Birth, Marriage, and Death Records (1853–Present)

Where to Find Death Registers

The Library has death registers from 1853 to 1896 on microfilm. Microfilm is available to borrow through Interlibrary Loan. Reels can be located using the following indexes:

If unsure of the locality or date of the death, the following index may be of use: 

Although there is no statewide index to death records for the period 1853 through 1896, some county court clerks prepared indexes to births and deaths for this period. Please use the guide to County and City Records on Microfilm to confirm the availability of a local death record index. 

Death register records can also be obtained from: 

Using Death Registers

From 1853 through 1896, the information recorded in death registers changed very little.

The registers contain headings for: 

• name
• race
• sex 
• name of enslaver, if enslaved
• date and place of death
• name of the disease or cause of death
• age at death (years, months, and days) 
• place of birth
• occupation 
• marital status 
• names of parents of the deceased
• name of person giving the information
• description of the informant (whether a physician, consort, head of the family, or friend). 

The majority of counties and cities did not record deaths between 1897 and 1911. However, some metropolitan areas continued to record death information, though the state did not require it. These localities include:

The Library of Virginia holds some original records or copies of the original records for Norfolk, Richmond, and Portsmouth. Please contact Archives Reference Services for further information.

Death records for the period 1896–1911 for Roanoke, Petersburg, Newport News, Lynchburg, and Elizabeth City County (now Hampton) are not available at the Library of Virginia. Please contact the Health Department of the locality or the Office of Vital Records to check their availability.

The Library of Virginia also has a death index that was created from transportation permits for deaths prior to 1912 and from 1912–1927. The Library of Virginia does not have the records that correspond to this index, although the index may be helpful for establishing death dates, especially for those deaths that occurred prior to 1912.

The Library only holds the microfilm copies of death certificates from 1912–1939, arranged chronologically by year and thereunder by month. Prior to 1932, cities were filed with the counties in which they are located. Beginning in 1932, cities and counties were filed separately, with the cities at the beginning of each month. At the end of each year’s records, there is a volume of delayed filings for that year. Certificates are numbered consecutively for each year. Consult the following guide to find the correct reel:

If the place or year of death is unknown, use the following index:

Death certificates from 1912 onward can also be obtained from: 

There is a 25-year privacy law for death records, so any death record falling within the restricted period will display as indexed information only on Ancestry and FamilySearch.