Genealogy Chat

I have just received my GG Grandmothers death cert, I knew she had been murdered in 1951 so I was interested to know any info from the cert. The cause of death was described as '..... due to stab wounds to the back and chest PM' I presume the PM means that there was a Post Mortem. Also the death was registered at the time of the conviction/hanging of her murderer (Oct, she died August) and in the column for the informant it reads 're-issued due to inquest, Coroner for London' Can I get details of the Post Mortem or Inquest from anywhere? I would love to get hold of as much infromation on this as possible. Thanks for any advice....Kx

Maybe your local coroners office could help you Karen. Or Police or Law courts............maybe even your local registrar.

Hi Ann Thanks but the problem I have is that I am in Cumbria and the death occured in Kensington, I have the address of the death and the name of the coroner, could I write to 'someone' down there and ask for info? If so who would I ask? Kx

I'm not sure whether coroner's records as recent as 50 years ago would be released yet (I think it's usually 75 years). If she was murdered, there may be reports in the newspapers. You could try Times Online, which ought to be available in the larger libraries, to see if anything comes up.

Thanks Brenda, I have all the information from the Times, I have just been reading a copy of sites and I think I will have to come down to London at some point. On one site it said that Coroners only had to keep thier records for up to 15 years, then they are free to either destroy them or archive them. It also says that you have to gain approval from the current coroner to view the records unless the records are over 75 years old. Kx

I'm told they tend to do a fair bit of weeding, but murder cases ought to survive.