Thanks to the efforts of WPGS, death records from over 100 years are available online

“Pastiche of a US death certificate with falsified data. Death certificate with a black ribbon and a single white rose, symbolized by a silver clock set to midnight.”

(WJET/WFXP) – Over 100 years of Allegheny County death records are available online for the first time.

On Saturday, June 22, the Western Pennsylvania Genealogical Society (WPGS) announced that it has digitized 28,500 death records from Allegheny County from 1893 to 2005.

Before records were digitized, those who wanted to view a death certificate had to submit a request and wait for the WPGS to make them a copy.

The records are now available online and can be viewed by the public free of charge.

Pamela Israel, current President and Director of Archives of the WPGS, spoke about the hard work that has gone into digitizing these records.

“A team has spent many volunteer hours over a year scanning and reviewing these records in partnership with Allegheny County. We are pleased to offer this resource to the public on the 50th anniversary of the WPGS,” Israel said.

She also explained why access to these records is so important.

“Genealogists know that finding an official death record often leads to invaluable facts, or at least clues, that help understand an ancestor’s past. Sometimes a death record is the breakthrough that helps people go back a generation in their research,” Israel added.

Anyone who would like to view the digitized records can do so on the WPGS website.