Gaps in Ancestry.com Death records

I receive a newsletter weekly from Pat Gooldy of Ye Olde Genealogy Shoppe. The following is an excerpt from her latest newsletter that I thought I should share with the group.

Emilie

I belong to an online newsletter called "Librarians Serving Genealogists", which comes out daily with interesting information and inquiries. It is a free newsletter and, although anyone can join it, it is aimed mostly at genealogical librarians. The general public will find the information of limited use. They do not answer research questions from the general public. Recent inquiries and answers concern how to give a lecture on the services offered by (and differences) between Ancestry.Com and ProQuest, what services and materials area are needed when setting up a new genealogy library, how to interact more with the public etc.

Recently, this information came in one of the emails, and I thought I would share it with you. The names of the librarians involved have been deleted since there is no purpose is listing them here.

Question: Twice I have found a California Death Record in both the vital search- ca.com website and the microfiche California death records that we have in our library, but failed to find it in the California Death Records on the Ancestry Library edition database. I didn't find it under the name nor under the social security number no matter how I searched. Has anyone else noticed a problem like this?

Answers:

1) We don't have the California death indexes in our library, so I can't say for sure about those records. However, I do know that the Washington Death Index as it appears on AncestryLibrary is incomplete. The database is supposed to cover Washington deaths from 1940-1996, but routinely deaths from the 1950s and early 1960s and even some from the 1970s do not show up. But those deaths are on the microfilm. There doesn't appear to be any explanation for the gaps, and it's been that way for several years. I don't know if they are updating the database or not. Knowing that the Washington Index is so spotty has made me suspicious of the other death indexes on AncestryLibrary. Your experience with the California records seems to confirm those suspicions. I know no index is ever perfect, and I am grateful for the records that are there. But it would be nice if Ancestry could add a note or something explaining that there are gaps, or that the indexes are being updated--so
me clue!

2) In the Washington State Death Index on Ancestry there is a 10 year period (roughly 1955-1965) when there were only about 6 people who died. If you search the index with just the year, you'll see most years in this period show 0 deaths. If ancestry fails, we always check the microfilm. 9.5 times out of 10 we find the listing there.