Yakutat City and Borough Death Records
Death records for Yakutat City and Borough are maintained by Alaska's Health Analytics and Vital Records Section at the state level. Yakutat Borough does not keep vital records locally. If you need a certified death certificate or want to research historical records from this remote Southeast Alaska community on the Gulf of Alaska coast, this page explains the full process and identifies available historical collections, including Yakutat death certificates from 1937 to 1954.
Yakutat City and Borough Overview
How Yakutat Death Records Work
Yakutat City and Borough was incorporated on September 22, 1992, making it one of Alaska's newer borough governments. Like all Alaska boroughs, it does not maintain vital records. All death certificates for events in Yakutat are held by the Health Analytics and Vital Records Section (HAVRS) at the state level. The borough government handles local municipal services but refers all vital records requests to HAVRS.
Alaska Statute AS 18.50 governs all vital records statewide. Death records are restricted for 50 years from the date of death. Records from before 1975 are publicly available. Records from 1975 onward require proof of a qualifying relationship. Yakutat's remoteness and small population mean that historical records can sometimes be harder to find than for larger communities, making the Alaska State Archives and FamilySearch collections particularly valuable for researchers.
Statewide death registration began in 1913. Yakutat, located at the head of Yakutat Bay on the Gulf of Alaska, was part of the Juneau judicial district during the territorial period. Its records from the territorial era are part of the Alaska State Archives holdings, and key collections have been digitized through the FamilySearch partnership.
Requesting Yakutat Death Certificates
Certified death certificates for Yakutat City and Borough are ordered through the state HAVRS system. You can submit in person at a state office, online through VitalChek, or by mail or fax using the official form. Email orders are not accepted.
The Juneau office at 5441 Commercial Blvd., Juneau, AK 99801, phone (907) 465-3391, fax (907) 465-3618, is the closest state location to Yakutat. Walk-in hours are Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The Anchorage office at 3901 Old Seward Hwy, Ste. 101, Anchorage, AK 99503, phone (907) 269-0991, 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 each. An apostille for foreign use costs $42. A record verification costs $2.50. Orders through VitalChek take 2 to 3 weeks. Mail and fax submissions take 2 to 3 months. All requests need a completed application, government-issued ID copy, and payment.
Note: Use one submission method per request to avoid duplicate charges.
Historical Yakutat Death Record Collections
Through the Alaska State Archives and FamilySearch partnership, two key collections are available for Yakutat research. The Alaska, Yakutat, Death Certificates (1937-1954) covers deaths in Yakutat during a period of significant activity associated with World War II military operations and the post-war period. The Alaska, Yakutat, Marriage License Docket (1917-1949) is a companion collection that can help establish family relationships when working with death records.
The Alaska State Archives at 395 Whittier St., Juneau, AK 99811-0571, phone (907) 465-2270, is the official repository for these and other Yakutat territorial records. Researchers looking for death records before or after the digitized collection window should contact the Archives directly to find out what additional materials exist for the Yakutat area. The Archives' Vital Statistics by Name index provides a statewide name search that includes Yakutat records.
The statewide Alaska Vital Records 1816-2005 at FamilySearch and Alaska Vital Records 1818-1963 at Ancestry include Yakutat materials within the broader territorial registration system. The Alaska State Library provides genealogy resources covering all of Southeast Alaska, including Yakutat.