Death Records of Kings County, New York

The home page of Ancestry advertises one of their latest offerings, vital and voting records of New York City (at least my version does). The voter records are from the 1900s. The vitals start in the late 1700s.

Landing page Ancestry.com
New Release: New York City Vitals and Voter Records

I examined the findings of the vital records in this previous article.

I have a lot of ancestry in New York City; thus, I have a lot of hints for most of my family trees. This link created by Ancestry streamlines the records of these new databases, curtailed just for me.

The result is a list of thousands of hints for births, marriages, deaths, and voting records of people in all of my family trees.

There was a hint for Reverend Dietrich Hermann Wrage (1831-1882). He was a German Evangelical pastor who taught and translated. As such, more was written about him than most other people of this time period. His obituaries provided the place and date of death. He died at the Kings County Insane Asylum in Flatbush (Brooklyn), Kings County, New York on May 2, 1882- one day after his 51st birthday.

Yet I could not find an entry for him in the New York City death indexes.

Obituary of Reverend Herman W Wrage
The Brooklyn Daily Times, New York
Thursday, May 4, 1882

His hint in the newest vital records collection.

Newest hint for Herman D Wrage, died 1882 in Brooklyn.
No certificate number is provided.

The link brings up the ledger book for deaths in Flatbush from 1880 through 1886.

Ledger Book of Deaths, Flatbush, New York 1880-1886
Line 1238: Hermann D Wrage died May 2, 1882 at Kings County Insane Asylum.
Occupation clergyman. Age 51. Married. Born in Germany.

Close up of Hermann's entry

I don't understand why Hermann received a line in this ledger book and not an individual death certificate. The individual certificates started in 1866 (or 1862 in Brooklyn).

Most of the entries are for the Asylum or other institutions.

The beginning of the book starts with entries immediately- no explanation as to how someone ended up in this book as opposed to an individual record of their own.

Margaret B Giddis died December 11, 1880 in Flatbush. No institution was mentioned. Her death was recorded in this ledger book.

Ledger Book of Deaths, Flatbush, New York 1880-1886
Line 10: Margaret B Giddis died December 11, 1880 in Flatbush.
Occupation housekeeping. Age 48 years, 2 months. Married. Born in Ireland.

Close up of Margaret's entry

Margaret's death appears in the Death Index- certificate 10. I typed this information into the online website of the New York City Department of Records and Information Services. 

Entry in index for Margaret B Giddis
Certificate 10

Certificate 10 of 1880 belongs to Hiram Miller (1800-1880). He was buried at Green-wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. Number 10 is too low to be at the end of a year.

Death certificate of Hiram Miller
died January 1, 1880 in Brooklyn

Entry in index for Hiram Miller
Certificate 10

Certificate 10 for Margaret Giddis must mean the number of the line in the ledger book- not individual certificate.

So why were some deaths recorded in the book, while others were recorded on an individual record?