When you spend enough time answering reference questions for researchers, it doesn’t take long to identify the most frequently asked questions. In fact, it’s not uncommon to answer a variation of the same question multiple times a day. By far, the most popular questions we receive are related to death records in the state. “How do I find a death certificate in Arkansas?” “How can I confirm a death date for my relative who died in the early 1900s?” “Why can’t I find anything that shows how my ancestor died?”
On the surface, it seems the answers to these types of questions should be very straightforward. Unfortunately, when it comes to death records in Arkansas, “simple and straightforward” is rarely the case.
Arkansas did not begin to require death certificates until 1914. There are very few records available to document deaths prior to that date and, thanks to the rural nature of the state, large gaps exist in the records after 1914. In many areas doctors were scarce and the local communities were used to privately handling the rituals and services that accompany a death. Additional confusion arises when trying to locate copies of existing death certificates since it is not always clear which department within the state is or was responsible for housing them. If one adds in the fact that Arkansas death certificates are sealed from the public for fifty years, locating the required information can feel impossible. Using a couple of recent examples from our “Ask an Archivist” inbox, though, we can attempt to clear up some of that confusion.
We’ll start first with an easy question. In the question below, the researcher has already identified that a death certificate exists for their relative, but they’re not sure where to go next.
Q: What is the best way to locate death certificates? I’m looking for a death certificate for James Hayden McIlroy. I located his name on an index of Arkansas Death records on Ancestry.com. According to the index he died on January 13, 1937, in Franklin County, Arkansas.
Unfortunately, the Arkansas State Archives will not have a copy of the death certificate for Mr. McIlroy. The Archives does not hold or preserve any death certificates for the state. They are all on file with the Office of Vital Records, part of the Department of Health. Any researcher looking for a certified copy of a death certificate must go through the Vital Records office to obtain it (for a fee). There is an online order process available here. Due to the volume of requests received by Vital Records, this can be a lengthy process and is best undertaken when one knows the exact date of death for an individual. They also make available an online search of existing death certificates, from 1935-1961, available on the same page.
But what if the researcher doesn’t know the exact date of death? That’s where a trip to the archives will be helpful. The Arkansas State Archives has in its collections a printed index of Arkansas death certificates spanning from 1914–1948 and 1967-1971. This index was created from the records on file with the Health Department and can be used to confirm that an individual in fact has a death certificate.
There is another alternative for locating copies of death certificates, aside from formally requesting one from Vital Records. The Health Department has partnered with Ancestry.com to place scans of many of the state’s death certificates online. The current database on Ancestry.com covers 1914-1969. This resource can be accessed by anyone with an Ancestry.com subscription or through visiting any of the Archives’ research rooms, since we offer onsite access to Ancestry.com for free.
After spending some time with this database, we have found that often the transcriptions of the records have many mistakes, making the search function a little unreliable at times. It helps to remember to be flexible about the spelling of the names for which you are searching. To return to our example of James Hayden McIlroy, his death certificate is listed online through Ancestry.com, but his name is spelled as “Jim Hode Mc Ilray” in the search results, although it is correct on the certificate itself! Another quick note about using this resource: we’ve found that using the card catalog option on Ancestry.com to go directly to the Arkansas Death Certificates database works better than a general search. This allows the researcher to focus on searching only this material and avoid unnecessary or confusing search results. If this sounds confusing or you’d like to see how the search option works, plan a visit to our research room and our staff will be happy to walk you through the process.
What if a researcher is attempting to locate a death record for someone prior to 1914? What kind of records are available in that case? The answer to this question is a little more complicated, but our second example should help.
Q: I’m attempting to locate a death record for Ada Parker Cisler. She died in Hot Springs in 1899. What kind of records are available?
As we noted before, Arkansas did not begin to require death certificates until 1914, so there will not be a formal certificate for Ms. Cisler. However, there are a few other options that a researcher can check. The Archives preserves in its collections local death records that were kept by the cities of Little Rock, Fort Smith and Hot Springs. We also have funeral home records from several areas of the state, as well as cemetery listings and probate records. Researching in these records can be time consuming, so be sure to allow yourself plenty of time to go through them, especially if you’re not certain of the individual’s death date. These records may also be incomplete, and it is not unusual for many individuals not to be included.
In the case of Ms. Cisler, it is helpful that she died in Hot Springs. The Archives holds death records from the city of Hot Springs from 1895–1917. We also preserve funeral records from Gross Mortuary from 1874-1922. By starting with the city death records, we were able to determine that Ada Cisler died on May 19, 1899. With that date, we could refer to the mortuary records, which also included a listing for Ms. Cisler’s funeral, including the date and even the total cost of the service.
In areas without city death records or funeral records, the options are a little more limited. Researchers can explore county probate and will records to confirm a date of death or review local newspapers in search of an obituary or funeral notice. Less reliably, a researcher can check for cemetery listings or church records to determine a burial location or the timing of a funeral service. The availability of such records will vary from county to county, but many are available here at the Archives on microfilm. Listings of our county records and our newspapers can be found on the Arkansas Digital Archives for anyone who wishes to explore our holdings and plan a visit.
It is important to remember that just because state law required a death certificate to be filed, that does not ensure there actually is a record on file. Gaps in the official record exist well into the 1930s, and while supplemental documents such as obituaries or will records can be found in many cases, for others it is quite possible that there is no surviving documentation. The best advice that we can offer researchers looking for death records is to approach the search with an open mind, flexibility, patience and even a sense of humor. In an ideal world our forebears would have thoughtfully and carefully preserved all manner of records, both public and private, but in the real world—our world—they didn’t. So, genealogists and other researchers make shift with what has survived, using ingenuity to fill in gaps in what is known and acknowledging that ultimately, some things will remain mysteries.