Missouri is always looking for volunteers to index. Received this e-mail earlier today about the 1958 Missouri Death Certificate Re-indexing to Add Parents and Spouses. The 1958 death certificates had previously been indexed, but didn’t include parents or spouses. The files are PDFs. You can view 1910 – 1968 Missouri Death Certificates free at .https://s1.sos.mo.gov/records/Archives/ArchivesMvc/DeathCertificates/. The goal is to re-index the earlier (1910 – 1958) death certificates to add parents and spouses. They are working backwards from the newer records.
In general, these get re-indexed fast if enough volunteers help out.
Good afternoon everyone!
The 1958 death certificates are online and we are ready to begin indexing the certificates to include the decedent’s parent’s and spouse’s names.
Here is the link to log in: https://s1.sos.mo.gov/records/archives/evolunteers/. Go ahead and reread the instructions to get yourself back in the groove and here are some reminders about some of our most frequently asked questions:
· Try your best! If something is messy or hard to read, do the best you can. Two to four indexers look at each record, so if you cannot read something, that is perfectly all right. There is no need to mark the certificate with “Illegible, Invalid or Missing Field(s).”
· Remember to always put a period after an initial or abbreviation, even if there isn’t one on the certificate.
· Only use the “Missing Name (Blank/Infant/Unknown/Unnamed)” note when the deceased person’s name is missing or unknown. If a parent or spouse’s name is missing, don’t flag the certificate or put “Unknown” in the indexing field.
· If the decedent is an infant without a first name (i.e. Infant, Baby Girl/Boy, Unknown, Twin A/B), make sure to add the note “Missing Name (Blank/Infant/Unknown/Unnamed).”
· Don’t forget the age! This will allow us to reverse engineer the year of birth. We’re just interested in the year, not months or days. Anyone under a year old should get a 0 in the year field.
· There’s no need to mark if the spouse is dead or divorced. We just need their name. If all it says is “Deceased” or “Divorced,” leave the field blank.
· If a parent or spouse has a prefix or suffix (Dr., Sr., etc.), you can ignore it.
· If a Social Security Number is too short or too long, mark it as “No” and add the note “Invalid SSN”.
· If a Social Security Number has a letter at the end, such as 123-45-6789A, ignore the letter and enter the last four digits. The letter corresponds to a person’s Social Security claim and is not part of their Social Security Number.
· Be careful once you get to St. Louis certificates. If the “County” field is blank, mark the dropdown menu as “St. Louis City.”
It is also important to note that Vital Records began using a new form in 1958, which included the spouse’s name. Some of the 1958 death certificates do not include a field for the decedent’s spouse (in which case, you can leave the spouse’s name blank when indexing). This is something you will want to be aware of when you are indexing.
As always, let me know if there are questions at any point along the way and most importantly, have fun!
Sincerely,
Daniel Reeder
eVolunteer Coordinator
Missouri State Archives
PO Box 1747
Jefferson City, MO 65102
(573) 522-6036
Ups Downs Family History 