Pennsylvania Deaths and Burials - FamilySearch Historical Records

United States Pennsylvania

What is in the Collection?
This index is an electronic index for the years 1867 to 1961. This index is not complete for any particular place, region or time period. This collection may include information previously published in the International Genealogical Index or Vital Records Index collections.

Coverage Table
A coverage table for this collection is available in the wiki article Pennsylvania Deaths and Burials, Coverage Table (FamilySearch Historical Records)

For details about the contents of these records and help using them see the wiki article Deaths and Burials Vital Record Index Collections (FamilySearch Historical Records).

How Do I Search This Collection?
To search the collection it is helpful to know:


 * The name of your ancestor
 * The approximate date of death
 * The residence of your ancestor
 * The names of other relatives and their relationships

Search by Name by visiting the Collection Page: Fill in the requested information in the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information about the ancestors 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 compare the information about more than one person to find your ancestor.

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

I Found Who I was Looking for, What Now?
Use the death date or age along with the place of death to find or verify their birth records and parents' names. Use the death date or age along with the place of death to find the family in census records. Use the residence and names of the parents (if the deceased is a child) to locate church and land records. Occupations listed can lead you to other types of records such as employment records or military records. The name of the informant may be a relative. This can be helpful in identifying your ancestor. The name of the officiator is a clue to their religion or area of residence in the county. The name of the undertaker or mortuary could lead you to funeral and cemetery records which often include the names and residences of other family members. Compile the entries for every person who has the same surname; this is especially helpful in rural areas or if the surname is unusual. Continue to search the records to identify children, siblings, parents, and other relatives of the deceased who may have died or been buried in the same county or nearby. This can help you identify other generations of your family or even the second marriage of a parent. Repeat this process for each new generation you identify. When looking for a person who had a common name, look at all the entries for the name before deciding which is correct.

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

 * Check for variant spellings of the surnames.
 * Search the indexes and records of nearby localities.

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):