I have an idea of what the short and long forms are, but it is only a guess because I don't have the two for the same person to compare. The short form is a form that is filled out by a health dept employee. It is about half the size of a regular sheet of paper. They tend to write the names and birthplaces of the parents of the deceased on the back. The long form is a photocopy of the original death certificate. It is closer in size to a full sheet of paper, although it varies in size and the information provided over time. It provides information like address, name of spouse and informant that doesn't show up on the short form. Information on the informant is especially useful because the informant is usually the spouse or a child of the deceased. The earliest long form I have is from 1908. My guess is that they start at 1900. on 11/23/00 7:57 PM, rickey mcpherson at mcpherson@ameritech.net wrote: > I don't know if this helps but when i started in searching i went to our > health > dept. and asked for several death certifacates. I was asked if i wanted the > short version or the long version. I asked what the difference was and was > told > that they normaly don't put anything but what's on the front of the form but > for > genealogy they also put other pertinent info on the back. For enstance mother > , > father, their place of birth date of birth informants name , and any other > known > ailments. I have gotten more from death certificates then birth . But as for > the > long and short of it this is just a guess. > Tami > > Mike Pearson wrote: > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> Last June I went looking for the Death Certificate of my >> great-great-great-grandfather in Madison County. The Health Department >> in Anderson told me that a death certificate was not required at the >> time of his death, yet I know from all information available, that he >> died after the date set requiring death certificates, its anybody's >> guess as to what a "long form" or "short form" is. However, there is a >> long form and short form term used in genealogy where the "long form" is >> the original document and the "short form" is a transcription. >> >> Mike Pearson >> >> >>> >>> Subject: [INMADISO-L] long and short death certificates >>> Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2000 22:09:24 -0700 >>> From: Thomas Weisbach <weisbach@scruz.net> >>> To: INMADISO-L@rootsweb.com >>> >>> Last month I requested a death certificate from Madison County and they >>> suggested I request it from the State Department of Health instead because >>> the State Department could provide me with the long form while they could >>> only provide the short form. At what date is it best to request the >>> certificate from the State Department rather than the County? >>> >>> ______________________________