Dear Friends, I still don't have full clarity about the difference between these two death-related positions. Obviously a Medical Examiner is a doctor and a Coroner is an elected position (which may infer that it may have a political interest in the outcome of the inquest). An inquest is an inquiry as to the cause of death, in reaction to questionable deaths. These deaths are not due to natural illnesses/diseases or age. You are invited to "crowd source"* this topic further. * "Crowd sourcing"= obtaining ideas from contributions from a large group of people A) NOTES Definitions Medical examiner: An appointed medically qualified officer whose duty is to investigate deaths and bodily injuries that occur under unusual or suspicious circumstances, to perform post-mortems, and sometimes to initiate inquests. [MEDICAL OFFICIAL aka doctor] Coroner: [related to Anglo-French corouner, from coroune, meaning crown]: An officer of a county, district, state, or municipality; originally, in medieval England, an official who upheld the monarch's rights of private property. From the 16th and 17th centuries on, the chief duty of the coroner was to HOLD INQUESTS on the bodies of those believed to have died by violence or accident, or who suffered grievous bodily harm. In modern times, in the United States, the coroner is an elected official. https://www.nlm.nih.gov/visibleproofs/galleries/cases/examiner.html B) Other potential records> http://www.nyc.gov/html/records/html/archives/collections_coroner.shtml Barb