California, Death Index, 1905-1939
Index and images of death indexes located at the Office of the State Register, Sacramento, and the Butte County Courthouse, Oroville.
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California, Death Index
Source: https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/California,_Death_Index_-_FamilySearch_Historical_Records
What is in This Collection?
The collection consists of the California Death Index for the years 1905 to 1939. The index is arranged alphabetically by the name of the deceased and includes: initials of spouse, social security number (if known), code number of county where death occurred, date of death, registrar number and state file number. The code for the age unit is listed as follows:
1 - Years
2 - Months
3 - Days
4 - Hours
5 - Minutes
A - 100 years or over
[blank] - Unknown
California began indexing death records from various counties before July 1905. California became a state in 1850 with 27 original counties. Today there are 58 counties from that original 27. Although the state ordered the keeping of records in 1905, this order was NOT enforced and each county kept records according to the notion of the local County Recorder. Some counties will have records from an earlier date than others. Very few records, if any, are available before the 1860's. Original records are located in California at the Office of the State Register, Sacramento, and the Butte County Courthouse, Oroville. Some of the pages in the index, did not get filmed or were missing when the index was originally filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah in 1990.
Place of death or county where death occurred is given in code as listed in the chart below. Larger cities have the following separate codes: 60 Alameda, 70 Los Angeles, 80 San Diego, 90 San Francisco.
Additional records and/or images may be added to this collection in the future.
To Browse This Collection
| You can browse through images in this collection using the waypoints on the Collection Browse Page for California Death Index, 1905-1939. |
What Can These Records Tell Me?
The following information may be found in these records:
- The name of decedent
- Initial(s) of spouse
- Age (coded Units of Age)
- Sex
- County of death (coded by County and larger Cities)
- Date of death
- Date of registration
- State file number
California County and City Codes
| Code | City / County | Code | City / County | Code | City / County | Code | City / County | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Alameda (County) | 21 | Marin | 41 | San Mateo | 70 | Los Angeles (City) | |||
| 02 | Alpine | 22 | Mariposa | 42 | Santa Barbara | 80 | San Diego (City) | |||
| 03 | Amador | 23 | Mendocino | 43 | Santa Clara | 90 | San Francisco (City) | |||
| 04 | Butte | 24 | Merced | 44 | Santa Cruz | |||||
| 05 | Calaveras | 25 | Modoc | 45 | Shasta | |||||
| 06 | Colusa | 26 | Mono | 46 | Sierra | |||||
| 07 | Contra Costa | 27 | Monterey | 47 | Siskiyou | |||||
| 08 | Del Norte | 28 | Napa | 48 | Solano | |||||
| 09 | El Dorado | 29 | Nevada | 49 | Sonoma | |||||
| 10 | Fresno | 30 | Orange | 50 | Stanislaus | |||||
| 11 | Glenn | 31 | Placer | 51 | Sutter | |||||
| 12 | Humboldt | 32 | Plumas | 52 | Tehama | |||||
| 13 | Imperial | 33 | Riverside | 53 | Trinity | |||||
| 14 | Inyo | 34 | Sacramento | 54 | Tulare | |||||
| 15 | Kern | 35 | San Benito | 55 | Tuolumne | |||||
| 16 | Kings | 36 | San Bernardino | 56 | Ventura | |||||
| 17 | Lake | 37 | San Diego (County) | 57 | Yolo | |||||
| 18 | Lassen | 38 | San Francisco (County) | 58 | Yuba | |||||
| 19 | Los Angeles (County) | 39 | San Joaquin | |||||||
| 20 | Madera | 40 | San Luis Obispo | 60 | Alameda (City) |
This information is also available along with an explanation of the information found on the index, including the keys to the codes used for the units of age and place of death, can be found on this image. NOTE: Some county codes erroneously include their larger city code. For example: Alameda (County) should be 01; Alameda (City) is 60.
| Tip: These indexes are also found in the FamilySearch Catalog California Death Indexes, 1905-1988; 1940-1994 with digital images available for the years 1905 to 1939. Click on the camera icons. |
Collection Content
Sample Image
1906-27 Death Index
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Collection Details
Location of Original Records
Department of Health Services. Vital Statistics Department, Sacramento
"California, Death Index, 1905-1939." Database with images. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : 3 December 2024. Citing Department of Health Services. Vital Statistics Department, Sacramento.
