Rule for Sharing Death Cert. Pics

Question

What is the rule for posting pic of death certificate on a relatives profile page?  Thanks

Comments

Hi M. I'm not sure there is a specific policy. Of course you must observe any copyright requirements. If the person is recently deceased and you are not the closest living relative, this may be relevant:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Recently_Deceased_Strangers

Speaking personally, I would not use a death certificate as a primary image: that would be a sad way to illustrate a person's whole life.

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I agree, Jim. I just found the Death Cert for an ancestor of my great grandson.  It is full of good dates, names and places that confirm everything in one place. But the contributory cause of death was "Alcoholism - for years". We donʻt need to share that!

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Mmm... alcoholism often shows up as running in families, so that would be important data to know.

Back to the question of posting images of death certificates-- where did you get the image from? If you took it yourself of a physical certificate in one's family files, then yes, you could post it.

If you downloaded a copy from, say ancestry.com, you might be violating their terms of service if you uploaded the image to wikitree.

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As an example, ancestry.com has a large data base of Pennsylvania death certificates covering about 2/3 of the 20th century, and you can post a free-to-view image link for any of those on a WikiTree profile.  Alternatively, or in addition, you can transcribe all or part of the data on the certificate without violating anybody's rules.  (Often I can't read the doctor's handwriting for cause of death anyway.  :) -- looks just like the prescriptions he used to scribble on the little blue pads)!

Answer 1

For the U.S., this may be a helpful federal overview.

For states, this may be a helpful overview.