Vital Records Tour-
Examples of Death Records

The death records are often the most overlooked of the three vital record types (birth, marriage, and death).  Yet these records can yield a great amount of information.  They can give the researcher clues as to the date of birth (though often estimated), maiden name, spouse's name, occupation...and sometimes place of birth.  And as with the other types of vital records, a little Latin can go a long way!

Death records have been increasingly important even to non-genealogists (is there such a person?!) who may be researching family health conditions and genetics.

Below are some samples of typical death records

Examples of Typical Death Records

from the Roman Catholic parish of Biały Kamień, village of Usznia, 1855

from the Roman Catholic parish of Biały Kamień, village of Usznia, 1855

from the Roman Catholic parish of Biały Kamień, village of Usznia, 1864

Illegitimate Child

from the Roman Catholic parish of Biały Kamień, village of Usznia

Widows, Widowers and Previous Spouses

Sometimes we genealogists get lucky and come across very detailed documents.  Take a look at the following two examples of records giving us the names of previous marriages.

from the parish of Biały Kamień, village of Skwarzawa, 1864

from the parish of Biały Kamień, village of Skwarzawa, 1864

Unusual Death Records

from Greek Catholic parish of Bilyi Kamin, village of Ushnia, 1855

from the Roman Catholic parish of Biały Kamień, village of Usznia, 1854

from the village and Roman Catholic parish of Biłka Szlachecka.

Look at the cause of death in the last line.  The priest probably didn't know how to write the cause of death in Latin, so opted for his native Ukrainian language.  Barbara Miko, at 30 years of age, "замерзла в поли", or "froze in the field".

from the Greek Catholic village and parish of Snitnytsia, in today's southeast Poland.

Over the period of 3 days, a father lost 4 children and his wife to poisonous mushrooms.  The priest wrote the cause of death in Polish "ze spozycia jadowitych grzybów otruty" (poisoned by the consumption of poisonous mushrooms).  The father alone survived.

In the example, the father is Dionizy (Dionysius in Latin), the children are Jozefa (Josepha) who died at 6½ years old;  Antoni (Antonius) at 4; Katarzyna (Catharina) at 9; Karol (Carolus) at 12; and his wife Franciszka (Francisca) at 35 years of age.

from the village of Czeremosznia, in the Roman Catholic parish of Biały Kamień, 1889.

No Name of Child on Birth or Death Record

Sadly, this child who lived but one day was not recorded with a name on either the birth of death record.  In the columns for Name, it reads only "mortuus natus", or "died at birth".  Note that no godparents or cause of death is listed.

Birth on November 27

Death and burial on November 28
 

from the Roman Catholic parish of Podkamień, village of Podkamień, 1863

Notification of Death on Birth/Baptismal Record

In some cases, the priests noted the death of a child on the birth/baptismal record.  In most of these cases, the priest simply marked the birth record with a cross (+), signifying that the child had died.  But sometimes the priest noted the specific date of death on the birth record.  In the example below, the death date is marked next to the cross (+): "+ 4/5/904", meaning 4-May-1904.  Americans take note: remember that only Americans abbreviate Month/Day/Year.  Europeans abbreviate as Day/Month/Year.

 from Roman Catholic parish of Biały Kamień, village of Usznia, 1904

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