Genealogy Chat

I just went online to order some birth and death certificates and as I only have the month and year and not the actual day I cannot order the death certificates , how can I find out the date they died without the death certificate

You don't need the date or the month/year the person died - you need the year and quarter in which the event occurred. For example, if you were born christmas day 1930, your birth might not be registered until after the holidays - ie 2nd January. you would then appear 1931 Mar as quarters are Jan-Mar/Apr-Jun/Jul-Sep and Oct-Dec. The GRO uses last month of each quarter only, so it will be Mar, Jun, Sep, or Dec. To find the reference which will also have the registration district, volume and page, look at FreeBMD. If its not there, you may have to pay for searching 1837online. If you aren't glued to your computer the GRO indexes are also available on microfiche at various libraries and records offices. nell

hi I have all the death details from 1837 it says name date of birth registration district year of registration month of registration and the page and volumne number but when I filled in the form on 1837 it said I had to have a full date of death not just the month and year which seems strange dont know how I can do that as I dont know the exact date also I am afraid I am glued to my pc isnt everyone on here ????????

I think I will unglue myself and get some sleep back tomorrow

Valerie It asks you for the full date if you haven't ticked YES in the box on the 1st page that says GRO reference number known Lou

Valerie Are you trying to order certificates for events less than 50 years old? If that is the case, then I think that you do have to supply the exact date, even if the ref number is known. Richard

Richard I've ordered marriage and death certificates from 1837online from the 70s and even 80s without having the exact date but I wasn't allowed to order a birth certificate without it :) David

hi Carol I did like the girl bit if only !!!!!!!!!!!!!! thanks for all your replies and yes the deaths are fairly recent did not think of that so I must unglue myself and come back later though before I get withdrawal symptoms Happy New Year to all you lovely people

Just a thought, but do you know if any of these people left a will, because i went up to First Avenue House in Holborn the other day, and you can look up quite recent wills and in the index it always gives the date of death and the date probate was granted. Dates covered were 1858-2002 (I think). Carolyn

Valerie Had a problem recently when I went to order on-line birth certificates for individuals within the last 50 years as I did not know the exact date of birth. (Birth was 1984+) I provided the GRO reference per 1837 but still had to enter a date. I entered a provisional date of the 1st of the month as the exact one was not known. I received an e-mail back: "Unfortunately, this reference does not appear to relate to the entry you are seeking because she was not born on the First of August. Therefore, we are unable to issue a certificate. If you have the correct reference then you may apply again online, or if you know the exact date the birth, death or marriage occurred (after 1900)for a fee of £11.50 we can attempt to trace the entry which you require" On another application I was not allowed the certificate because even though I had provided the GRO reference I did not indicate the full name of the parents. Looks like I am temporarily stumped as I don't have all the information they need to process the applications. Karen

This keeps cropping up. As I understand it if you specify a detail and it doesn't match they will return it. So you should put in just a year. I don't know of any rule that says you need an exact date of death. It doesn't make sense as the death certificate is the primary source of that date!!! It can't be law because the Leeds office has been doing searches of recent miners deaths for claims. There are also other online sites which don't seem to require it. Bob