Reading a Death Certificate

I have read many death certificates as a part of my family history research. Often times I found numbers written by hand in the margins and in the middle of the page. I just assumed that they were some codes used in filing the death certificates so I did not pay much attention.

Today, I was looking at a death index from the State of New York. One of the columns was labeled "cause of death." The contents of that column were all numbers. The numbers were mostly 3 digits long. Being curious as to the cause of death of a relative, I was curious what those numbers meant.

There is an international classification of diseases (IDC) that has been in existence since the early half of the twentieth century. It has been revised over the years and is now replaced with a different coding system.

I revisited the images of death certificates that I have. My great-grandmother's death certificate was one of the first at which I viewed. Her name was Anna Stevens Stoutenburg so it was near the top of the list of files. She died in 1955. Since I remember visiting her and the dresses she made for me, I was hoping that I would find a handwritten number somewhere on her death certificate.

In the left margin were written three numbers, one on top of the other. They were 277, 270, and 99. None of these numbers in the 1948 revision of the IDC fit with her cause of death. It is written on her death certificate that she died of a cerebrovascular accident, i.e., a stroke.

I found 270 also written in the part of the form that gives her usual residence. Next to the name of her spouse, I saw written 331X. In the IDC, 331 is the code for cerebrovascular accident. Now I knew what the cause of death of the distance New York cousin.