[SanSalvador]

What are the best ways to do this? Is it free? I know the person's first and last name and the year he died and the state he was living when he died.

[howard555]

Go to the county website in the county which they died. There you will finding instructions or forms to get the death certificate and there will surely be some sort of fee to get it, made payable to the vital records office of that county or state.

The s.s. death index can tell you if their death was verfied by a family member or by the death certificate.

[OhBeeHave]

I had to get a copy of my ex-husband's death certificate. NYS does not give them out easily. I had to prove who I was and why I needed it -- I needed an outside source to also write on my behalf.