Dear Phillip, I believed you ask the question why there isn't a national burial database? There are probably several good reasons why there isn't. One fact is that these things aren't done for the benefit of genealogists, shocking as it may seem. Many "systems" evolve over time, not through any desire for efficiency. It may be that there is a bureaucratic "disconnect" between agencies. For example, there are many genealogists who don't live in the USA who think that there are three national indices, one for birth, marriage and death. The reality is that there are FIFTY of each - for every state in America. Furthermore, the registration of death is done at either city, county or state level, but not at federal (national) level. So, even though social security benefits ARE distributed by a federal level agency, when a person dies, I believe there is no mechanism between states and federal government, so that the so-called Social Security Death Index can never contain 100 percent of all the deceased in the USA. Sorry to breach the etiquette re sticking to only UK Jewry. But this was the best example I could come up with. And perhaps in a perverse way, the fact that we have to belabour under such challenges only serves to hone our skills at locating our ancestors. I sometimes think I WON'T tell a certain commercial genealogy company that their indexing is in error, because then I know that someone who is a good researcher will figure it out and find the person whose name was horribly mangled. The fact that we have GRO could be considered a fluke in having a government that decided back in 1836 to have a local registration system which also sent their "returns" to London to create a national database for birth, marriage and death. As Jackye wrote, we need to consider ourselves lucky as well as being one of very fwe countries that have such a system. When you do finally solve the problem, 'm sure we'd all enjoy reading how you overcame it. Good luck, Jeremy -- Jeremy G Frankel ex Edgware, London, England Berkeley, California, USA EBIN: Russia, New York, USA FRANKEL: Poland, London, England GOLDRATH/GOLD: Praszka, Poland, London, England KOENIGSBERG: Vilkaviskis, Lithuania, London, England, NYC, NY, USA LEVY (later LEADER): Kalisz, Poland, London, England PRINCZ/PRINCE: Krakow, Poland, London, England, NYC, NY, USA

To supplement Jeremy Frankel's post re death records in the United States, only people covered by Social Security would appear on the Social Security death records. Very briefly and generally, Social Security was not instituted until the 1930's, and only people who worked in covered employment (and their spouses) would have a social security card. Now for tax purposes children receive cards (at their parents' application) at birth, but many people born before the 1930's would not be in the records. Carol Freeman Potomac Maryland