New Mexico, Deaths - FamilySearch Historical Records

United States New Mexico

What is in the Collection?
The collection consists of a name index of death certificates and records of death for the years 1889 to 1945.

Statewide vital records registration officially began in 1920, although there are some records as early as 1889. Death records prior to 1919 were collected by a variety of institutions which were not health-related, including counties and churches. For the most part these records are not available from New Mexico Vital Records and Health Statistics.The state achieved 90-percent compliance by the end of the 1920s.

The state required counties to begin recording deaths to track public health issues. The information recorded about the death is usually reliable; however there is always a chance for errors. The accuracy of the information depended on the memory of the informant, who was often a family member.

What Can this Collection Tell Me?
Information found in most death records includes:


 * Name of the deceased
 * Death date and place
 * Cause of death
 * Age in years, months, and days
 * Gender
 * Color or race
 * Marital status
 * Parents’ names
 * Birthplace
 * Occupation
 * Name of the informant (earlier entries list the relationship to the deceased)

How Do I Search the Collection?
To begin your search it is helpful to know:
 * The name of your ancestor
 * The approximate date of death
 * The place of death
 * The names of family members and their relationships

Search by Name by visiting the Collection Page:' Fill in the requested information on the search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information about the individuals in the list to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct family or person. You may need to look at the information on several individuals comparing the information about them to your ancestors to make this determination. Keep in mind:


 * There may be more than one person in the records with the same name.
 * You may not be sure of your own ancestor’s name.
 * Your ancestor may have used different names, or variations of their name, throughout their life.
 * If your ancestor used an alias or a nickname, be sure to check for those alternate names.
 * Even though these indexes are very accurate they may still contain inaccuracies, such as altered spellings, misinterpretations, and optical character recognition errors if the information was scanned.

For tips about searching on-line collections see the on-line article FamilySearch Search Tips and Tricks.

What Do I Do Next?
When you have located your ancestor’s death record, carefully evaluate each piece of information about them. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors.

I Found Who I was Looking for, What Now?

 * Use the information found on the death record to locate the family in census records.
 * Use the information found on the death record to locate the family in church records
 * Use the information found on the death record to find an obituary for your ancestor
 * Use the information found on the death record to search additional county records for your ancestor

I Can't Find Who I'm Looking for, What Now?

 * Look for variant spellings of the names. You should also look for nicknames and abbreviated names.
 * Look for another index. Local genealogical and historical societies often have indexes to local records.
 * Search the indexes and records of nearby counties.
 * Try alternative search methods such as only filling in the surname search box (or the given name search box) on the landing page leaving the other box empty and then click on search. This should return a list of everyone with that particular name. You could then browse the list for individuals that may be your ancestor.

Citing this Collection
When you copy information from a record, you should list where you found the information; that is, cite your sources. This will help people find the record again and evaluate the reliability of the source. It is also good to keep track of records where you did not find information, including the names of the people you looked for in the records. Citations are available for the collection as a whole and each record or image individually.

Collection Citation:

Record Citation (or citation for the index entry):