Rhode Island Death Records

Enter a first and/or last name to search Rhode Island death records. This website was created to provide genealogists with access to the Rhode Island death records from a single place. Additional information on how to obtain Rhode Island death certificates is available below.

Search death records for other states.

Rhode Island death records

Death records contain information about a person's death, including the date of death, place of death, sometimes the names of the mother and father, and even the physician who attended the death. Death certificates issued by state and local governments will often include the place of residence, and the mother's maiden name.

This webpage gives you access to all of the online databases containing Rhode Island death records, Rhode Island death ceritificates, Rhode Island death notices, Rhode Island death indexes, and other related Rhode Island genealogy records.

Death records have long been used to help with genealogy research. They are considered to be "primary source" records, because the information is recorded by an eye witness, at the time the death takes place. The Internet has allowed people to store death records into various online archives. This has brought access to online death records much more easier for genealogy researchers.

Newspapers frequently publish notices of deaths, and in addition to death certificates, are a popular source of research by genealogists.

On this page you will find the most comprehensive databases containing death records of Rhode Island. We also suggest searching for "Rhode Island death records" using Google.com, which will yield all such databases.

Search the Rhode Island Death Records Database

Enter a person's name to search the Rhode Island death records database

           
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How to Obtain Rhode Island Death Certificates

Though earlier vital records have been gathered and abstracted in James N. Arnold's Vital Record of Rhode Island, 1636-1850, 21 vols. (Providence, R.I.: Narragansett Historical Publishing Co., 1891-1912), statewide reporting did not begin until 1853. From that time, copies of vital events recorded in towns were sent to what is now the Rhode Island Division of Vital Statistics. Many records prior to 1894 are now in the state archive. Towns, for the most part, still hold originals in the clerk's office.

For birth and marriage records from 1 January 1894 and death records from 1 January 1948, write:

State of Rhode Island
Dept. of Health, Division of Vital Records
Cannon Building
Room 101
75 Davis Street
Providence, RI 02908

For earlier records, write:


Rhode Island State Archives
337 Westminster Street
Providence, RI 02903

For prior records, write to the clerk of the county in question.

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