I think there was a discission about this earlier, but it didn't affect me at the time. Yesterday, though, I received my great-grandfather's 1929 NJ [Essex County] death certificate with a whole section blanked out! It looks like someone put a post-it note over the section that gives cause of death! Why would they do that? Is it something the family, at the time, requested? Is there a way to obtain this information? I have little enough medical history (my mother was adopted), and this seemingly insignificant bit of info was important to me. I can only imagine it might have been a violent death, or suicide. Are they trying to protect me/the family? HOWEVER, I have another death certificate from Essex County, NJ, same time period (1921) which reveals the cause of death as self-inflicted. Were any of you who experienced this able to obtain the info? Or find out why it was withheld? What should I do next? Katherine Fiedler Pitts, Fayetteville, NY