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By now in your research you have probably come across numerous death records. You have probably recorded the death date, parents names if listed, and birth date. Have you looked beyond the surface of the record? Can you use the death records you have to gain more information or break down a brick wall?

In this post I will go over some ways that death certificates can possibly yield more clues in your research.

Death Codes

You may never have heard of death codes before but they can bring to light important information on death records. Death codes can tell you how your ancestor died. These codes (written as a number) often go unnoticed by researchers and is usually written somewhere near the cause of death- scribbled next to or below it. The example below shows the number written below the cause of death. There is no specific line for this number.

Example of death code written below the cause of death

Death code numbers come from the International Classification of Diseases or what is also known as the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. It is maintained, now, by the World Health Organization. Around 1898 the United States began using the system. Therefore, you will probably not see these codes on death records before that time.

You can refer to this list here. The list includes various revisions. Click on the revision made before the date of the death record you are researching. In the case of the certificate above, I clicked on the 1938 revision. Scroll down to 93 and it says “myocardial disease”. This code confirms what is written and does not show any other factors relating to the death. The death codes can often shed new light on the cause of death or if the cause of death is hard to read you can look up the code if one is provided.

Use town of death and occupation to locate home

Older death certificates do not show specific addresses for the deceased. A town or township may be the only clue to residency. In cases like this, take a look at their town/township and occupation or even burial place. Occupations can help you pinpoint where they lived. Back when travel took longer, your ancestors probably would not have traveled very far from home to get to work. Also, if an occupation is listed on the record you can then research the industries in the place they lived to figure out more about where they worked.

When you can place a family in a particular spot you can then use plat maps or Sanborn fire maps to investigate a more precise location of your ancestor’s residency. Take the example below:

In this death certificate Andrew Meyer lives in the village of Otis in the township of New Durham (Indiana). He is a farmer so he may have owned land. I located a plat map for the county of LaPorte and went to New Durham township. I then searched the village of Otis and surrounding area to see if I could locate Andrew Meyer. The plat below shows what I found:

Andrew Meyer’s land is right next to a church and cemetery. There is also high chance he is buried in that cemetery. I looked further into the surrounding areas of this plat map and found a couple of more plats of land that he owned just south of Otis.

Sanborn Fire Maps

Sanborn Fire Maps from the Library of Congress (LoC) can also help you find the ownership of property in cities across the United States. On the LoC website you can narrow your search down to state and city. The maps can provide a wealth of information and death records can help you narrow down your search to a township or street.

Not all Sanborn Fire Maps include who owned the property. However, if you can narrow down the search to a street you can see what buildings were present at the time the map was produced. If you have a death certificate with a specific residence address you can also look on the maps and determine which residence belonged to your ancestor. The maps are also helpful for cemetery, church, and business locations.

Newspaper articles related to death

Not all deaths are disease or natural causes. You may come across a death certificate with a murder, suicide, or accident. Unpleasant as it is, you will most likely find one eventually. Suicides are not exposed in today’s newspapers, but back in the day they often made headlines.

I found the death certificate of my great great grandfather many years ago. I was shocked to see that he died by suicide–strangulation. In curious fashion I went to the local library to look at newspapers from the week he died. I was flipping through the microfiche when I came to a screeching halt. There- sprawled across the front page- was the headline and article about his suicide. I could not believe it made front page news. In that article I was able to learn exactly what happened (hanging, he had been in poor health) and also find his obituary.

Even a cause of death can lead to more clues and further research. Look beyond just the words on the document. Figure out what clues you can gather from that seemingly simple piece of paper.

One of the biggest resources available that you will use in your research is census records. They can be valuable in tracing not only your direct ancestor, but also extended family. For rookie genealogists out there- most of the 1890 census records were destroyed by fire and/or water in 1921. Some still do exist but are sparse.

Census records are not without flaws, however. One of the biggest cautions of census records is names. Names are notoriously incorrect on census records. In a time when social security was not yet established (pre-1935) and records were not meticulously maintained, people would often flip flop on the spelling of their names- first and last- without anyone caring.

Let’s take a look at reasons for the frustrating name game:

Phonetics: Schools taught using phonetics in the 1880’s. People learned to spell the way they heard the words pronounced. The first dictionary was not published until 1828.
Literacy: Only 65% of the population in the U.S could read in 1790. If people could not read and were giving the enumerator the names of people in their household, they probably could not help them out by spelling the names or places of birth.
One person for all: If an enumerator came to the door and only one person was there, that person would give information on everyone in that household. Relying on one person for the information of many would lead to common mistakes.
Accents: The enumerators would write what they heard and with accents of the many immigrants, mistakes would again be rampant.
Blending in: Often immigrants would purposely change the spelling of their last name to blend into the area in which they lived or to sound more American/English.
Numbers mattered most: The enumerators did not have genealogy in mind when they went door to door taking a census. The most important item was counting the population, not getting the names correct.

Considering the many ways in which names are seriously flawed on census records, it is easy to see why census records can be useful but with proper research and common sense.

Think outside the box

When looking at names on census records remember to think outside the box. What does that mean? Simply put- consider historical context, similarities and everyday lives of your ancestors. There was a period of time when ‘Polly’ was a nickname for ‘Mary’. That may not seem obvious to us in 2019 but in a point in history this may have been normal practice.

Similarities may include variations on names. A prime example is my 3rd great grandmother. I have seen her name as Carissa, Theresa, Teresa, Tracey and Tereza. Looking at these names you can see the similarity between all of them. When entering her information into my database I used the name she seemed to be referred by the most, Teresa. See the examples below of the different uses of her name (Yes, all records reflect the the same person).

My 3rd great grandmother’s name on the 1880 census as Carrissa

My 3rd great grandmother’s name on her marriage certificate as ‘Teresa’

My 3rd great grandmother’s obituary listed as ‘Tracey’

If one relative answered the questions of the enumerator and they only ever called their father by their middle name then that is most likely what they stated and not the formal first name of the father. Rigidity in your research can be your downfall. When it comes to census records, rigidity was certainly something they did not adhere to.

Another example of considering the historical context is a consideration for your family wanting to fit into America. I have a lot of Polish roots on my mother’s side of the family. For the most part they kept their full Polish last names. However, I do have one line in which the name was changed.

My 3rd great grandmother’s maiden name was Bohacz. She was born in Poland in 1826. She married her husband, Joseph Spychalski, and they immigrated to the United States. I always wondered why they came to small train stop town in rural Indiana. Believing that they had family there first, I looked for Bohacz in the area and could not find much at first. I then found marriage records for the church in this tiny town. There I found a record for a Frank Bohacz. However, that was all I could find. I decided to search the census records within that township and the surrounding townships. I finally found a possible match that corresponded with the church marriage record. The interesting part? He changed his name to Frank Bohart. Shortly after coming here he changed his name to be more American or perhaps, so that others could pronounce it.

Frank’s death certificate where her uses ‘Bohart’ instead of ‘Bohacz’ it also says ‘Bohart’ on his headstone

This church record lists Frank’s daughter getting married and has him and his daughter with the ‘Bohacz’ last name

Census records are one of the best resources out there if you think outside the box and realize that there is a gray area when dealing with censuses. It was a tedious job and very time consuming job for enumerators in an age without computers. Human error was bound to happen…and quite often.

Think like an immigrant, think like an illiterate, think like an exhausted enumerator.