Missing death certificate
Can anyone suggest why the Bureau of Vital Statistics in Florida would not be able to locate a death certificate for my ancestor who died in 1927? I've found other death certificates from the same month and year for the county. Wasn't it a legal requirement? What are some possibilities of why there wouldn't be one?
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What are some possibilities of why there wouldn't be one?
- Loss of document before filing with the county/state
- Loss of document before microfilming
- Loss of document in later catastrophe (fire/hurricane/tornado)
- Illegible handwriting on the certificate
- Failure to report by the survivors or attending medical professional
It happens.
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Several possibilities. 1) If female, the ancestor had a marriage you don't know about and had a death cert filed under a different name in 1927 instead of the one you are expecting. 2) The ancestor was out of state traveling and didn't die in FL. The DC is actually issued by the other state. 3). The person who did the look up for you missed it. 4) The name on the DC is so illegible that it wasn't filed under the proper name and is actually under a different name. 5) All manor of clerical errors could have happened.
I would look at cemetery records, and possibly death indexes. Florida has death indexes.
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Family lore is that he died at home, and I have searched through five years of online records--page by page--before writing to Vital Statistics, and they didn't find it either. He's not on the death index either. So I don't think it was a misspelling or clerical error. I guess either the family didn't report it, or it was lost before it was filed. I can't find his marriage certificate either, though I know it exists, because I have seen a copy of a copy. So frustrating!
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Thank you for your insights!
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@Stacey Cracker4Life A cousin died in Florida in 1933, but there is no DC for her, either.
The southern states came very late to requiring vital records, and there are many cases of no filing or no record found.
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FamilySearch has death certs for FL. Can you give no information to us? Name and month of death would help trememdously.
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Stephen Weston Simmons died Feb. 20, 1927 in Washington County, FL. I have looked through every Florida death certificate in the Family Search online files from 1924 to 1929.
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It is possible that not all the death certs have been digitized yet. I would be surprised if that was the case, especially since you tried to order it and they said it doesn't exist. I would say at this point it doesn't exist. FindAGrave has a cemetery for him. Why don't you call that place up and see if they have records for the burial. They might have a note that no death cert exists, OR they might have a copy of it on file. Good luck.
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It's a tiny backwoods place. I doubt they have records, or even a phone number. I was hoping a death certificate would include his parents' names and help provide proof of lineage. I do have one document in which his parents sell him land for a dollar "in consideration of natural and paternal affection." I hope that will be proof enough.
I really appreciate y'all taking the time to try to help and advise me! Have a great day!
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