Be aware that information in a death record about the deceased’s parents, birth date, birthplace, and so on may be inaccurate since the person who gave the information may not have had complete information.​¹

​Deaths from the early years of civil registration should be searched with special care as they may give information about people born in the eighteenth century with greater detail than the parish records. Such records are especially important where parish records have been destroyed.

Before the invention of photocopies, when people requested a copy of a death record, the civil registration officials would provide a certificate or extract of the record. Death certificates could be a literal and complete transcription of the record or an extract of the same.

The Portuguese terms used to refer to these are usually: Registro de óbito, certificado de óbito, certidão de óbito, atestado de óbito, certidão verbum ad verbum.