Hi Don & Everyone, It has been my experience with the county certificates that they are - as you said - typed out, and sometimes lacking some of the information found on the "original" that you get from the state. When I first started genealogical research in NJ I used to send to the county for the vital records I needed. Then one day I had to send to Trenton, and realized that Trenton sent you a copy of the actual certificate. I sent to Trenton for copies of the certificates I had gotten from he counties, and actually found some leads on the ones from Trenton that were not on the ones from the county. I also found that one of the typed ones actually had some major errors compared to the copy of the original. To date I have always gotten my certificates from the Dept. of Health & Senior Services - haven't used the archives yet. I always let them know that I am a direct descendant and that the copy is for family medical records. That usually takes care of them blacking out the cause of death on the more recent death certificates. It used to only take about a month for a response from Trenton, but the last few certificates I have requested have taken 4-6 months. I have also noticed that once they cash your check it takes about 4-6 weeks to get your certificate. Kris Goszka Warsaw, VA At 09:14 AM 01/07/2001 -0500, you wrote: >Is the death certificate that one gets from the county an exact copy of the >document received from the state. I know that a county issued birth >certificate is a simple typed instrument lacking much of the information >that is contained on the original document available from the state. >Don Lutz >Virginia Beach > > >==== NJHUDSON Mailing List ==== > Use NJHUDSON-L@rootsweb.com to write to the NJHUDSON list. > If you wish to subscribe to or unsubscribe from the NJHUDSON list, use > NJHUDSON-L-request@rootsweb.com.