Online index includes Utah death records

Working together, the Genealogical Society of Utah, the Utah State Archives and Records Service and FamilySearch have linked the state's free online index of death certificates to the original images of the historic documents.

The joining of the index with free digital pictures of the death certificates, issued from 1905 to 1954 by the state, will provide additional information for family historians and genealogists with Utah ties.

"There is so much more information of family history importance that can be found on the certificate itself," said Glen Fairclough, processing and reference archivist for the Utah State Archives. Fairclough said that before the certificates were viewable online, patrons had to order copies through the mail for a fee or visit the state archives office in person.

The online index to 250,000-plus Utah deaths was created by the State Office of Vital Records and Statistics and has searchable information of the name of the deceased person, his or her date of death, sex and where the person died. The Utah State Archives turned to FamilySearch to help them put the digital images online. FamilySearch digitized the images and provided the technology to link the images of the certificates to the state's online index. The linking process was completed in a few weeks — incredibly fast for a project of this nature and magnitude.

The names of Utah's deceased for the years of 1905 through 1954 are now very available, searchable, and viewable online and for free.

"The value of viewing the image of the original death certificate is that it saves you time and money, and provides rich genealogy data for the family historian," said Paul Nauta, manager of public affairs for FamilySearch.

Captured on a death certificate are the names and birth places of the deceased person's parents, place and date of the decedent's birth, marital status, occupation, permanent residence, place and date of burial, time of death, chief cause and contributory factors of death and, if applicable, where illness was contracted and the duration of the illness.

After the user types the name of an ancestor who died in Utah between 1905 to 1954, the user will be directed to a brief summary of the ancestor's death certificate with a link to view the original image. Users need to simply click on the certificate image to see a larger, high quality view of the original death certificate.

To search the index and view the certificates, users need to go to historyresearch.utah.gov/indexes/index.html.

For more information about the FamilySearch digital image linking technology or services, record custodians should contact Brad Wilkes, wilkeswb@ldschurch.org.

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