Genealogy Chat

hi all, just got 2 death certs for my 4x g/g father and 4xg/g mother both came in the same envelope. on my g/fathers cert it says age at death 64yrs but on the general cert information it says 60yrs, he died of pneumonia 6 days.my 4x g/gmotheri only got her birth cert and not the general cert information her age is given as 64yrs on her death cert, no general cert informationcame for her she died of disease of brain 2yrs paralysis. but on both certs i dont know the names of the people at the deaths hazel.

Not sure what you mean by 'the general cert'? There are 3 certs you can get - births, deaths, marriages. nell

hi nell i mean the coloured piece of paper that comes with the birth/death/ marrage/ certs it has GRO referance informationon it hazel

That's like a delivery note. Are you saying what you ordered isn't the same as what you got?

hi nell, no only that the age differance on my g/fathers cert says that he's 64yrs . on the coloured piece of paper it says that he's 60 yrs of age and i was wonering which one would be right . hazel.

It is possible that both could be wrong,the age on death certs is only as good as the information given to the registrar,it depends who was giving the details and how much they knew. The difference between the documents is probably due to a typo for the general cert slip,but i wouldn't trust the age on the cert too much either. Glen

Glen's right. The age on the cert would have been recorded at the time the death was registered, but would be dependent on the informant's knowledge. Quite often deaths are out by a few years. On the other hand, the purple slips are produced to send out as certs are requested, so its either a typing error, or the person producing it misread the final digit. nell

hi glen i've just being doing a bit of substractionif my g/mother died in 1852 and was born in 1786 that would have made her 66yrs old, not 64 or 60 yrs old thanks glen hazel.

As you don't recognise the informants on the death certs, its possible they weren't very well known to the deceased which might account for the ages being wrong (if they were!). Sometimes, but not always, relationship to the deceased is included in the informant's details. If you don't recognise them, they might be married daughters?

hi nell, the name on the certs are ann cursell, and a pheobe jackson i was wondering if my g/mother was put in some kind of home as when my g/father died she left northaw hertford and went to highgate london where some of her children were living the address is park place north hill highgatei have all of her childrens names and ann and pheobe were'nt her daughtersthats what makes me think that she might have been in a home of some kind hazel.

If she died in 1852 - Have you found her on 1851 census? If so, was she at the same address? - Was it a residence or a home/hospital? Were the informants in the same household, or living nearby? Dea x

hi dea , sorry i was called away, no i cant find her on the 1851 census i've got her on the 1841 but cant find her after that hazel.