What to do if you don't have the names of the Deceased Person's parents
I have an ancestor who emigrated from Ireland with his wife and all of his children to the United States in the 1700's. My ancestor, John McCullough (or McCollough), died in 1812. I know where he is buried, Longs Methodist Episcopal Cemetery in Cross Creek, Jefferson County, Ohio. And I have all of the birth/death information for his children and his wife's maiden name.
However, in order to order a death certificate...I have to know the names of John's father and mother (including her maiden name). This is the information I'm trying to find! According to all of my ancestry information, John and Jane McCullough left their siblings (if any) and parents back in Donegal, Ireland. In order for me to research my Irish roots in Ireland...I need more info on his parents!
Help! Megan
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Re: What to do if you don't have the names of the Deceased Person's parents
It's not clear who you want to order the death "certificate" from, as Ohio didn't require death certificates until 1867. But as a general rule, most organizations that ask for parents' names do so in order to make sure they pull the correct record. If you have the death date and general location, that is probably enough to narrow it down to a single record. So you should just indicate the parents' names as "Unknown".
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Re: What to do if you don't have the names of the Deceased Person's parents
Also order it directly from the county where they died. Do not use an online service like Vital Check.
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That is good in theory, but can backfire. I had death certificates that I was trying to obtain that teetered just after the time a county was beginning to issue them. When I called the county they just told me to go through the state, insisting that they didn't house any death certificate records whatsoever. Skeptical, I called again and spoke with someone else and they repeated the same thing. The state insisted that they didn't house any death certificates before X date, when I knew for a fact that this county was issuing them during the time I was looking for them.
I never did get anywhere between the two of them, but thankfully I found them on familysearch.org! Were it not for them I would have never gotten one because no one wanted to take the time to look. :( I was not in the position to go and look for myself either.
Sadly, in today's world people just don't care and aren't interested in helping. They look at our requests as an annoyance no matter how polite you may be.
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