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Civil registrations of deaths in Denmark can be used in addition to the deaths recorded in the church books. Death certificates (Dødsattester) are available for various counties (Amter) from 1840 to 1933 on microfilm at the Family History Library. Check the Family History Library Catalog for COUNTY - Civil Registration to see if they exist for your area. These records are organized first by year, then county (Amt), then roughly chronologically, so you need to know the date of death or at least the month and year to find the death certificate. Dødsattester include the deceased's name, age, marital status, occupation, residence, death date and place, and cause of death. Due to privacy laws, causes of death are not made public for 75 years, therefore the causes of death on records between 1890 and 1933 were covered over during the microfilming in 1965. Original records are apparently kept in the National Archives (Rigsarkivet) in Copenhagen. Examples of 3 dødsattester from 1877, 1890 (a suicide), and 1933 (with cause of death covered over) are below.
Death records were also kept by the police in Copenhagen (København Politikammeret Dødeblade) and exist from 1893 to 1923 on microfilm at the Family History Library (under København - Civil Registration). They are nicely arranged in order by surname, roughly alphabetically. These records include the deceased's full name, occupation, birthplace, age marital status, spouse's name, age and place of birth, names and ages or birthdates of children, residences with dates and addresses, and of course date of death. An example of a dødeblad from 1921 is at the bottom of this page.
Happy Hunting!
Lisa Petersen
1877 Death Certificate
1890 Death Certificate
1933 Death Certificate
1921 Death Record
