California began indexing death records from various counties before July 1905 but the state did not require indexing until July 1905. Although the state ordered the keeping of records, this order was NOT enforced and each county kept records according to the notion of the local County Recorder. My ggggf died in San Francisco in 1895 and I've looked at the register. It listed his name, place of birth, date of death, age and reason. I was told not to waste my money on the death certificate because it would only have that information. Death certificates have evolved over the years to include a lot more information but in 1903 the information collected was very sparse.