One of the roadblocks we frequently run into while helping patrons with genealogy and local history research is a gap in Scott County death records from 1921 – 1940.
During that time, death records were maintained by the State of Iowa and no copy kept by Scott County. We are still able to locate individuals from obituaries, cemetery records, and other sources most of the time. Death records, though, tend to have important names and dates. Many times patrons wrote to the State to receive a copy of their ancestor’s death certificate- for a small fee.
We were surprised, and extremely excited, to find this week that FamilySearch now has the missing death certificates from 1921 – 1940 on their website in digital form!
To find the information, go to FamilySearch.org…
and look under Iowa records…
for Iowa, Death Records, 1921 – 1940.
You still need to contact the Iowa Department of Public Health to receive a certified death certificate, but for general research, the digitized version is incredibly useful.
Even more useful, FamilySearch.org is a free website!
(posted by Amy D.)
