The Indiana Department of Health keeps the state death file in its Division of Vital Records, and its order certificates page tells readers in its first line to go elsewhere for speed: for faster service, place the order through the local health department where the death occurred, because walk in service is not available at the state office and a state death certificate order takes about 60 days. The state fee is $8 for the first certificate and $4 for each additional copy, payable to the Indiana Department of Health by check or money order, never cash, and the $8 is a non refundable search fee under Indiana Code 16-37-1-11 whether or not the record is found.
The state application, State Form 49606, is unusual in offering three products. The applicant checks a box for a certified copy, which requires proof of eligibility, a non certified copy, or a copy issued without the cause of death. Death records in the state file begin with 1900; before that year deaths were filed only with the local health department in the county where the death occurred, and for deaths from 1900 through 1917 the state asks for the city or county to find the entry.
- $8 and $4: the search fee includes one certified copy and each additional copy of the same record in the same order is $4.
- Three kinds of copy: State Form 49606 offers a certified copy, a non certified copy, or a copy without the cause of death.
- 60 days at the state: the quoted processing time for a death certificate from the Indiana Department of Health, with no walk in service; the county health department is faster.
- Direct interest: parents, spouse, adult children, grandparents, adult grandchildren, siblings, aunts, uncles, adult nieces and nephews, people with a legal interest, the assigned funeral home and genealogists for a decedent over 75.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Indiana's own systems: the Indiana Department of Health order certificates page, the department's identification and relationship requirements sheet, the department's issuances frequently asked questions, the department's general frequently asked questions, the department's death information page, State Form 49606, application for search of certified or non certified copy of a death record, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Direct interest, and who is on the list
Indiana Code sections 16-37-1-10, 16-37-1-11 and 16-37-1-11.5 set the fee, relationship and identification rules, and the department's identification and relationship sheet defines the test. The purchaser must have a direct interest, meaning a documented and verifiable financial and legal interest, or an immediate direct kinship, to the person named on the record. For a death certificate the eligible list runs to parents, the spouse, adult children, grandparents, adult grandchildren, siblings, aunts and uncles, adult nieces and nephews, anyone with a legal interest who can show a contract, agreement, title or court order, the assigned funeral home or director with an explanation on letterhead, and a genealogist when the person named on the certificate is over 75 years old.
The issuances questions add the edge cases. An ex spouse has no access to the former spouse's death certificate unless a legal direct interest can be proven, and a step parent does not have the same access as a parent. A power of attorney is the department's definition of an authorized representative. Requests sent without proper identification or entitlement documents are returned unprocessed, and the department mails certificates only to the current valid address on the applicant's identification, with post office boxes excepted.
Identification the state accepts
One primary document or two secondary documents are required, all current and valid, sent as legible photocopies because originals are not returned. The primary list is a government driver license or state card copied front and back, a military card copied front and back, a United States or foreign passport, a veterans card or the green Mexican consular card. The secondary list is a signed Social Security card, a Department of Correction card or printout with a picture, a college card with proof of current enrollment, a work badge with a computerized pay stub or employer letter, a voter registration card, a current vehicle registration with name and address, a DD214 and a lease, rental agreement or warranty deed with name, address and signature.
Amish applicants and others with a religious exception send a letter from the bishop or clergy with either one non photo identification or two of a signed Social Security card or IRS Form 4029, a baptismal certificate, a marriage certificate or school records.
Fees and the search rules
Each individual record search costs $8 and is non refundable, and the death information page explains why: under Indiana Code 16-37-1-11 the fee pays the office to search its records, the search includes one copy if the record is found, and a record cannot be identified as available before purchase because state vital records are not public and cannot be searched. Additional certified copies of the same record bought at the same time are $4 each, so the state form prices one certificate at $8, two at $12, three at $16, four at $20 and five at $24.
The fees exclude the processing charges of VitalChek for online or telephone orders and the extra cost of UPS shipping, and processing cannot be expedited, only the shipping.
When no record is found the department sends a No Record letter, which it says most government agencies accept. A certificate that never arrives in the mail is handled through a help desk ticket, and in most cases a new order must be placed.
State Form 49606 and the copy without a cause of death
The state death application is titled an application for search of a certified or non certified copy of a death record, and its checkboxes let the applicant pick a non certified copy, a certified copy that must meet the eligibility requirements, or a copy without the cause of death. The form asks for the decedent's name, the date and place of death and the date of birth, the applicant's relationship to the deceased, the number of certificates and a delivery preference of regular mail or express courier with a signature on delivery for an added fee.
It is mailed with the check or money order and the identification copy to the Vital Records Division at 2 North Meridian Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46204. The department notes on the form that deaths from 1900 through 1917 need the city or county of death.
Online, by phone and at the county
Online orders through the department are processed by VitalChek, which the department calls the only vendor it has authorized and approved, and telephone orders with a credit card go to (866) 601-0891, a toll free line open around the clock through the same company. The general questions page says payment is processed within 24 hours of receipt while the order waits its turn, that an online order ships only to the address on the identification, and that an order placed with a local health department is received sooner than one placed with the state.
The state has no counter for dropping off an application, though some local health departments offer walk in vital records service.
Why the state takes 60 days
The order page lists processing times of two to three weeks for a standard birth certificate, six to eight weeks for a long form birth certificate and 60 days for a death certificate, with 120 days for adoption records, and it warns that the times stretch during peak months such as holidays, travel season, tax filing season and school enrollment. The department's explanation is that it serves the entire state while a county health department serves one county.
A family that needs certificates within weeks of a death therefore orders from the health department in the county where the death occurred, which registers the record first.
Old deaths, disinterment and related records
The state file reaches back only to 1900, so an earlier death is a county matter, and a genealogist can order a certificate from the state once the person named on it would be over 75. The department also issues the permit needed to move a body from one cemetery plot to another, on an application to disinter, remove and reinter human remains that must be completed by the funeral director overseeing the move, with the consent order among spouse, adult children, parents and next of kin set out in the general questions.
A marriage license is applied for through the courts, and the department sells a Record of Marriage on State Form 54764; divorce and probate files are covered in the Indiana court records guide, and a deed passing to an heir is recorded with the county recorder described in the Indiana property records guide. The birth side of the division is in the Indiana birth certificates guide, and other agency requests in the Indiana public records law guide.
Questions about Indiana death records
Related Indiana records
Indiana readers can continue with the Indiana birth certificates guide for the same division, Indiana court records for probate, Indiana property records for the county recorder, the Indiana public records law guide, and the Indiana county pages for every local health department.