The content of the death registration volumes was specified by law and did not change between 1852 and 1907. For each entry, the following information was recorded: name, race, sex, occupation, place of birth, and age of the deceased, names of parents and spouse of the deceased, date, place, and cause of death, place of burial, name and address of the person submitting the death certificate, date of the death certificate, and date the death was registered.
Although registration of deaths has been required since 1852, records for early years are very incomplete. For many counties, no registrations are included here for years prior to 1870. Several factors may have contributed to this situation. Prior to 1897, the filing of death certificates was limited to those deaths where a physician was in attendence. Many individuals no doubt died without a physician present. In other cases, the physician may have neglected to file the death certificate with the Register of Deeds. In some counties, the Registers of Deeds have earlier records on file which were not reported to the state and are therefore not included here.
