How to Conduct a Dead People Search

It may have struck you to trace your family tree or locate a dead associate. One might require searching for a dead individual to know about his details, birth and death dates, death location, associated addresses, name of family members, contact details, wills, properties and many other related details. There are innumerable ways to search for a dead person. Check out the following ways for conducting a dead people search.

Search with Death Records

This is in fact the easiest and the most commonly opted method to locate a dead person. These records will help you to trace the dead individual and henceforth you can draw necessary information about him from other types of records. The death records can be obtained from the various hospitals, health centers and other online search databases. These records are maintained according to the state, county and city.
Choose your state from the following page and learn about the respective death records: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/w2w.htm

Search Death Indexes

The death indexes are the lists of residents of the United States who have passed away. The American Centers for disease Control and Prevention generates the National Death Index database. You can investigate about a dead person from these indexes with the help of the following fields-

• First name and last name of the person and the appropriate date of birth including month and +1 birth year
• First initials, middle initials and last name of the person and the appropriate date of birth
• Social Security Number (SSN) – This is a code assigned by the federal government. The SSN is never repeated and is therefore a useful record locator.
• Exact date of Birth including month and day; First initials, middle initials and last name
• Exact birth date with month and year; first name and the last name of father
• Exact date of birth with month and day; First and last name
• In case of females: appropriate month and year of birth date, first name, last name and father’s last name.

For additional information on National Death Index contact:
Special Assistant to the Director
Division of Vital Statistics
National Center for Health Statistics
3311 Toledo Road, Room 7318, Hyattsville, Maryland 20782

Phone: (301) 458-4444
Email: ndi@cdc.gov

Search Probate Offices

The probate office is a law enforcing body which accounts the death records of the respective locality. Therefore if you are aware of the locality of the dead individual, contact the jurisdiction and apply to the probate office. If the death details of the person have been passed by that department, you will be able to access the record surely.

Hunt Ancestry and Genealogy Records

The ancestry records include billions of historical files on family histories. You will definitely get some information about a dead person from these databases. There are varieties of records and documents encompassed under the genealogical records. This makes these useful for tracing a dead person. Learn more from:
http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/http://www.peoplepublicrecords.org/about-research.html

To look for an ancestor you would require completing the following details:

1. First and middle name
2. Last name
3. Year of birth
4. Location of birth
5. Year of death
6. Location of death

Search Obituary Records

An obituary is more like an announcement that is made by the family members of the dead person. Obituaries incorporate a lot of personal details about the person. If you know the date of death, you can visit the state archives and look into the newspapers for obituaries. There are several online official as well as commercial obituary records. These are collected from various newspaper publications and are hence updated as soon as an obituary is printed.

Search Medical Records

The medical records are maintained in the respective hospitals and medical institutions. One of the main contents of these records is the health status. If a patient has died during or after a certain treatment, the records will show that. The files will also contain the death certificates of that patient. The medical records are not easily released unless the investigator shows proper reasons for his inspection. To check medical records interact with the respective medical institution of your neighborhood.

Other Options for Dead People Search

Other options that can be tried to conduct a dead people search include methods pertaining to coffin plates, funeral cards, church records, wills, cemetery records, cenotaphs, family bibles, death cards and even by tombstone inscriptions. Sometimes non-federal local agencies can also be approached for obtaining data about the dead people. If you know the address of the person who has passed away, you can contact the nearby cemeteries and their authorities.

To obtain will records you would need to contact the local courts or the respective lawyer for retrieving such documents. Will records contain details about the estate, legacy, testator, deed, codicil, bequest, abstract, bequeath descendant, testamentary letters, inheritor, probate, devise, devisee grant and many more. You can also request will records from the national Archives and Records Administration. Send your queries at:

8601 Adelphi Road
College Park, MD 20740-6001
Or visit: http://www.archives.gov/research/alic/reference/http://www.peoplepublicrecords.org/state-archives.html