RAOGK - Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness

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Death records are one of the things that we want to find for each ancestor. However, there are times when that record doesn’t exist.  (Don’t you hate it when an ancestor dies before that state started keeping death records?!)
If you can’t find a death record and his or her tombstone hasn’t been found or is illegible, take a look at his or her will. You can get at least an estimate of when he or she died....

Such a long-standing early English colony and one of the original U.S. states, you would think all vital records would be available.  Unfortunately, they are not because such early information just wasn’t officially recorded all the time. There was no...

A major untapped resource for those researching their family members is the information available from the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) and from the actual Social Security applications that your ancestors originally filled out.
A good point to start is with the Social Security Death Index also referred to as the Death Master File.  The SSDI has names, birth and death dates of individuals with Social Security numbers whose deaths have been reported to the Social Security Administration...