The "70" is for the city of Los Angeles. Apparently whichever "founding fathers" in Sacto long ago thought that due to it's size there would be so many documents to record that a separate # would be needed. This was also done for San Diego, & Alameda as I recall. I'm surprised that San Francisco didn't get a unique # also. My guess is the #'s were established after SF became a combined city / county with identical boundaries. These #'s are used through out government, not just for vital statistics. Phil pvc@vancamp.org . ----- Original Message ----- From: Jannette <nettieh@home.com> To: <SOCAL-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, September 30, 2000 7:09 AM Subject: Re: Death Index Numbering *****EDITED****** Linda, The number "19" you are referring to indicates the county of death. There happens to be 2 numbers for Los Angeles County, although I'm not clear on the "why" of this. The other number for Los Angeles County is "70". Every entry on the death index should contain a number in the column you refer to, indicating the county of death. > > -Jannette in Colorado > >