Utah Death Certificates - FamilySearch Historical Records

United States Utah

What Is in the Collection?
The collection consists of an index and images of state death certificates for the years 1904 to 1964, acquired from the Utah State Archives. The records are arranged by county, city/town, and year.

Sample Image
Local Board of Health registrars sent certificates monthly to the state registrar of the Department of Vital Statistics, which is a division of the state Board of Health. All counties began reporting deaths to the state in 1905 when the Department of Health created the division of Vital Statistics. A death certificate was required for burial in Utah, so compliance was high. These were recorded to better serve public health needs. They were also used in connection with the probate of wills and the administration of estates.

What Can These Records Tell Me?
The records may contain any of the following:


 * Date and place of death, including city, county and state
 * Name of deceased
 * Name of hospital or institution where died
 * Residence of deceased
 * How many years living in present community
 * If a veteran, name of war is given
 * Gender, race, marital status and social security number of deceased
 * Name and age of spouse
 * Date and place of birth of deceased
 * Age in years, months and days
 * Occupation of deceased
 * Name and birth place of father
 * Maiden name and birth place of mother
 * Informant's name and address
 * Informant's relationship to deceased
 * Burial information

How Do I Search the Collection?
To begin your search it is helpful to know at least some of the following:
 * The name of your ancestor.
 * The approximate date of death.
 * The place where your ancestor died.
 * The name of family members and their relationships.

Fill in the requested information in the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information in the list to what you already know about your ancestor to determine if it is the correct person. You may need to compare several persons in the list before you find your ancestor.

Search by Name by visiting the Collection Page

View images in this collection by visiting the Browse Page then: ⇒Select the appropriate “County” category ⇒Select the appropriate “City/Town” category ⇒Select the appropriate “Death Year” category

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

What Do I Do Next?
Whenever possible, view the original records to verify the information and to find additional information that might not be reported. These pieces of information can lead you to additional records and family members.

I Found Who I Was Looking For, What Now?

 * Use the information to locate funeral home, obituary or cemetery record.
 * Use the information to find other records such as birth, christening, marriage, census, land and probate records.
 * Use the information to find additional 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 Who I’m Looking For, What Now?

 * Try viewing the original record to see if there were errors in the transcription of the name, age, residence, etc. Remember that there may be more than one person in the records with the same name.
 * Collect entries for every person who has the same surname. This list can help you identify possible relations that can be verified by records.
 * If you cannot locate your ancestor in the locality in which you believe they lived, then try searching records of a nearby locality in an area search.
 * Standard spelling of names typically did not exist during the periods our ancestors lived in. Try variations of your ancestor’s name while searching the index or browsing through images.
 * Remember that sometimes individuals went by nicknames or alternated between using first and middle names. Try searching for these names as well.
 * Search the indexes and records of Utah, United States Genealogy.
 * Search in the Utah Archives and Libraries.

Known Issues With This Collection
For a full list of all known issues associated with this collection see the attached Wiki article. If you encounter additional problems, please email them to [mailto:support@familysearch.org support@familysearch.org]. Please include the full path to the link and a description of the problem in your e-mail. Your assistance will help ensure that future reworks will be considered.

Citing This Collection
Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image.

Collection Citation:

Record Citation (or citation for the index entry):

Image Citation:

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