Hi all,
Unless you are related to the deceased, it may be difficult for you to get a death certificate. But here's some help that may get you closer to finding out.
First, don't bother with the National Personnel Records Center (Military Personnel Records). There was a fire there in 1973, and 80% of the records were destroyed. Also, forget the U.S. Department of Defense. They do only modern wars there.... Veterans Affairs is the U.S. government agency that deals with those who served (past tense) in the military or navy.
I found a link on the U.S. National Archives site (
https://archives.utah.gov/research/indexes/3769.htm) that took me to the Utah State Archives (Division of Archive Services, technically). There I found that death certificates for American casualties overseas in World War II were issued by a now-defunct U.S. agency, the Federal Security Agency. That agency had more to do with social welfare than national security. It "oversaw food and drug safety as well as education funding and the administration of public health programs and the Social Security old-age pension plan," according to Wikipedia.
The Utah website says this: "Even though these certificates were filed long after the date of death, it was necessary by law to obtain a death certificate before burial. They were issued by the Federal Security Agency to be filed at Utah's Bureau of Vital Statistics and they were accompanied by a federal health permit number which allowed shipment and burial in the United States."
Unfortunately, this information doesn't clarify the situation. I think it was the state of Utah that required a death certificate, because death and burial come under the purview of the individual U.S. states. So perhaps a death certificate was sent to Indiana for Lt. Heilman's burial by the Federal Security Agency. No guarantee, though. Also, and unfortunately, Indiana requires proof of relationship and proof of identity to obtain a death certificate (see this link:
https://vitalrecords.egov.com/CDC.VitalRecordsMVC.Web/Wizard/IN/Pricing/PricingInformation).
So this information is only informational (which is why it is called information). Governmental bureaucracies or agencies never clarify anything! But you might e-mail
Kfrogge@isdh.IN.gov at the Indiana State Department of Health. "K" in the email address stands for Kathleen. Last name begins after that letter. She is a program coordinator or some such title--one of the few people in the directory who wasn't a clerical assistant or data analyst.
A good place to go might be James Heilman's Find a Grave entry, where you can e-mail the gentleman who
created the entry on Find a Grave. He lives in Indiana, so he'll probably be able to help you with your search. (The person who currently maintains the entry lives in the state of Maryland--not close at all to Indiana). Be careful not to confuse these gentlemen. (Both are named John.)
James Heilman's funeral, according to the obits you linked to on Dropbox, was held at St. Patrick's Church in Kokomo, Indiana, with his brother Thomas officiating. Thomas Heilman is mentioned on the church's website in a list of priest's born in that parish, so the church might have some biographical info on him and might possibly be able to tell you if a funral home was involved in the funeral. The address for the church is 1204 North Armstrong, Kokomo, IN 46901. No e-mail address, unfortunately.
If you were to get a funeral home's name, a death certificate might be in the records there.
Finally, just found this in a search: a link to what may be his brother Daniel's picture (6 rows down, third from left) in his high school yearbook (at Kokomo High School, 1943:
http://www.howardcountymemory.net/item.aspx?details=9833.
Heilman is fairly common name in the U.S. Midwest, so a search by surname only might not be fruitful.
Regards,
John
