Gail, I did not request an extended search, because I was *pretty* sure of my information, but I suppose if she had, for example, died in a hospital in Manhattan, I could have been wrong. However, the form they sent back didn't indicate that they had failed to find the certificate after a search, but that they hadn't looked ("couldn't process your request [because] . . . one or more of the required fields was not filled out.") The fields that were highlighted were father's name, mother's name, social security number (would a housewife in 1949 have even necessarily had an SSN?) and "CERTIFICATE NUMBER (if known)." I get the feeling they're not clear on the definition of "required field." I did leave all of the above fields blank and wonder if I would have had better luck if I had written "unknown" or something like that. I have half a mind to just do that and send it back, risking the price of a stamp before paying for an extended search when I'm pretty sure I know when and where she died. (The other issue was that rejected my ID, not for being expired, but for having an expiration date that was coming up soon, which seemed absurd. If they'd just processed the request, I'd have had the certificate before it expired! But now I have to wait for my new drivers license to show up before I can resubmit the request.) Kathleen On Sun, May 31, 2015 at 8:24 PM, Gail Schinnerer Jorgensen < [email protected]> wrote: > You are right, if there was a cert, they should be able to provide it > without a cert number. It is possible that she did not die in the borough > in NYC that you indicated. Or the name recorded was different than you > provided, or a different date. Did you request an extended search of other > boroughs and/or other years, etc? > Gail > > ~ Gail Schinnerer Jorgensen ~ > > On Sun, May 31, 2015 at 1:50 PM, Kathleen Scarlett O'Hara Naylor via < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> I have a 2x great-grandmother who died in Brooklyn in 1949, so her death >> certificate is held by the Department of Health rather than the Municipal >> Archives. However, I believe that it's old enough to be considered a >> publicly accessible record. My request was just returned to me, having >> been >> denied because I hadn't listed her parents' names, or the certificate >> number. I don't know her parents' names - that's why I want the >> certificate! And the application instructions said nothing about an index >> where you could find the cert #, so I have no idea how I would even be >> able >> to provide that. I provided her name, date of death, and place of death - >> surely that's sufficient for them to look it up, no? >> >> Has anyone had success in ordering certs from the NYC DOH who can give me >> some tips on how to get my request fulfilled? >> >> Thanks! >> Kathleen >> >> ------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >> [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the >> quotes in the subject and the body of the message >> > >