Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

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Preferred Citation

Portsmouth (Va.) Naval Hospital Death Certificates, 1944-1960. Local government records collection, Portsmouth (City) Court Records. The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va. 23219.

Acquisition Information

Transferred from city of Portsmouth to the Virginia Department of Bureau of Vital Statistics who transferred them to Library of Virginia under the accession number 37860.

Historical Information

Portsmouth was located in Norfolk County, which is now extinct. It was named by its founder, William Crawford, for the English seaport and was established in 1752. Portsmouth was incorporated as a town in 1836 and as a city in 1858.

The United States Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth, is the oldest continuously running hospital in the Navy. The site of this hospital is the approximate site of the circa-1776 Fort Nelson that was built in the mid-1770's. Fort Nelson was later abandoned and lay unused until 1827, when the commissioners of the Naval hospital fund were granted their request to build the first Naval hospital.

Scope and Content

Portsmouth (Va.) Naval Hospital Death Certificates, 1944-1960, consist of certificates of death that record: name, race, and sex of the deceased; date and place of death; name of the disease or cause of death; age at death; date and place of birth; occupation; marital status; whether an autopsy was performed; names of parents of the deceased; name of person giving the information; name of funeral director and location of funeral home where the deceased was interred; description of the informant (whether a physician, nurse, family member, or other person); place of death (such as Portsmouth, Va.; Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; Newfoundland, Canada; Puerto Rico; at sea; etc.); place of residence; interval between onset of disease or injury and death; if death by injury, where injury occured; and disposition of body (whether buried, cremated, or removed from locality).

Information is often missing from the records. If an infant had not been named at the time of birth or death, the entry would record only the surname or note "Smith, infant." Only the month appears for the date of birth or death in some instances. On death certificates, the names of parents of the deceased are occasionally omitted or unreliable.

Arrangement

Arranged chronologically.

Related Material

Additional Portsmouth Vital Statistic Records can be found on microfilm at The Library of Virginia web site. Consult "A Guide to Virginia County and City Records on Microfilm."

Adjunct Descriptive Data