Death certificates have commonly shown a variety of information: full name of deceased, sex, color or race; place of death (county, township, city or town, hospital or institution); date of death; hour of death; causes of death; duration of illness; length of time physician attended deceased; time at which physician last saw deceased alive; major findings of operations or autopsies; name and address of attending physician; length of deceased's residence or stay in the nation, the community, and institution (if any); home and usual residence (state, county, city or town, address); whether the deceased was a veteran and, if so, of what war; Social Security number; whether single, married, widowed or divorced; name of husband or wife and his/her age (if alive; birth date of deceased (often given incorrectly) and age at death; birthplace; usual occupation; name of deceased's father and his birthplace; maiden name of deceased's mother and her birthplace; name and address of informant; whether deceased was buried, cremated or otherwise removed; name and location of cemetery; name and address of undertaker or funeral home director; name of registrar; and date of registration.

Informants were usually family members, but the facts they supplied may have been erroneous, as persons in a state of grief might not have their usual clarity of thought--and, of course, many simply did not know the facts. Frequently the birth dates, death dates, and ages listed on certificates conflict. In some cases the certificate was filled out long enough after the event for memory to be uncertain--busy doctors might delay the chore of filing certificates until the last possible minute. In the quarter century immediately after the keeping of death certificates began, most people died in their own homes, unattended by doctors. That fact and the state of medical knowledge at the time often resulted in guesses or vague descriptions of the causes of death. [Source: North Carolina Research by Helen F.M. Leary, Editor; pgs. 170-171]

Death records were not regularly kept in North Carolina until 1913. The following index, which was generated at the Hyde County courthouse, covers the years 1913 through 1991. The actual death certificates have not been researched by me, therefore it would behoove the researcher to send off for any certificates they might be interested in. Be SURE to include the book, page number and the name of the deceased of the death certificate you want to purchase. Certified death certificates are $10.00 and non-certified are $.10 per page. To order death certificates send a letter with a self-addressed stamped envelope to:

There were some errors found in this index. For instance, Book 11, pg. 89 is listed for two different people--Dorcas Jane Blake and George Allen Blake. Obviously one of them has to be in error. Since I have not viewed all these death certificates personally I don't know whether the errors occurred on the original death certificate or they occurred when the person entering the information into the index mistyped it. I have taken the liberty of adding some notes to this index where I saw a need. They will be seen in brackets and highlighted in red. This bracketed information was taken from published and non-published Hyde County works and should give the researcher a little more information about the deceased.

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