Douglas County Obituary Records

Douglas County obituary and death records are handled by the Chelan-Douglas Health District, the Washington State Digital Archives, and the Washington State Department of Health for older records. If you need to find a death certificate for someone who passed away in Waterville, East Wenatchee, or elsewhere in Douglas County, this guide walks through each source, the records they hold, how to order a certified copy, and where to look for older genealogical information. Many historical indexes are searchable online at no cost.

Chelan-Douglas Health District Vital Records

The Chelan-Douglas Health District serves Douglas County residents for death certificate requests. The district office processes orders for certified copies and informational copies of death certificates. The fee is $25 per copy for either a certified or a noncertified informational copy. Same-day expedited service costs an extra $10 and is only available Monday through Thursday. If you choose to receive your certificate by mail, allow one to three weeks. Priority mail costs $9 and regular mail costs $3 in addition to the base fee.

Acceptable proofs of identity are required for all orders and must meet the Washington State Vital Records documentation standards. If you need to make a correction on a certificate, review the DOH Affidavit of Correction form and instructions on the Department of Health website. The Chelan-Douglas Health District birth and death certificates page has the current application form and the full list of acceptable identity documents.

The Chelan-Douglas Health District VitalChek ordering page shown here is the official online ordering portal for Douglas County vital records.

This page allows Douglas County residents to order certified death certificates and other vital records through the state-authorized VitalChek service.

You can also order directly through the VitalChek website for expedited online processing. VitalChek is the only state-contracted third-party vendor for Washington vital records. Online and phone orders through VitalChek start at $40.50 per certificate and typically ship within 3 to 7 business days.

The VitalChek general order page shown here provides access to Douglas County death certificate orders on an expedited basis for residents who prefer online service.

VitalChek processes Douglas County vital record orders securely and ships certificates faster than the standard state mail process.

Washington State Digital Archives Death Index

The Washington State Digital Archives Death Certificate Index includes Douglas County deaths from 1907 through 1960 and 1965 through 2017 as part of a 2.3 million record statewide database. The index is free to search. Records from 1907 to 1960 were transcribed by volunteers and often show more detail, including cause of death, place of burial, and names of survivors. Entries from 1965 to 2017 came directly from the Department of Health and include the name, death date, county, and certificate number.

Images of actual death certificates are available for records more than 25 years old through the related Department of Health, Death Certificates collection at the Digital Archives. That collection covers July 1, 1907, through 1997 and contains more than 2.28 million records. Not all records in that collection have been scanned and indexed yet, as the project is ongoing. If you find an index entry and need a certified copy, contact the Center for Health Statistics at (360) 236-4313 or (360) 236-4312.

Death index entries for 1961 through 1964 are only available on microfilm at the State Archives in Olympia and are not in the online system.

Douglas County Historical Death Records

Douglas County was formed in 1883 from parts of Lincoln County. The County Auditor kept death records before 1907, and those early records are part of the Washington State Archives system. For deaths before July 1, 1907, researchers should search the state digital archives website for county auditor death registers or contact the Central Regional Archives in Ellensburg for the physical originals. Some county death registers have been microfilmed and are available at the Washington State Library in Olympia.

The Washington State Library vital records LibGuide provides guidance on locating Douglas County death records within its microform collection and explains how to submit a lookup request through the Ask-A-Librarian service. The library holds the Washington State Death Index for July 1, 1907, through 2004, on microfiche and microfilm. Include a date range in your request because the index spans many reels. FamilySearch also holds Washington County Death Registers from 1881 through 1979 and Washington Death Certificates from 1907 through 1960 as indexed collections that are free to search.

The Chelan-Douglas Health District serves both counties, which means the Jones & Jones Funeral Home archive described in the Chelan County section may also cover deaths in Douglas County communities like Waterville, Bridgeport, and Mansfield. That archive holds roughly 27,000 records from 1906 through 2001 and can include funeral cards, obituaries, and death certificates not found in official state databases. Researchers tracing Douglas County families should check that collection when official records are thin.

Ordering Douglas County Death Certificates

You have three ways to order a certified death certificate for a Douglas County death: in person or by mail through the Chelan-Douglas Health District, online through VitalChek, or by phone through VitalChek. For deaths before the county health district's available window, orders go directly to the state. The Washington State DOH death records page explains the types of copies available and when to use each one.

For state mail orders, send your application and payment to the Washington Department of Health, Center for Health Statistics, P.O. Box 9709, Olympia, WA 98507-9709. State mail orders process within 8 to 10 weeks. To check on a mail order, email contactchs@doh.wa.gov or call 360-236-4300. The state's physical office for appointments is at 111 Israel Road SE, Tumwater, WA 98501. For phone inquiries, the CDC's Where to Write for Vital Records page for Washington confirms the Center for Health Statistics phone number is (360) 236-4300.

Under RCW 70.58A, Washington is a closed-record state for vital records. Only qualified applicants with a direct and tangible interest in the record can receive certified copies. Eligible requesters include the registrant if 18 or older, parents, spouse, domestic partner, children, siblings, grandparents, legal guardians, legal representatives, and people with a court order showing a documented legal interest. Anyone who does not qualify can receive a noncertified informational copy, which is marked as not valid for legal use.

Genealogy Resources for Douglas County Deaths

For Douglas County genealogy research, FamilySearch is a solid free starting point. The Washington County Death Registers from 1881 through 1979 and the Washington Death Certificates from 1907 through 1960 both include Douglas County records and are free to search with a FamilySearch account. The FamilySearch guide to Washington death records explains all the collections and how to use them, which is helpful if you are new to the state's record structure.

The Washington State Library in Olympia holds microfilm copies of county death registers for most Washington counties. For Douglas County, researchers can submit a specific name and date range lookup request through the Ask-A-Librarian service. The Central Regional Archives in Ellensburg is the appropriate branch for eastern Washington counties, including Douglas, and can assist with requests for records that are not yet digitized. Local newspapers in Waterville and East Wenatchee have published obituaries for Douglas County residents for many decades, and some of those notices have been extracted and added to genealogy databases.

Because Douglas and Chelan counties share a health district, many of the same genealogy resources apply to both. Researchers tracing Douglas County families often find it productive to search Chelan County collections in parallel, since community records, church rolls, and funeral home archives frequently cover both sides of the Columbia River boundary.

Cities in Douglas County

Douglas County communities include East Wenatchee, Waterville (the county seat), Bridgeport, and Mansfield. East Wenatchee is the county's most populated city and sits directly across the Columbia River from Wenatchee. No cities in Douglas County currently meet the population threshold for a dedicated city page on this site.

Nearby Counties

Douglas County borders several other central Washington counties, each maintaining its own vital records system.