Alabama Death Records: How to perform a Alabama Death Records Search

A number of service providers and organizations in Alabama demand that a death record/certificate be submitted to them before they can fulfill certain requests. 

If you're the dependent of a deceased person who subscribed to a pension fund when they were alive, you'd most likely need to get their death certificate sometime later. 

This is so that you can present it to the decedent's pension administrator whenever you need to claim their pension.

This also applies to other benefits(health, insurance, bonds, etc) that were once enjoyed by certain persons before their death, and which are to be transferred to their direct relatives. 

This article suggests measures you can employ to find death records in Alabama. 

Alabama Death Records Explained

Alabama death records are official documents that contain certain information about deceased persons within the state. 

They account for the personal information of the deceased along with other details surrounding their death, including the place and date of death, and the cause of death as well. 

What Can I Find On Alabama A Death Record?

Death records mostly contain few information about the deceased person. They include their full name, gender, race, age at the time of death, place of death, and last known residence. 

Other details comprise medical certification showing the cause of their death as well as the name of a direct relative. 

How Are Alabama Death Records Created?

Whenever a death is recorded in Alabama, the funeral director gets to compile and register the death certificate as per the Alabama Vital Statistics Laws § 22-9A-14. 

The funeral director usually serves as the mortuary in whose custody the corpse is first deposited. 

The decedent's next of kin or relative provides their personal information to the funeral director to be included as one-half of the information featured in the death record. 

The other part is presented as medical certification as filed by the deceased's physician or the chief medical officer of the health facility. 

Where Can I Find A Death Record In Alabama?

People who look to find death records in Alabama usually check at the state's official record custodian as well as on other third-party platforms. 

They get to pay some service/processing fees to go with their application and meet certain conditions as specified. 

Below is a description of the steps you can take and the channels to explore whenever you need to find Alabama death records. 

The Alabama Public Health Department 

The Alabama public health department is a state-run agency responsible for matters relating to the management of vital records, of which death records are an example. 

The Vital Records office(Health Statistics unit) of this department is charged with the distribution of death records to interested requesters. 

However, these requesters must be eligible to collect the record in question, either by virtue of their direct relationship with the deceased or as their legal representative.

The record custodian will also demand that you present an identification document and that the processing/service fees are duly accounted for in your application. 

This fee is scheduled as $15 for a certified copy of the requested death certificate and an extra $6 for each additional fee. 

And as the fee is non-refundable, you'll be given a “Certificate of Failure to Find" should your search not return any results. Your application will be submitted in person or by mail to:

Alabama Vital Records,
P.O. Box 5625,
Montgomery, AL 36103-5625

Interested persons can also call (334) 206-5418 and be directed to a customer service representative who can provide them with death record search services. 

The County Health Department

In order to use this option, you have to first locate the county where the death took place. 

Most of the county clerks in Alabama serve as the death record custodian for deaths that took place in their respective counties. 

There, you can mostly find earlier filed death records, available as far back as pre-1908.

You'd still have to be directly related to the decedent or be named as their legal representative for you to be granted access to the record in question. 

Other requirements include the submission of a valid state-issued ID card and a few of the deceased person's personal information.

Third-Party Websites

Third-party websites such as this one can prove useful for finding death records without posting any eligibility requirements for the requester. 

You only have to pay a subscription fee and create an account with the platform to be afforded access to the search portal and the results.

There are search fields designed for taking the name of the person named on the record and the state or city where the record is kept. 

Once you fill them correctly and click the search bar, a stream of matching results will be shortly displayed on your screen. 

You can narrow down the result field and find the one of interest to you in no time by providing additional information about the decedent.