Somerset County Obituary Records

Somerset County obituary and death records are maintained by the county health department in Westover, the Maryland Division of Vital Records, and the Maryland State Archives. Located on Maryland's Lower Eastern Shore, Somerset County has colonial-era records dating back to 1649 and a specialized set of regional genealogical databases that serve the Lower Delmarva. This page covers how to request death certificates in Somerset County, which archives hold older records, and what unique resources exist for Lower Eastern Shore research.

Somerset County Death Certificates

The Somerset County Health Department handles death certificate requests for deaths that occurred in the county. Their office is located at 8928 Sign Post Road in Westover, MD 21871. The main phone number is 410-651-1275. The health department can provide certified copies of death certificates for deaths from 2015 onward. For older records, the Maryland Division of Vital Records or the Maryland State Archives is the correct place to request them.

When you contact the Somerset County Health Department, bring or have ready the full name of the decedent, the approximate date of death, and documentation showing your relationship. Staff at the Westover office can explain the current fee schedule and acceptable payment methods. In-person requests are generally handled the same day when records are in the system. Mail requests take longer. Calling ahead at 410-651-1275 before your visit is a practical step that can save time. The county website at somersetcountymd.gov has general information about county offices and services.

For deaths before 2015, contact the Maryland Division of Vital Records at 410-764-3038 or visit health.maryland.gov/vsa/. You can also order certified copies online through VitalChek for a convenience fee.

Maryland State Archives for Somerset County

The Maryland State Archives in Annapolis holds historical death records for Somerset County. Their main portal is at msa.maryland.gov, and you can reach them by phone at 410-260-6400. For Somerset County specifically, the archives hold Board of Health death records from 1912 to 1931 under collection MSA C1760. These records cover a period of early formal death registration in the county and are useful for genealogical work on families active in the early twentieth century.

Before the statewide registration system was in place, death documentation in Somerset County relied on church registers, funeral home records, and local government files. Many of those records are also held at the archives or in affiliated research centers. The Maryland State Archives death records guide explains how to identify which collection covers the time period and county you are researching. Their staff can help you narrow down the right request if you know the name and approximate year of death.

The archives death records guide at msa.maryland.gov is an essential reference for any serious genealogy project in Somerset County. It lists each collection by county and date range and describes what the records contain and how they were created. Researchers new to Maryland genealogy should review this guide before placing any formal records request.

Edward H. Nabb Research Center

The Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History and Culture at Salisbury University is the premier regional resource for Lower Eastern Shore research, including Somerset County. The center's website is at salisbury.edu/nabb-research-center/. Their holdings include family histories, manuscript collections, newspapers, land surveys, and genealogical indexes covering Somerset, Wicomico, Worcester, and Dorchester counties. For anyone researching Somerset County deaths, the Nabb Center is a critical stop.

The center's newspaper and obituary collections are particularly deep. Local Eastern Shore papers ran death notices and full obituaries for residents of Princess Anne and the surrounding communities going back into the nineteenth century. Nabb Center staff are skilled at helping researchers navigate these collections, many of which are not available anywhere else. The center is open to the public and does not require institutional affiliation to use their reading room or request materials.

Note: Contact the Nabb Research Center at Salisbury University before visiting to confirm current hours and whether a specific collection is accessible.

Enduring Connections Database

The Enduring Connections project at Salisbury University produced a searchable database of Maryland death certificates for Somerset, Wicomico, and Worcester Counties from 1910 to 1922. The database is available online at enduringconnections.salisbury.edu and contains 6,008 records. It is one of the few online-searchable databases of early death certificates for this region of Maryland. The database includes records of African American deaths, which are sometimes missing from other indexes of the same period, making it an important resource for all lines of family research in Somerset County.

Each record in the Enduring Connections database typically includes the name of the decedent, age, date of death, cause of death, and sometimes the names of parents or spouse. These early death certificates were recorded by local registrars and often contain more detail than later standardized forms. If you are tracing a Somerset County family line that was active in the early twentieth century, this database is one of the first places to search. It is free to use and can be searched by name, county, or year.

Historical Obituary Collections

Somerset County's most notable historical death resource is its colonial-era burial records. The collection Somerset County (1649-1720) contains some of Maryland's earliest surviving burial documentation. These records predate formal vital registration by more than two centuries and are held at the Maryland State Archives. For researchers tracing families with roots in early colonial Maryland, Somerset County's records from this period are among the best preserved in the state.

Two compiled newspaper resources also cover Somerset County obituaries from the nineteenth century. Deaths of the Lower Delmarva (1835-1840) is a focused resource that draws from multiple papers serving the region during that period. The Omega Connections: Obituaries from Eastern Shore of Maryland Newspapers (1850-1900) is a broader compilation covering the second half of the nineteenth century. Both works pull death notices from papers that no longer exist and organize them in a form that genealogists can search by name and approximate date.

The Internet Archive also holds digitized Maryland newspapers and documents that can supplement the physical collections at the archives and the Nabb Center. Searching for Somerset County newspapers in the Internet Archive's collection can sometimes surface obituary images that have not been indexed elsewhere. This is a useful secondary search step after you have exhausted the major collections described above.

Cities in Somerset County

Somerset County includes Princess Anne as its county seat along with several smaller communities. None of the communities in Somerset County currently meet the population threshold for a dedicated city page on this site. Death and obituary records for all communities in the county are handled through the Somerset County Health Department in Westover or through the Maryland State Archives for older records.

Communities in Somerset County include Princess Anne, Crisfield, Eden, Marion Station, and Westover. For all of these areas, the county health department and state archives sources described above are the correct places to request records.

Nearby Counties

Somerset County is on Maryland's Lower Eastern Shore. For records research, Wicomico County to the north is the nearest county with a comparable set of resources and archives access.