Each entry has an assigned number, name of decedent, age, sex, race, color, term of residence, birthplace, marital status, occupation, last place of residence, causes of death, date of death, and name of the party making the report.
Many records have incomplete entries.
Beginning in 1898, each physician, clergyman, justice of the peace, and undertaker was required to keep a registry of the name, age, residence, and time of death of the decedent. Each person registering deaths filed quarterly with the county clerk or the local board of health in the case of incorporated cities. In 1905, the state passed a law requiring each county to file a uniform certificate with the State Bureau of Vital Statistics. These records are loosely chronological by year but not by month. Entries were recorded in order of report, not by date of death.