Illinois Death Certificates, 1916–1972

Illinois Death Certificates, 1916–1972 Illinois State Archives


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This database provides listings of death certificates filed with the Illinois Department of Public Health between 1916 and 1972.

What information is included on death certificates?

Certificates show the following information:

  • county and city in which death occurred
  • certificate number
  • address where death occurred (sometimes the voting ward of that address)
  • deceased's full name, sex, marital status, birth date, age at death, date of death, occupation, employer, and city and state of birthplace
  • father's name and birthplace
  • mother's maiden name and birthplace
  • name of the informant providing the above information
  • filing date
  • name of the registrar
  • indication if an inquest was held
  • sometimes the duration of the causal condition and the type of secondary contributory cause
  • coroner's signature and date, address, and telephone number
  • sometimes the length of residence if at an institution and the place where the contributory disease was contracted if not at the place of death
  • burial place and date
  • undertaker's name and address

How can I obtain photocopies of death certificates?

  • Photocopies of death certificates dated on or after January 1, 1916, can be obtained by:
    • Visiting the Illinois State Archives Reference Room. The State Archives only holds microfilm copies of death certificates for 1916-1947. To locate a death certificate in our Reference Room, the following information from the database will be needed: decedent's name; date of death; name of county and, if provided, township where the death occurred; and death certificate number. The Archives will not mail or email copies of certificates – researchers must visit the Archives to make a copy.
    • Contacting the Illinois Department of Public Health, Division of Vital Records, by mail, fax, in-person or online.
    • Contacting the County Clerk’s office where the death occurred.
  • Photocopies of death certificates dated before 1916 can be obtained by:
    • Searching the IRAD Local Governmental Records Database to check if IRAD holds death records for that particular county. If IRAD does have death records for the county you are searching and for the pertinent time period, write the appropriate IRAD depository and include in your letter all of the information on the death given in the Pre-1916 Illinois Statewide Death Index. The addresses and telephone numbers of the Illinois Regional Archives Depositories are listed in the IRAD section.
    • Contacting theCounty Clerk’s office in the county where the death occurred.

Tips on using the database

  • Check alternative spellings of names if you don’t find an entry for the name you are searching for.
    • For example, the Illinois Department of Public Health may have data entered that contains incorrect vowels in spelling a name (e.g., the surname Hascall may be incorrectly spelled Hoscoll). Entering only the first few letters of a surname may be a more effective method of searching the database.
  • Search all possible spellings to locate persons with prefixed surnames, such as Mc, Mac, O, Du, De, La, and Le, as they may be spelled with or without a space between the prefix and the remainder of the surname.
    • For example, you will find both Mc Donald and McDonald in the index, as well as several entries that were entered as Mc@Donald. The index also shows O'Hara, O Hara, OHara, and O@Hara.
      • Try a statewide search rather than limiting the search to a single county.
    • For example, the county of death may be shown as Lake County in the index, but the death occurred in LaSalle County. If you cannot locate an ancestor in the death index, you should try a statewide search rather than limiting the search to a single county.
  • The data presented here may contain errors. Errors in the index include showing the wrong sex for the decedent. For example, a female decedent may be shown as being a male (M). The abbreviation N/S in the sex field means NOT STATED. The date of death may also be incorrect. For example, some deaths occurring in 1936 were entered as 1935 deaths.

How can corrections to the Illinois Statewide Death Index 1916-1972 be made?

Requests for corrections to the death index should be made to the Illinois Department of Public Health, Division of Vital Records.

Historical Background

The Illinois General Assembly in 1843 passed its first legislation providing for the registration of births and deaths with county clerks. Because the law made the act of registration a voluntary process, few counties began recording births and deaths. Legislation approved in 1877 again mandated this duty for county clerks. But the law again provided for no enforcement, resulting in many counties keeping records only irregularly.

A 1915 statute provided for the first effective system of registration of births, deaths, and stillbirths in Illinois. It required the State Board of Health and county clerks to record these events and provided a system of financial incentives for local registrars. In 1919, the Illinois Department of Public Health was established as the successor agency to the State Board of Health.


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