Googling, all I get is how to get a copy of an existing certified death certificate. I can’t find anywhere how one goes about getting a death certificate for a newly deceased person.
Call 911 even if it is by natural causes?
Call a doctor?
???
Does somebody have to actually come and check the body before giving one, or can a family doctor just issue one if the deceased was a patient?
For fun, I was going to add to the subject, “Need Answer Fast” but that might have unintened results. 
Why? Are you trying to prove that not only is there no birth certificate for Obama in Hawaii, but there’s already a death certificate for him? So not only was he not born in the U.S., but he’s already dead.
Well, that was not my intention, but…
I was told, when dealing with the funeral home when my brother passed away, that there would be a need for multiple certified copies of the death certificate. The funeral director recommended a dozen and arranged for me to get them. I used them all in the few months after the funeral to settle credit card accounts, get his car out of impound and other things needed to settle his estate…
Usually death certificates are on file with the state or county vital statistics offices covering the place of death. You may try to google vital statistics and the state of death to find the appropriate bureau and what they require to obtain a death certificate.
if there is a funeral director involved you can contact them for the death certificate. they usually help out in cases of needing one for estate reasons or for flights for the funeral.
Thanks, but as I noted in the OP, that is what I found. What I did not find is how to get somebody to provide the original certificate right after the person is dead, to prove that he/she really is. Dead, that is.
Even at death, you have to wait to allow the bureaucracy to do its job and process the paperwork.
Calling 911 is a gross abuse of the emergency system. In some jurisdictions abusing 911 can land you a fine.
When my mother passed away, I received her death certificate within days, but I don’t remember who sent it (possibly the County Coroner?). I didn’t have to do anything special; it was just routinely sent.
I got death certificates for my mother and father ASAP from the funeral director. He then said “you probably will need ‘this many’ and ordered them.” It appeared they had a few death certificates on hand for quick needs and would order a bunch of them for things like insurance and getting into safe deposit boxes etc.
Also remember in some states, like Illinois, death certificates are not public record.
Agree with the others - and yes, you most certainly do need several copies and those who require death certificates want originals. I think we got about 10 copies and needed to get a few more before everything was settled.
Not sure exactly where we got them - it was a stressful period to say the least - but think it might have been the funeral director who either gave us some, or at least told us where to get them and to get multiple copies of originals.
In most of the US …
After a person dies, the body must be turned over to either the county coroner or a licensed funeral company. Either of those entities will type up the information on a “request for death cert” form which is turned into the county department of births & deaths. After several days to a couple of weeks, the county will prepare an original official death certificate & certify it. Somewhere along the way a licensed MD, often the patient’s GP, will determine & certify the cause of death.
After that, interested parties such as next of kin can obtain “certified duplicates” of the death certificate from the county. After paying a fee and waiting a few days for the bureaucracy & the snail-mail.
Knowing the process, most funeral companies will offfer to order & receive a few copies on behalf of the next of kin as part of their normal services. For an additional fee of course.
So the punch line is that, at least in the USA, there is period of up to 30 days where the person is 100% deceased, but the legal paperwork hasn’t caught up yet, and there is no way to *prove * in the full-up legal sense of the word, that the person is deceased.
You will find that every agency & corporate department which routinely deals with the aftermath of a death is used to this delay. So, for example, you can call SSA or the deceased’s life insurance company or whatever & tell them what’s happened. They’ll take your word for it, but won’t take any irrevocable action, like paying out the life ins, until they get the certified copy.
I’ve also noticed that very few things, other than life insurance, insist on no kidding original certified duplicate DCs as sold by the county. A plain old fax of a certified original is good enough to close utlity accounts, get refunds on car insurance premiums, that sort of thing.
Nothing, other than the need to refrigerate the body, happens in a hurry once somebody stops breathing. A month’s delay for a piece of paper is trivial in the whole post-death administrative process.
Not only that, but in some states like here in Wisconsin you can get a death certificate, but unless you’re a close relative you cannot get an “extended facts of death” certificate stating the cause of death. I just recently found that out myself.
Wow, LSLGuy, am I glad you are around on a Sunday! Many thanks for the comprehensive explanation. It is certainly not surprising that the mill of bureaucay grinds so slowly.
As we are doddering into advanced old age, I guess the smart thing to do is hie ourselves to a funeral parlor and get set up. Here in AZ they have a fine NatioalCemetary for veterans and their spouses, which is where we want to go (after we are dead, of course). They provide interment, full military ceremony with firing squad, taps and a flag for the family, all at no cost, which is very cool.
I now have found out that we need a funeral parlor to pick up the body and cremate it, but I knew death certificates were required for many cases, even the MVD, so was puzzled as to where to begin.
Appreciate you taking he time to outline it all. Thanks again.
Glad to help. I’m not in the business, but have had to do this process several times in various states for various relatives.
By coincidence, my most recent go-around was in AZ. In AZ the issuing agency is the State’s “Office of Vital Records, Arizona Dept of Health Services” located in Phoenix. Page or Document Not Found .
If you are really asking “What should I do if I wake from my nap & find my spouse dead on the living room floor?”, start with 911 even if the person is clearly obviously beyond help. The EMS folks have picked up near deads & recovered them, as well as picked up the well beyond helps and gotten the administrative ball rolling.
Pretty much everything in this post is YMMV. Very YMMV.
In Georgia, I personally know of people who have had certified copies of official death certificates in hand within 72 hours of someone’s death, and there weren’t any associated fees required by the funeral home to go and procure the certificates other than the actual fees for the copies.
Same here. When my father died (in Illinois) I had certified copies within 48 hours. When I needed more I had no trouble getting them quickly from the county records office.
The creepy thing was that when I called Social Security to tell them he died and ask what happened next, they already knew about it and had put the information in the mail for the next of kin.
Everybody’s own experiences will be different, but I have to say, this was one case where the bureaucracy was smooth, efficient and accurate.
Oddly enough I ordered a good 10+ certificates for my mother and not one place that said they needed one, needed a certified copy. They all took a copy no problem, this included banks, insurance, SSA, credit cards and every one else. It was a complete waste to have so many as it cost $20 or so apiece. I still have every last one of them. I think a lot of places say they need a certified copy, but when I faxed a copy or mailed a copy none came back and asked for anything else.
A month? In most states the DC has to be filed before the body can be buried or cremated, a day or two at most, or even faster now that DCs can be filed electronically. The only long delays are when the death is investigated by the coroner and test results will take some time. In that case they issue a temporary DC with “deferred” where the causes go so the body can be buried and then issue the permanent DC later with the causes filled in.
And the “additional fee” is only what the county charges for the certified copies, and funeral homes get them for the family at cost. It is considered unethical in the funeral business to add a profit to certified DCs.
I needed all the certified copies for my father, and was very grateful for the helpful funeral director who advised me to get them (actually, he got them for me). Almost nobody said a photocopied death certificate was OK. But it seems to me I got them right away – my father got called for jury duty the week after he died – and I had to take a death certificate down to the courthouse to prove he couldn’t serve. And by that time I had a death certificate. So I know it was that fast.