Genealogy Chat

Using the valuable insights of members in response to previous posts,plus my own research,I have reached the conclusion that the supposed death of my husbands g-grandmother was either "fiction" [we are in the process of looking for weddings] or did not make the official records.

My question is : How comprehensive are the Death Records for say 1886 to 1895 for Dorset/Somerset/Devon/Glamorgan - or put another way,would it be rare for a death to not be officially notified ?

Shirley

It would be rare for a death not to be registered at this time. The law was actually tightened up in 1875 after which most deaths had to be certified by a doctor and registered with 5 (I think) days.

Have a look at this site - it has a wealth of info on BMD's

http://home.clara.net/dixons/Certificates/indexbd.htm

other things to consder are the way names are recorded.
People are sometimes recorded under an incorrect name, or their age is slghtly out - depends who gave the infomation at the time

Very rarely are deaths not there at all

The death was probably registered but ...

Errors may occur in the index itself as it was the responsibility of the local registrar to report the registration of deaths to the district superintendent registrar who then sent a quarterly report to the Registrar General in London and at each stage the information could be mistranscribed or even omitted.

If the registration cannot be found in the main index, and the area of death is known, then it would be advisable to apply to the local register office to see if the registration can be traced.

Names can be omitted from their correct place in the index and they are then shown at the end of the page as an additional entry and therefore when searching a check should be made at the bottom of the page for any such entries.

If the death cannot be found in the index then there is the possibility that it took place outside of England and Wales. The indices for Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, at sea and overseas would then need to be searched.

Good luck

Chris

Yes, unfortunately some deaths were not registered. One instance - my great-grandfather's burial record it is hoped has been found, there is a splodge over the age, but there is definitely no registration for his death.
And I know of a few other instances.

Thanks for the prompt responses-much appreciated,particularly as it is early morning in the UK.My post was added from Australia.

It will be a sad day if we finally have to leave g-grandma in the "we think " category,but there is still the hope that she actually married after she gave birth to grandfather [aged only 16,and unwed].

Shirley