I’ve created this page to give you some basic information on death certificates. Please know that I’m speaking from a funeral director’s standpoint, and the information I have to offer is certainly not in-depth or comprehensive. Also, there are differences from state to state where death certificates are concerned, so it’s best to consider your individual state's requirements/protocol.

Everything I say here is from my experiences as a mortician in Colorado, Idaho and Washington state. But everything is very similar wherever you go. Here are some of the basics:

The mortician (or person acting as such) usually fills out the death certificate with the help of the decedent’s next-of-kin to fill in the correct vital information (biographics, family info, etc.)

After the mortician has filled in her portion, the death certificate packet is then submitted to the certifier (family doctor if the death was related to an illness or known cause, or coroner in cases of accidents, homicides, suicides, etc.)

The certifier fills in his section and the death certificate packet is then remitted to a registrar - usually at a local health district. The registrar then signs it to verify that the death has been recorded with the state. Usually, the health dept. then prints the requested number of locally issued certified copies of the death certificate (what the family need to distribute to take care of the decedent’s final business).

Here are some of the questions asked by the state offices in the Northwest. You can expect close to the same in your area. Answer all questions for the decedent.

• Decedent’s Legal Name (First, Middle, Last, AKAs)
• Gender
• Race (If Native American, Name of Tribe)
• Social Security Number (The funeral director will notify the Social Security Admin. for you)
• Age
• Date of Birth
• Birthplace (City and State, Territory or Foreign Country)
• Residence (Street Address, Town, ZIP, County, Inside City Limits?)
• Marital Status at Time of Death (Married, Separated, Divorced, Widowed, Never Married)
• Surviving Spouse’s Name (Maiden Name)
• Was the Decedent Ever in the Armed Services?
• Father’s Name
• Father’s Birthplace
• Mother’s Name (Maiden)
• Mother’s Birthplace
• Decedent’s Education (Highest Level Grade Completed)
• Occupation (Decedent’s job for most of his/her life - Not ‘Retired’)
• What Type of Business or Industry Did He/She Work In?
• Informant’s Name (Legal Name of the Next-of-Kin)
• Informant’s Relationship to the Decedent
• Informant’s Mailing Address
• Method of Disposition (Burial, Cremation, Body Donation, Removal from State)
• Place of Disposition (Name of Cemetery or Crematory and Address)

Now, there’s a tough question. It depends on a lot of things- namely how much of the decedent’s business needs to be taken care of. You probably don’t want to get too many because at $17 or more per copy, they can add up fast!

Here’s the thing: Everyone’s going to want to see a certified copy. Getting one certified copy and making photocopies of it won’t work.

To get an idea of how many you may need, consider these:

• Bank Accounts (Even if they’re joint accounts, they’re gonna want to see a certified copy of the death certificate)
• Life Insurance Policies (You’ll have to send a certified copy to get the ball rolling with these guys)
• Titles with the Decedent’s Name on Them (Land, Vehicles, etc.)
• Retirement Accounts
• Airports (If the remains must travel out of state via airplane)

Those might give you an idea of who you’ll need to show a certified copy to. *But this bit of information is important* If most of the business is to be conducted locally (banks, life insurance agents, etc.), you might not need as many certified copies as you think. You can generally take the certified copy into these institutions, show it to them, ask them to make a photocopy for their records and return the original to you, and you can use the certified copy somewhere else.

Here’s my advice (from the mouth of a funeral director wanting to save you money)- Order a base number of certified copies. This is the number you know you’ll need. They’ll probably be issued by your local health department fairly quickly so you can get rolling on immediate business. If you discover that you need more later on, contact your funeral director and have her order more from the state Vital Statistics office (it usually takes longer to get them from the state… about a week or so). This way, you won’t be paying for a lot of death certificates you don’t need.

To answer that question, let's give you the basics on the process.

You will be able to sit down with the funeral director and fill in the biographical information (the questions presented above) at the initial funeral arrangement conference. That will be done the first day. Then the death certificate is submitted to the certifier (a physician, nurse practitioner, or coroner).

This is where hang-ups can occur. After the mortician’s work is done, it’s the certifier’s responsibility to complete the medical areas of the death certificate and sign it. It has been my experience that doctors usually take awhile to get their job done. There are a lot of reasons for this. Here are the one’s I’ve dealt with lately:

• The doctor is on vacation
• The doctor won’t be in the office for “x” number of days
• The doctor is super busy with “live” patients
• Apparently, once the patient is dead, the paperwork isn’t a priority

I’m certainly not saying that all physicians are like this. I’m just saying that this sort of behavior/attitude can hang up the process. But once the doctor’s job is done (either manually or electronically… out state uses an internet system), the death certificate is submitted to the local registrar to be registered with the state (usually at the local health department).

If the certified copies are issued at your local Health Department, the initial order won’t take very long…. about 1 or 2 days.

If you decide to order the certified copies from the State Vital Statistics office, it will probably take about a week to get the death certificates you need.

Certified copies of the death certificate are only done when the information is complete. If the cause of death is pending investigation, it may take a while to get the copies you need to finish business (maybe up to 8 or 10 weeks!).

This is the type of situation we find with Coroner’s Cases referred to Medical Examiners. If an autopsy was performed on the decedent to determine the cause of death, you can expect the necessary lab tests to take weeks before results are ready (certain drug tests, chemical investigations as with “huffing”, homicide investigations… think CSI-type stuff, etc.)

I hope you’ve found this information to be helpful in your search for information on death certificates. Just know that if you have any other specific questions, your local funeral directors are always available to visit with you and provide you with the answers of how your local system operates.

If you found this page because you were searching for a way to find somebody's death certificate or death record, CLICK HERE. It is probably the best place to go when searching for government records. Good luck!