When Were Statewide Death Registrations Required

If you are looking for death certificates, you need to know the timing of each state’s requirements. Each state in the U.S. started requiring death registrations in different years. Usually, some types of records were created prior to the official state laws, either at the county, city, or town levels. But state records weren’t required until a law was passed. Furthermore, even though registrations and certificates were mandated, general compliance was not achieved by all entities for just a few years or even a few decades in some instances.

Below is a chart that lists the state and when registration was required. Also listed is a link to further information about each state’s death records, especially where you might find them prior to state registration. The FamilySearch Wiki has a page for each state with this information. I have included a state-level information site for some of the states. If you want to see the Wiki entry, just modify the state name in the URL for FamilySearch.

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