I also received my first death certificate from NJ and had a blank area. After reading the posts dealing with this , I faxed the State Archives and received the following answer : " The NJ Dept. of Health , State Registrar has a regulation since 1995 that the cause of death is confidential , and they therefore block it out. At the State Archives , our copy of the death records on microfilm will give the cause of death. " Besides my morbid sense of genealogical curiosity , there are health reasons I would like to know the cause of death . If my research shows the recurrence of a certain disease or illness , I could take precautions and warn my family (One line of men in my family did die young ). Who could we write to change this? Kevin