Genealogy Chat

As the registration of deaths was not compulsory until 1875 has anyone had trouble finding a death record before that date .I cannot find a trace of great great grandfather John who seems to have disappeared without trace around 1850. His wife(or widow) remarried in 1858 but we know that they were not always widows!

Mike S

who are u looking for sometimes another pair of eyes helps

I cannot find a death registration for my great grandmother even though I have been given her death/burial details from parish records by a relative.

The GRO index does have errors and ommissions.

Also, some of the indexes for that period are very unclear and the original entry could be illegible. Have you searched the full index, quarter by quarter, year by year?

hi mike
i cannot find the death registration o my g g grandfather either
sharon

Hi again
Thanks for your thoughts folks. He was John Stephenson born in 1816 in Wolviston and lived in Newcastle upon Tyne.Recorded on last childs birth cert in Nov 1850 but no sign of him in the 1851 census.His wife Isabella is in the census with her three children but no sign of John in any category.
I have ploughed through the full indexes year by year from 1850 till 1865 when his son stated on his marriage cert his father John was deceased .I have looked at probably all the John Stephenson deaths from 1850 to 1865 in Northumberland and Durham,his birth county! Until I twigged the reference business it was costing a fortune for death certs!
I think I shall have to accept after these last years searching that John does not want to be found until HE is ready!
Thanks for letting me share this !

Mike S

Its births that weren't compulsory till 1875 .the registrar ,before then, had to go around his area and sign up births ,when it was realized that some births were being missed it became the responsibility of the parents to go to the Registrar within 42days of the birth .ie six weeks, and register the birth. A fine was imposed if this wasnt done.Mind you they had to catch em first!!. I have a birth of 1898 not reg cos the dad was an Army deserter and it would obvious he had been at home for the child to have been conceived lol!!

Registration was officially compulsory from 1837, but it was the responsibility of the registrar to collect the details for births and deaths. It was easy for some to slip through the net. Some parents still believed that is was sufficient for the child to be baptised.

Marriage registrations are much more complete as they were the responsibility of the vicar / curate in the case of church weddings, or the registrar himself for registry office weddings.

The rules were tightened up in 1874 when The Births and Deaths Registration Act made registration compulsory, imposing fines for late registration. The onus for registration of a birth was passed to the Parents, or the occupier of the house where a birth took place.

At the same time, the responsibility for recording a death was placed on a relation of the deceased. The registration had to be supported by a certificate signed by a doctor, and the death had to be registered within 5 days.

Is it possible to check parish registers for the area where the family were living in 1841 and 1851?
Did John register the child's birth in 1850?
He would not be the only possibly dead father to be named on a cert for decency sake.
The child's baptism might name him too and then you'd have to decide whether the mother would have lied to the vicar.
Burial records might show he'd already died or you may find a later burial which although registered locally, never made it onto the master GRO index.

Gwyn

Quoting from Mark Herber "Nearly all deaths were registered ..." which makes me wonder whether a few did slip through the net.

On the GRO site it also mentions deaths not registered for a year or so requiring an additional signature - I assume (maybe wrongly) that these are relatively recent involving autopsies etc but there may be other reasons.

Also, I read somewhere - one of the Family History magazines I think - that it is likely if the birth of one child in a family is not registered then none of them are likely to be. These are post 1875 registrations. I have exactly that problem with my grandfather and his 5 known siblings - I can find none of them!

Jill

Hello,Mike again

Thanks Bilbo for the chapter and verse on the 1874 registration act.It looks like people were not always registering deaths so had to be forcibly encouraged to do so!
Thanks also to Gwyn.I am making a pilgrimage from Bristol to the Newcasle area in the spring to see friends and family and will investigate parish records when I am there.

cheers

Mike S