Genealogy Chat

Thanks again for your help. Gwyn seems to have got it right with her latest post - I had consulted "Ancestral Trails" (my FH bible) but had obviously misinterpreted the information, which I realised when I read it a second time!

It now seems most likely that the "s" against the first entry indicates that there was a subsequent corrected entry.

Penny

I believe that the 's' is as a result of a later correction that was made as a result of an error at the time of the original registration.

My dad died in the May but his death wasn't registered until the following quarter as there was an inquest. The death was actually registered by the coroner but unfortunately he didn't check with us first that he had all the details correct, and two errors were made, one with my dads name, the other with his date of birth.

The GRO index now has four entries, in my dad's case, all in the Sept quarter. However I have also seen instances where correction have been made against adjacent quarters, which probably implies that the 's' correction was made against the 'correct' quarter for the event, not realising the registration was originally made late.

These are the four index entries for my father, with the relevant page numbers. the 's' page is different to the other

1.Wrong name, correct dob - 0623s
2.Wrong name, wrong dob - 0016
3.Correct name, correct dob - 0623s
4.Correct Name, wrong dob - 0016

After 1969 the date of birth given in the death index is as stated by the informant registering the death.
I don't think GRO do any cross checking with birth certificates.

Gwyn

Hi everyone ...

Thank you so much for your interest and replies..

The two death registrations happened in the first and second quarters of 1970, so I don't think that the "s" relates to "September".

On the basis that the DoB given in the death indexes is only arrived at by comparing the age given at the time of death with the birth indexes, then these two entries refer to a birth registered in Stockport in (Dec) 1901. There is no other possibility.

However ... after sleeping on this last night, I've come to the conclusion that it could have been perfectly possible for two individuals with the same name to have died in the same registration district in consecutive quarters. One could have had his correct age recorded at the time of death, and the other could have had an identical YoD recorded - but the age of this second individual could have been incorrect and he could have been either several years older or younger. (I know that until I started my family history I would have been hard-pressed to guess the correct age of any of my grandparents or uncles/aunts!) Hence, two registrations with the same full name and DoB!

However, this still doesn't answer the "s" question ...

Penny

Maybe some additional information was included on the 2nd certificate.

I sent for a death certificate of someone who died in 1996, surname Newlands, as found on the GRO index on Ancestry.
I was really surprised to receive the certificate with her surname as BERRY, with Newlands listed as a previous name.
I then checked the entries which were identical apart from the surname.


Gwyn

It is possible to look at the original GRO index sheet on both freebmd and on ancestry


Click on original image ............ you might get a bit of an indication from looking at the two images.



sylvia

I would guess there was a correction to the first entry. If this were in the 2nd quarter, I presume the "S" refers to the September quarter. One often sees this on birth rerego's, although S '70 would be the more usual form.

Scotland handles rerego's slightly differently, recording them in a special register of corrected entries, rather than rewriting the rego almost like a fresh rego. There's an example on SP where the initial date of death is 17/2/1870, when the body was found. This was corrected on 30/12/1881 to read 28/12/1879, when the Tay Bridge collapsed - following some sort of inquest/commission, I think.
http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/content/help/index.aspx?r=554&404

Maybe there was an inquest. After 1874 deaths were required to be registered within 5 days.

Can anyone give me any ideas as to why an individual (identical full name and date of birth) would have had his 1970 death registered in two consecutive quarters in the same registration district.

Additionally, in the earlier entry the page number given in the index has a lower-case "s" directly after it (no space between). Does anyone know if this has an additional significance?

Any answers or ideas would be very welcome. Many thanks.

Penny