Genealogy Chat

Hello to all you clever people. I need to pick peoples brains as I'm not sure where to look next. I've got a death certificate from May 1896 and as the death was a sudden death there was an inquest. Nothing underhand, just probably a heart attack. The death happened in Halifax, Yorkshire and I was just wondering if I could see a written transcript of the inquest. I can't trace the deceased's wife on the 1901 census and was wondering if she was still alive when he died in 1896. Many thanks. Rachel

Many inquest records do not survive, but those that do should be in local record offices (from memory). If you can't find it, there may have been something in the local paper - especially if there was more to it than a simple heart attack.

Rachel My gt grandfather Thomas Matthews died suddenly in the street in 1879 and there was an inquest. The inquest papers have been destroyed :-( but I did get to see a microfilmed copy of the report of the inquest in the local paper at the Islington local History Centre. It was only a para, but it reported the evidence his wife and the doctor and various neighbours gave. Interestingly, the inquest found that the doctor who had diagnosed heart disease said that the post-mortem cause of death was "rupture of one of the valves of the heart". On the death cert, cause of death is "disease of the heart and blood vessels". nell

Thanks to you both, I had a feeling that I was going to have to go to the Local Records office or Halifax library. On my next trip down south I have a feeling I'm going to be very busy! Rachel