General Genealogy: Death Certificates

 Since the Death Certificates of North Carolina (1909-1975) came out my research has taken on a few good turns, especially showing me some things that I overlooked.  What would be good to know is if areas like Washington,D.C. has the same thing.  Just curious about that.

Anyway, not all death certificates in N.C. during that time are posted.  This gives me a curiosity as to why. For instance, in a little rural area of Gold Hill, N.C., Rowan County, were I was born, I do manage to come across a few people like  mygrandmother Mattie Crowell House Ingram who died in 1942; her second husband Stokes Ingram died in 1931; yet no records show Mattie's first husband John House.  Check this out. According to the 1910 census I see John's name along with wife and children; then there is a marriage certificate of Martha and Stokes married  in 1913.  Somewhere either on 1910 or a year later, John died.  Yet no death certificate. Curiosity.

Joseph