Prior to the formation of the PA Department of Health vital record keeping in the commonwealth was intermittent. In the early days of Pennsylvania there were no state rules to record life events such as deaths. A brief period in the 1850s required counties to record mortalities; compliance was low and after a few years the practice dissolved. Around the 1870s a few cities like Pittsburgh and Philadelphia initiated their own practice of tracking who died in their jurisdiction. By the end of the 19th century Pennsylvania again required counties to record deaths beginning in 1893. Each county developed its own method of gathering information that might vary slightly from one county to the next.
I have examined a number of Pennsylvania county death registrations, frequently located in the courthouse’s Orphan’s Court. Typically entered on one line is the name, gender, race, and age of the deceased, along with the date of death; often where the death occurred and its cause as well as a burial location are included. Sometimes listed is an actual birth date—or the age listed by years, months and days to calculate the birth date—and possibly a birth place. Some counties provide other information such as occupation, residence, marital status, name of spouse, or the person filing the event. Occasionally the recorder entered only the very basic facts for a person, seemingly skipping over the other data, or perhaps no one was available to provide those answers. Some deaths were recorded months after the event, which increase the possibility of inaccuracies or missing information, while others were never reported at all.
Searching through the books is relatively easy, but can be time consuming. For the most part these books are not indexed. Instead surnames are grouped by the first letter, so all last names beginning with A are together, all Bs are together, etc. Names of the deceased are listed in chronological order of when they were entered. Usually there are tabs A-Z through the book to indicate where a certain surname grouping is located. Sometimes there might be a key at the top to direct a user to turn to a certain page for surnames beginning with a certain letter. Once the section needed is located, then comes the task of reading through the list of names. Having a death date can help narrow a search, but it is possible that the registration could be listed up to a year after the death occurred.
Occasionally these records will contain some gem of information. One example is Sullivan County’s death registrations for my paternal 2nd great grandparents. My ancestors, Henry and Matilda Swank died in 1901 and 1902, respectively. While perusing the book for their names during those years I came across Henry and a little further down on the page Matilda. As I read the information across the page I was surprised, and very much delighted, to see that their parents’ names were actually listed. For adults this is rare; parents are usually listed only for minor children. As I looked on some of the other pages I noticed that every so often an adult’s parents were named. Whether it was the recorder who asked or the person supplying information who added it, these gems help a genealogist to trace the family back further.
For those who cannot get to the counties of PA to do their research, the good news is that the records are available through Family Search, most of them online. Family Search, which is operated by the Latter Day Saints, made a huge effort beginning in the 1940s to go around the world and capture images of records to assist in researching one’s family roots. Fortunately for those with ties to Pennsylvania, many of these courthouse records have been filmed. Most recently Family Search has been busily digitizing many of their microfilm reels and making those available to view on their website, which include many of the PA counties’ Register of Deaths. It appears that only 11 of the 67 counties have not been recorded by the LDS. It could be that those books did not survive or were in such a fragile condition they were never copied; one of those eleven is Lycoming, which when I visited a number of years ago, unfortunately did not have their Register of Deaths book.
For those interested in searching PA records online, once at the FamilySearch.org home page, hover your cursor over the Search button at the top and from the list that appears, select Catalog or click here. For Search By, select Place and in the search bar type the county you wish to view, such as “Sullivan, Pennsylvania”. As you type a list of possible places will appear; select the county you want. For Search These Family History Centers: select Online and then click the Search button. This will pull a list of records grouped by type. For the death records expand the Vital Records grouping and click on the Register of Deaths which opens a new page. As you scroll down this page, look for a camera icon to click—this takes you to the images of the death registration book where you can flip through the pages in the comfort of your home. However, a camera with a key above it indicates that you must visit a local family history center to view those records.
Vital records, like the PA Register of Deaths, are an important source for finding information on one’s family and the ability to search these records from home is a big advantage. Determining when, where and other information related to a person’s death, as well as providing possible assistance on identifying a date of birth are the obvious benefits of these records. Other information included in these documents can further aid in supplying details about the deceased person’s life and on that rare occasion list parents that can lead to the generation beyond. The PA Register of Deaths, along with other death records, truly are vital to a genealogist’s research.
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