In the early years right after the law was passed, it was incumbent upon the doctor or funeral director to file. Sometimes they resisted or thought it unimportant...Sometimes one thought the other did it, and vice versa, hence no one filed...also the problem of handwritten documents comes into play and the ability of the local Clerks to read the documents properly and/or decipher handwriting and spelling... >From: Diana White <diawhite@iglobal.net> >To: MISSISSIPPI-L@rootsweb.com >Subject: [MISSISSIPPI] Death Certificates in Texas >Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 12:07:45 -0600 > >Bill, Mary, and List, > > >Just because death certificates were supposed to be kept in Texas does not >mean there will be one. A duputy county clerk in vital records told me not >to expect to find one until after WWII. All four of my paternal >great-grandparents died in Texas from 1907-1920. Not a single one of them >had a death certificate on file. There is a microfilmed index of death >certificates available at many libraries in Texas with a genealogical >section. Also, it is available from the Heritage Quest Research Club to >their members. The first division covers from 1903-1940 in a single >alphabetical index. The next is from 1941-1945 in a single index. After >that, the index is in alphabetical order by year. > >An interesting thing is that a many deaths were not recorded in the years >1908 and 1909, because of a change in the law designating their registry. >Denton City has very few from these two years. When our book was compiled, >we added in names from obituaries in the newspaper to fill in those years. > >The early death certificates vary from county to county and from book to >book. Here in Denton County, each health director chose his own book. Also, >towns of a certain size could serve as registrar for their city's deaths. >City of Denton records are available from 1900, but the information is >sparce. Therefore, when the Denton County Genealogical Society published >the records, they chose to do the book in sections by book. The 1900-1917 >records record birth place of father and bp of mother but not the parents' >names. > >Please do not think I am being critical of the previous answer, but I do >not want people to expect too much from Texas death certificates from the >early years. > >Diana > > > >==== MISSISSIPPI Mailing List ==== >Help yourself to some data at http://www.rootsweb.com/~mississi in the >database, and be sure to leave a little for others. > >============================== >Visit Ancestry's Library - The best collection of family history >learning and how-to articles on the Internet. >http://www.ancestry.com/learn/library > _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com