That other death certificate
The question popped up on a Facebook group, and a reader promptly alerted The Legal Genealogist to this most interesting issue.
Why would a death certificate be issued by the State of Montana when the person died in another state?1
The example posted wasn’t a complete certificate, but it was absolutely clear that it wasn’t a mistake by a poster.
Nope, it was crystal clear: the man had died in Minnesota; the death certificate was from the State of Montana, Bureau of Vital Statistics.
And a quick check of death certificates digitized by FamilySearch.org for the State of Montana will turn up other examples, like the one you see illustrating this post (and you can click it to enlarge the image).
Just between 1941 and 1944 in the records of Beaverhead County alone, you will find death certificates of:
• Frank P. Birrer, who died in Spokane, Washington;2
• Leo Dwight Roland, who died aboard the SS Edwin B. DeGalia at sea off California3
• Earl Lewis Wheat, who died in Salt Lake City;4
• John Edie, who died in Kalamazoo, Michigan;5
• Peder Jensen, who died in Caldwell, Idaho;6
So… what’s up with this? Why is Montana issuing death certificates for people who died a long way away from the Big Sky State?
The answer, of course, will be found in the law.
Montana statutes for many years expressly required a burial permit before any body could be buried in the state. In the laws of 1921, for example, one section provided that: “No sexton or person in charge of any cemetery in which interments are made shall inter or permit the interment of any body unless it is accompanied by a burial permit …”7
The same was true in earlier laws: a burial permit had to be obtained, and to get the burial permit, a death certificate had to be filed with the local registrar’s office.8 And it was true later: the 1947 code provided that a death certificate had to be filed with the local registrar prior to interment or other disposition of a dead body.9
Although the statutes often spoke only in terms of deaths occurring in the state of Montana,10 there wasn’t any exception written into the law for a death occurring outside of the state. At a minimum, there had to be a permit issued by the state where the death occurred and that had to be recorded by the local registrar.11
And, of course, when the statutes don’t say everything we hope they might say, we can look to see if there are rules that fill in the gaps. And, in Montana, there were and they did. Regulation 63 of the Montana Board of Health at the time provided:
When bodies are brought into any registration district … from points without the State of Montana,… the local registrar of the district in which the body is to be interred … will issue a burial permit in the same way as if death had occurred in his district and make out a death certificate from the transit permit, writing across the face of such certificate the words “Imported Case.”12
And that is why you’ll find death certificates in Montana county records for deaths outside of Montana: it was legally required for a burial in Montana.
SOURCES
- Rose Caswell, Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness – RAOGK USA Facebook group, posted 20 Jan 2015. ↩
- Montana Bureau of Vital Statistics, death certificate no. 2788 (1943), Frank P. Birrer; digital images, “Montana, Beaverhead County Records, 1862-2009,” FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 20 Jan 2015). ↩
- Ibid., death certificate no. 2790 (1943), Leo Dwight Roland. ↩
- Ibid., death certificate no. 2825 (1943), Earl Lewis Wheat. ↩
- Ibid., death certificate no. 2833 (1943), John Edie. ↩
- Ibid., death certificate no. 2848 (1943), Peder Jensen. ↩
- §2531, Revised Codes of Montana of 1921 (San Francisco: Bancroft-Whitney, 1921), I: 993; digital images, Google Books (http://books.google.com : accessed 20 Jan 2015). ↩
- §1770, 1915 Supplement to the Revised Codes of Montana of 1907 (San Francisco: Bancroft-Whitney, 1916), 309; digital images, Google Books (http://books.google.com : accessed 20 Jan 2015). ↩
- See R.C.M. 1947, §69-4424, in State of Montana, Manual for Local Registrars (September 1975), 6; digital images, Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org : accessed 20 Jan 2015). ↩
- See §2526, Revised Codes of Montana of 1921. ↩
- See C.44, L. 1943, in Montana State Board of Morticians, Laws, Rules and Regulations (n.p., 1963), 14-15; digital images, Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org : accessed 20 Jan 2015). ↩
- Public Health Laws and Regulations, State of Montana, Bulletin of the State Board of Health (Helena: State Board of Health, 1936), 62-63 (emphasis added); digital images, Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org : accessed 20 Jan 2015). ↩
Thanks Judy! You’ve done it again… made it all very clear why we need to search the laws!
There’s just so much in the laws that helps us understand the records!
In emailing with the South Dakota Vital Registry some time ago, I was alerted to an issue that’s probably related to the one in your post. There are some deaths listed in the South Dakota death indexes available to researchers online which did not actually occur in South Dakota, and so you cannot successfully request a death certificate from their Registry.
In doing research in a cemetery archive, I reviewed some body-transportation permits from around a century ago. They had all the laws about transporting a body on a train printed on the back for the train officials, and I read through them and found them fascinating. My first instinct would not have been that it was legal to transport a body that had died from an epidemic such as smallpox across state lines, and yet there the proof was in the law.
Exactly the same thing here, Liz, except that these local certificates are generally NOT in the Montana state indices. And yes, there were (and are) very specific rules for transporting bodies when there was contagion and when there wasn’t. Morbid but fascinating stuff.
Although not directly related to the death record issuance but an interesting aside – in at least one unnamed state I have visited which does not have open vital records, the state does require a burial permit. A friendly court house worker enlighten me to the fact that those permits were open for viewing and contain nearly identical data as the closed death records. Big help for some of us from that legal loop hole.
norm
Great bit of information, Norm — and good reason to always always ask about alternative records!
Thank you so much for this post, have been looking for the grave of a relative who died in a soldiers home in Maine. The records there just say Body removed to Charlestown Massachusetts for burial. I’ll try looking for a burial permit in Massachusetts
Every state — and even some communities within a state — will have different rules, so you’ll need to check the laws. But look for everything, including a transportation permit from Maine to Massachusetts!
One of my ancestors died in Van Wert County, Ohio, in 1883. His death is recorded in Adams County, Indiana. These counties adjoin. The death was recorded in Indiana as the physician lived in Adams County, Indiana.
It’s often the case that records are recorded where convenient, rather than where the event occurred. Darn it!
A few years ago, I did some indexing for John Martino of the New York City Italian Gen Society. The documents I worked with were coded for borough (= county) and they also had some miscellaneous categories. I don’t recall the specifics but one of them referred to out of state deaths of NY residents.
Thanks for that, Israel!
Thanks for the post. I’ve been using the Pennsylvania Death Records to find where my family members are buried; never thought about there being a record for people who died out of state.
BTW – the certificate says death occurred in Kalamazoo, MICHIGAN, not Minnesota
The original question had to do with a death in Minnesota; the image I used to illustrate the post involved a death in Michigan.