The U.S. Death Records Toolkit

From death certificates to lesser-known coroner's inquests, death records hold some of the most revealing details you'll find about an ancestor — but they can be surprisingly tricky to track down.

Many researchers stop at a death date, a location and maybe a gravesite, and skip the rest entirely.

The Discovering Death Records Toolkit shows you what you might be missing. It's a collection of 26 downloadable and printable resources walking you through the most important U.S. death record types — where to search, what to look for, how to find alternatives when traditional records don't exist and which collections most people never think to check.

This toolkit focuses on U.S. death records. Some of the lessons apply to research anywhere, but many details will be most useful for those researching American ancestors.

What's inside:

• 7 detailed PDF lessons covering the core death record types
• 7 hands-on activities to apply each lesson to your own research right away
• 7 easy-to-use cheat sheets for quick reference
• A simple guide to ordering death certificates in every U.S. state
• A list of free research sites for every U.S. state where more death records can be found
• An action plan that shows you where to start and what to do next
• A checklist of death record types so no source gets overlooked
• A checklist of facts found on death records to help you keep track of what you find

Every resource is downloadable, printable and viewable on any device. You own them all forever.