Genealogy Chat

if Zabiah Bennett and her sone John cook died in a flu epidemic around the 1920's is it ossible that their deaths were not recorded? i can find no trace of either death.

Dont know if this helps but my gt grandpapents who were living on the isle of wight both died within a week of each other in October 1918 of the Spanish Flu and were both recorded with death certificates.

just cant seem to find any info! she has such an unusual name that i though it would be easy. oh well

If you're looking at transcribed lists, does the fact that her name is unusual mean that it's been mis-transcribed? Weirdly, the GRO index (typed) for 1863 showed my g-grandfather's middle name as "Cherlee", although it's quite clearly "Charles" on the cert I now have! Christine

Alison Where did they die? Only asking as I went to Manchester Records office last week to look up a death for a lady on this site, her rellie had also died in a 1920's flu epidemic and I couldn't find any trace of it Lou

Deaths have to be registered by law-then and now. I don't see how anyone could bury a body without one.

I wonder if they died in hospital? If so, and supposing there was no-one left in the family, the death may have gone unregistered or been registered in the hospital district. My 2 x grandfather definitely died - I have his grave. What I do not have is a death Registration. The Cemetery concerned confirmed that a body had been buried in the grave (as opposed to him just being a mention on a gravestone). The nice lady at the Cemetery records told me that it was possible in the 1800s to bury a body without registering the death, but the undertaker would have needed a Death Certificate, which is signed by the Doctor confirming the cause of death. This was tightened up when cremations became popular, for obvious reasons. It appears that my 2 x Gfather was buried on the strength of a Death Cert signed by a Doctor, but no-one bothered to REGISTER the death as he died in poverty (buried in family vault) Hope this helps. Marjorie.

maybe her name was mis-transcribed as now im thinking about it im sure i heared something about Dabiah! aaahhh! thanks for the tips!

The 1914 flu eppidemic brought over by GIs in WW1 killed thousands, meny Hospitals were over whelmed by the amount of cases, and meny were sent to other hospitels espeshaly if the local one was a cottage hospitel, so there is a good chance that the death was regesterd in another district And yes yours is the same eperdemic it kept comeing back for sevrel years

People interested in this pandemic, which estimates say killed between 20 and 40 million people, can check out this website: www*.stanford*.edu/group/virus/uda/ My grandfather had been writing to my grandmother during 1918 - they had been set up as penpals by his cousin who was engaged to her friend - and he was looking forward to his leave so that he could meet her. She had flu at the time, as did his sister, so he had to go back to France without seeing her. It turned her hair white overnight. nell