The Texas Vital Statistics Office of the Department of State Health Services is the office in-charge of storing public records, including Texas Death Records. Death documents since 1903 can be found at the office. They are also stored at the county registrars office where they were originally documented. Deaths that were documented before 1903 can be found only at the registrars office.
Death documents have to exist at least 25 years before they are considered as public documents. And as part of public documents, any member of the public has the right to access them as long as they have the consent of the people, through a notarized statement, that have direct access to them such as family members. However, documents that have not reached 25 years are only accessible by the direct relatives of the dead person or anyone that has the consent from the court. If it has not reached 90 days after the person has died, a document may not be available for request yet.
A request form can be obtained from the Vital Statistics office or downloaded from their website. There is a charge of $22, payable through check money order, or cash for every request and there is no money-back guarantee for documents that are not found. The documents may be received on the same day or a few days depending on its availability. A person may also choose to mail their requests for a charge of $20 each and the return period takes around 6 to 8 weeks. The process can be done faster but there are additional charges involved.
When making a request, it is crucial to supply as much details about the document. The more details are supplied, the better the chances are of locating the right document. If the exact year of the document is unknown, an estimate of years should be included so the process does not become that long. Vital details that are required to be supplied include the name of the dead person, date and location where the person died, birth date, and more.
In this modern day and age, Free Death Records can now be obtained from online search tools. The court allows certain search tools to supply such documents to the public upon request. There are two kinds of search tools: free search tools and search tools that render fees. If you browse the Internet, there are several search tools you can find. More often than not, you will find one that will fit your search. Make sure that you perform a history check on various search tools to find out how credible they are.
More people are performing a Death Search nowadays because of the ease of accessing them online. With just a computer, a connection to the Internet and knowledge of the full name of the dead person, a search can be performed wherever you feel comfortable. There is no need to wait for long periods of time because results are instantly displayed on your computer.