To make the most of this practice, we recommend reading these other posts first: How to Create Citations and The Basics of Vital Records.
This is a sample death certificate from the state of Nevada. As expected, it lists the date of death, the age of the deceased at the time of their death, the location of their death, and the cause of death. Take a look at this document to see what else it lists. What can learn bout this individual from their death certificate? What can you infer about them?
Beyond these vital dates and places, we also learn what funeral home was the undertaker for the deceased. Knowing the funeral home might help us to locate an obituary and the cemetery in which the deceased, Ada, was buried. This document also provides information about Ada's parents, their names, and where they were from. With this information, you could also search the newspapers of the parents’ hometowns for an obituary of Ada.
Do you see how this vital record provides us with so much more? This is why you ALWAYS want to view the original record (when possible). Some of these details may have been omitted or overlooked when someone else recorded or transcribed the document.
If you want to practice your paleography, transcription, and citation skills, pause here, get out a piece of paper and write out the details of this document. You can view the full document here (you will need to sign in with Ancestry.com to view it in full). When you are finished, scroll on to see our transcription and citation.
Now that you have read two blog posts about vital records, are you ready to find and cite your own ancestors' vital documents? What questions do you have for us? Please feel free to ask questions on either our Facebook or Instagram pages where a member of our team will respond to your inquiry.
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Transcription:
Place of death: Las Vegas, Clark, Nevada
Full name: Ada Fern Leavitt
Sex: female
Color or race: white
Single, married, widowed, or divorced: Single
Date of birth: October 2 1925
Age: 13 years 1 month 3 days
trade/profession: student
Birthplace: Bunkerville, Nevada
Father name: Lawrence Dee Leavitt
Father birthplace: Bunkerville, Nevada
Mother name: Lysle Fern Hunt
Mother birthplace: Old Hebron, Utah
Informant: L. D. Leavitt, address 329 S. 5th Las Vegas, Nevada
Burial, cremation, or removal: Las Vegas, Nevada on November 7, 1938
Undertaker: Palm Funeral Home in Las Vegas
Date of death: 5 November 1938
Cause of death: Uremia
Contributory cause of death: *chronic pyelonephritis
(*this is our best guess at what the doctor meant, that handwriting can be hard!)
Name of operation: appendectomy
Date: 15 October 1958
Citation:
Nevada State Board of Health, “Nevada, U.S., Death Certificates, 1911-1965,” state index no. 434, death of Ada Fern Leavitt, 5 Nov 1938, Las Vegas, Clark, Nevada; database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 11 Aug 2022).
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