Explore the death records from the District of Columbia, the capital of the nation, from the years 1840 to 1964. Discover new information about your ancestors you may not have known previously, like their family relations and place of burial.
Explore the death records from the District of Columbia, the capital of the nation, from the years 1840 to 1964. Discover new information about your ancestors you may not have known previously, like their family relations and place of burial.
There are over 550,000 records in this collection and each represents a death in the city of Washington, District of Columbia, over the 19th and 20th centuries. While the information for each person varies, District of Columbia Deaths and Burials, 1840-1964 typically includes:
The records in this collection document deaths and burials in the District of Columbia between 1840 and 1964. Although the district began official recordkeeping of deaths in 1874, many records are from years earlier.
Use these records to uncover essential details about your ancestor that can help to fill in gaps in your family history. The information you learn from these records you can then use to find your ancestor in our other collections from the District of Columbia or possibly an obituary in our collection of local newspapers.
Findmypast is pleased to present these records in partnership with FamilySearch, Intl.
These record sets use batch and film numbers to indicate the source of the information.
Film numbers refer to materials found at the Family History Library. These individual microfilms often contain copies of original records from courthouses, churches and other repositories. To learn more about a specific film number, you can search the Family History Library Catalog on the FamilySearch website (see useful links).
Batch numbers refer to a set of records extracted from microfilms. Batches might be separated by a specific type of record (births, baptisms, marriages, burials, etc.) and multiple film numbers could be included in a single batch number.
Findmypast displays a “People with the same last name on this source” function in order to help locate related records in the same film and/or batch. This function can also reveal the records for family members included in the same original source. For some records, this will uncover additional entries for the same individual but with slightly different information.
Broaden your search by clicking the “name variants” box under the search bar. This will return a greater number of records with similar names, including possible alternate spellings or the use of initials or middle names.
If you cannot find your ancestor when including the year of death in your search, try broadening the year range. This will expand your search and return more results.
Try to find additional information about your ancestor in D.C. newspapers. Death notices and obituaries were common in many local newspapers and often provide specific and valuable details.