In a message dated 6/17/03 8:07:59 PM Central Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: << The information is there only if it was given by someone. Print it out. If you don't see on the web site, you won't see it on the official death certifcate, and it won't cost you anything. Bev Carlson Minneapolis MN >> Wrong. In the later years the index included that information, but in the earlier years it did not. Therefore on some certificates the parents names, names of spouses, birth dates and places, etc can be on the original certificate, but not show up in the index because the index for those years did not show it. I have broken several walls on collateral families by picking up death certs from the Historical Society. I have also found people NOT listed in the index on line that I KNOW have died in MN because their children have told me so, or because I have copies of their obits given me by members of their families. Always remember, the information on a death certificate is only as accurate as the knowledge of the informant. And that the information on any web index is only as accurate as the transcriber, who are human and fallible. The best thing about the MN Death Index is that the people on the other end of the web site are very nice helpful people who will make corrections to errors found, who respond to all notes regarding those errors and are very gracious dedicated people. Also remember that they can and will correct errors that THEY have made, but if the error is on the original index or the original document it will be left as is, because it is not their error. Only the state vital statistics department can make any changes on those documents. Annie in Minnesota

Well, I may as well add my two cents on the subject of the death indexes. You have to be very creative when using that index. I've found the best way to find someone --if you don't find their name as you think it should be --is to just search by the last name. I know it can be a horrendous search if you have a common name, but I've found that some times women are not listed with just their first name i.e. Elizabeth Johnson, but might be found as Mrs. Elizabeth Johnson. That index is going to look for the first letter. This has happened to me so many times. Same problem with men. Sometimes they're listed with just their initials. Then of course you have to use every spelling variation you can think of because of misspells, or because the transcriber read it wrong. Using the soundex helps in that case. Claudia Schuman - Coordinator http://www.rootsweb.com/~mnhennep/ http://hennbios.tripod.com/index.htm http://fdlbios.tripod.com/index.htm http://www.rootsweb.com/~mnscott/index.htm ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2003 10:34 PM Subject: [MNHENNEP] Re MN death certificates > In a message dated 6/17/03 8:07:59 PM Central Daylight Time, > [email protected] writes: > > << The > information is there only if it was given by someone. Print it out. If you > don't see on the web site, you won't see it on the official death > certifcate, and > it won't cost you anything. > Bev Carlson > Minneapolis MN >> > > > Wrong. In the later years the index included that information, but in the > earlier years it did not. Therefore on some certificates the parents names, > names of spouses, birth dates and places, etc can be on the original certificate, > but not show up in the index because the index for those years did not show > it. > > I have broken several walls on collateral families by picking up death certs > from the Historical Society. > > I have also found people NOT listed in the index on line that I KNOW have > died in MN because their children have told me so, or because I have copies of > their obits given me by members of their families. > > Always remember, the information on a death certificate is only as accurate > as the knowledge of the informant. And that the information on any web index > is only as accurate as the transcriber, who are human and fallible. > > The best thing about the MN Death Index is that the people on the other end > of the web site are very nice helpful people who will make corrections to > errors found, who respond to all notes regarding those errors and are very gracious > dedicated people. > > Also remember that they can and will correct errors that THEY have made, but > if the error is on the original index or the original document it will be left > as is, because it is not their error. Only the state vital statistics > department can make any changes on those documents. > > Annie in Minnesota > >