Genealogy Chat

Hi - could someone tell me how to go about getting hold of reports from an inquest, please?

You can contact the appropriate records office to ask if a copy of it has survived through the years or / and check local newspapers for reports. I believe that there is a 75-year closure on them. I obtained two from the records office in Ipswich.

Thanks for that, but what exactly do you mean by the records office?

It could be helpful for you to explore a website of a records office to see what is held at them - for instance, in Devon: http://www.devon.gov.uk/record_office.htm and in Cheshire: http://www.cheshire.gov.uk/familyhistory/

For the one I wanted I asked the family history centre in the area and they found the newspaper reports for me.

I needed details of an inquest from 1859. I wrote to the coroner of the district giving details, he passed the details to an archivist and they sent me a copy of the newspaper report, asking for a donation of £3 - bargain !

A copy of an inquest could not be found for one of my ancestors, but I was indebted to a kind lady who searched the newspapers and found a report of it. The fascinating things about copies of inquests are reading the reports of the witnesses, and seeing the actual signatures of the witnesses, particularly so if they are your relatives.

Thanks everyone for your help - I'll see what I can find!