Sherri, If you are willing to pay $10-15 for gas, you may as well buy the certificate for $20 instead. I looked Edith up in the CT death index on Ancestry.com. Her residence was Bridgeport when she died, but she died in Newtown, a town about 20 miles north. Here is the info from the index:

Name: Edith Welch   

Death Date:     24 Mar 1962

Death Place:    Newtown, Fairfield, Connecticut

Age:    76 Years

Birth Date:      abt 1886

Marital Status:             Widowed

Spouse:            Robe

State File #:     05619

Residence :      Bridgeport, Fairfield, Connecticut

Gender:           Female

Race:   White

You can send a check for $20 to the town clerk in Newtown and ask for the record. You should call before you do that just to see if they also want a photocopy of your driver's license. It is a fairly small town and there are no hospitals there, so they should be able to fill your request pretty quickly.

The death record will have the name of Edith's parents and her birth place (if that information was known by the informant). However, since the informant was probably the same person who provided information for the obituary, maybe you should move to plan B. On the other hand, the informant may have known the names of her parents but just had the town of birth wrong. In that case, you could find them on the census in a different town.

Plan B is to get her marriage record. She would have been the person to provide information on that record. Since the event took place in the 20th century, we can expect the form was filled in completely.

You can try writing to Bridgeport for that (also $20), but they are a far busier office and it will take longer. For a volunteer to get a record for this time period, they would have to go to Bridgeport's VR office or to the Vital Statistics office in Hartford. It is too late to be on microfilm at the State Library.

Good luck. Let us know how you do.

Nora

Hi Nora, Thank you for your helpful suggestions. I was able to obtain Edith's death certificate through a bit luck and a helpful woman at the funeral parlor. Unfortunately it gave me no additional information, other than her exact birth date and cause of death. I had only the month and year. On my next trip to CT. I wanted to return to the Bridgeport Library Research room and look at their collection of City Directories. Also I thought I would join the Stamford Genealogical Society, so I would be able to research more effectively. If Edith married in Bridgeport. that would be easy. I want to get my grandfathers birth certificate. I recently obtained his death certificate in Annapolis at their  Archives for a quarter, with a personal visit there. His father's place of birth is unknown, as is his place of death. It would be great if CT. Vital Death records where to go online like the PA. certificates have been on Ancestry. Any other suggestions you may have would be most welcome. Thanks again !

Hi Sherri, I happened to be at the State Library and checked the marriage index. There is no marriage between Robert Welch/Welsh/Walsh and Edith Wells in the database. I found two marriages for a bride named Edith Wells, one to Frederick Dunning in Fairfield in 1900 and the other to James Gilmore in 1909 in Stamford. No bride Edith with those surnames married Robert Welch.  Nora

PS. Stamford Genealogical Society is now Connecticut Ancestry Society. We'd be happy for you to join.