Genealogy Chat

My grandfather John e Rowlands died on sept 11th 1942, could anybody tell me if his full name will be on the death certificate as i am not sure what the e stands for. thanks mags

The information on a death cert is only as good as the informant who gave the information knew it to be.

If you know his date of birth then his full name will be on his birth cert. Give some details and let others look for you

It might do but that's only if the person that registered it knew it

What age did he die cos have you looked for his birth

hi my grandfather was born on 9th sep 1885 and the only match i can find in births is a john edward, but relatives seem to think it was john edmund because he called his youngest son this. I have been searching for months and cant find him in any of the census. He died in durham but we think he was born in Wales. Thanks for your quick replies

It could have been put down as Edward on the birth certificate instead of Edmund - the names do sound quite similar and perhaps whichever parent registered the birth didn't notice the spelling error? Or perhaps they wanted him to be John Edward and he later decided he preferred to be John Edmund? Or - if the registrar had very untidy handwriting perhaps it was written down as Edmund but the people compiling the GRO index interpreted it as Edward?

Of the two registrations, the Bangor one might be your better bet if he could have been Welsh (it's not far from the bridge that goes to Anglesey) - West Derby is in Liverpool.

is it possible for it to be missed off altogether as i have an aunt who was born on 7th dec 1915 and there is nothing, her name was margaret rowlands. She died on 23rd march 1976 margaret Hill at wigan. thanks for any help mags

Yes, it happens sometimes. My grandad's cousin was born Edith Elizabeth Atkinson Grayson but when she died, the death was just registered as Edith Grayson. I am guessing that the informant either didn't know that she had middle names or that she just didn't use her middle names.

It is possible Edward and Edmund could be transcription errors. I couldnt find my grandmothers birth who was Florence May. I found a Florence Mary and decided to get the cert. It was her with the correct parents.

Local offices sent their records every 3 months to GRO and that is where sometimes mistakes are made.
The only thing you can do is get his marriage cert which will give his fathers name and occupation. Then look for him in the census and see where he was born. Then check for a birth and use his fathers name from his marriage cert as a checking point.

Then pray he hadnt invented a fathers name for his marriage cert

The birth certificate may NOT have the full name on it

......... it was (and still is) quite common for a baby to be registered with only one name, and then a second or third name added at baptism. The birth certificate is not amended in such cases.



The only information on a death certificate that you can be certain is true is

date of death
place of death
cause of death
name of informant
address of informant
name of doctor/coroner
place of inquest


All other information about the deceased ........... full name, spelling of name(s), age, marital status, occupation ......... is only that which was known to the informant. Even a spouse or child will only know what he/she ash been told by the deceased.




sylvia

Hi there thanks to everyone for your replies, i think i will send for the john edward birth certificate and if it does not have sept 11th on i can eliminate at least one. My grandparents were never married so i cant go down that route