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 these Records 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?
You can search the index or view the images or both. Before searching this collection, it is helpful to know:
 * Name of the person
 * The location or date of the event

How Do I Analyze the Results?
Compare each result from your search with what you know to determine if there is a match. This may require viewing multiple records or images.

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

What Do I Do Next?
If these are indexes, the original records may contain additional information than was not indexed, or the information might have been indexed incorrectly. You may want to search for the original record at the Department of Health Bureau of Vital Records and Health Statistics, Santa Fe.

I Found Who I was Looking for, What Now?

 * Copy the citation below, in case you need to find this record again later.
 * Use the age or estimated birth date to find other county or New Mexico Vital Records such as birth, baptism, and marriage records.
 * Search for death or burial information in New Mexico Cemeteries and New Mexico Newspapers.
 * Use the information found in the record to find New Mexico Land and Property records.
 * Use the information found in the record to find New Mexico Probate Records.
 * Use the information found in the record to find New Mexico Emigration and Immigration records.
 * Use the information found in the record to find additional family members in the New Mexico Census records. Witnesses were usually family members.
 * Repeat this process with additional family members found, to find more generations of the family.
 * Church Records often were kept years before government records were required and are a good source for finding ancestors before 1900.

I Can’t Find the Person I’m Looking For, What Now?

 * If your ancestor does not have a common name, collect entries for every person who has the same surname. This list can help you find possible relatives.
 * If you cannot locate your ancestor in the locality in which you believe they lived, then try searching a nearby localityArizona Deaths and Burials (FamilySearch Historical Records).
 * Try different spellings of your ancestor’s name.
 * Remember that sometimes individuals went by nicknames or alternated between using first and middle names. Try searching for these names as well.
 * Check the info box above for additional FamilySearch websites and related websites that may assist you in finding similar records.

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): Top of Page