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Pamlico County Death Certificates
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. Death records were not regularly kept in North Carolina until 1913. [Source: North Carolina Research by Helen F.M. Leary, Editor; pgs. 170-171]
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