There is a debate if it’s only the indexes, copies of the indexed 4″x6″ cards, or if it’s actual copies of the death certificates. Here are two Maryland government links: http://guide.msa.maryland.gov/pages/viewer.aspx?page=death (you can scroll to the bottom and find more information with a link to the PDF for the year) and http://guide.msa.maryland.gov/pages/viewer.aspx?page=death. The second link makes it sound like it’s only the indexes.
From using the link in the first MSA Guide above, I chose a second link and it appears to be a mix of 4″x6″ index cards and death certificates. In this link, https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/stagsere/se1/se42/000000/000001/pdf/msa_se42_1.pdf, it was mostly the index cards with very few death certificates included.
The amount on the index cards varied greatly. Some had a lot of information and others very little. As a precaution, always take secondary information on death certificates with a grain of salt.
On my great-grandmother’s death certificate, the information was provided by her youngest son. Normally, a great source. The death certificate had so many “I don’t know” and “Can’t say” responses as to make it fairly useless. I appreciate some people don’t like to admit when they were born. I understand not knowing his mother’s birth name as she always went by a nickname. It was either Olive or Olivia according to several government documents.
Ups Downs Family History 