Palmer Death Records
Death records for Palmer are maintained by Alaska's Health Analytics and Vital Records Section at the state level. Palmer is located in Matanuska-Susitna Borough, and as with all Alaska boroughs, vital records are not kept locally. All requests for certified Palmer death certificates must go through the state HAVRS office. This page covers the request process and identifies resources for researching Palmer area death records, including Mat-Su Valley historical collections.
Palmer Overview
Palmer Death Records and the State System
Palmer serves as the borough seat of Matanuska-Susitna Borough and is notable as the site of the 1935 Matanuska Colony, when New Deal settlers were brought from the Midwest to farm the Mat-Su Valley. The borough does not maintain vital records. Death certificates for Palmer residents are held exclusively by the Health Analytics and Vital Records Section (HAVRS). The City of Palmer at cityofpalmer.org provides local government information but handles no vital records.
Alaska Statute AS 18.50 governs all vital records statewide. Death records are restricted for 50 years. Records from before 1975 are now public. Newer records require proof of an eligible relationship. Palmer's origins as a planned agricultural colony mean that its earliest formal death records date to the mid-1930s, when settlers arrived from the contiguous United States. These records are well-documented given the high level of federal and territorial government involvement in the colony project.
Requesting Palmer Death Certificates
Certified death certificates for Palmer are ordered through the state HAVRS system. Requests can be submitted in person at a state office, online through VitalChek, or by mail or fax. Email is not accepted.
The Anchorage office at 3901 Old Seward Hwy, Ste. 101, Anchorage, AK 99503, phone (907) 269-0991, is the most convenient state location for Palmer residents. It is open Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The Juneau office at 5441 Commercial Blvd., Juneau, AK 99801, phone (907) 465-3391, fax (907) 465-3618, is open the same hours. Mail requests go to Health Analytics and Vital Records, P.O. Box 110675, Juneau, AK 99811-0675.
The first certified copy costs $30. Additional copies at the same time cost $25. An apostille costs $42. A record verification costs $2.50. Online orders through VitalChek take 2 to 3 weeks. Mail and fax submissions take 2 to 3 months. All requests need a completed form, government ID copy, and payment.
Note: Submit through one method only to avoid duplicate charges.
Historical Records and Genealogy for Palmer
Historical death records for Palmer and the broader Mat-Su Valley are held at the Alaska State Archives in Juneau, at 395 Whittier St., phone (907) 465-2270. The Archives' FamilySearch partnership has digitized over 1.1 million documents from across Alaska, including records from the Mat-Su area. The Matanuska Colony settlers of 1935 are particularly well-documented due to the federal government's involvement in the project.
The Alaska State Library genealogy resources page provides additional tools for Mat-Su Valley research. Cemetery records for Palmer are indexed at Find a Grave and BillionGraves. The Mat-Su Borough website at matsugov.us provides local government contacts. For the broader Mat-Su area, the Social Security Death Index at FamilySearch covers deaths from 1962 to present.