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Just received today my great great grandmothers death certificate, cause of death given as:
Hung herself while in an unsound state of mind
this was only 5 days after her husbands death, she was only 34, and at least 2 of her children had died in the previous weeks. Due to it being a common surname i`m having difficulty locating all the children, though at least 2 went on to marry and have their own families, the youngest would only have been a few months old when she died, how sad........I can only imagine how desperate she must have been.
The death certificate states an inquest was held, does anyone know wether I may be able to locate any records of it? I have googled without much luck.
The death was in Manchester Lancs. in 1861
Nicky
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1) Coroners' court records - tricky to locate (see below), but at least there were fewer separate courts in 1861.
2) Newspaper reports - by googling, I found Manchester Library Local Studies which have microfilmed copies of various newspapers covering 1861, and the staff are happy to photocopy a specific article from the microfilm image. However, free searches by the staff are limited to 15 minutes, so you may need to either post a request on the Records Office board or engage a local researcher (the site refers you to a list).
The coroners' records (extract from website):
"Welcome to the Greater Manchester Pastfinder.
The Greater Manchester Past Finder (GMPF) project is a consortium of the record offices of the ten metropolitan councils in Greater Manchester.
They are Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, and Wigan councils - together with the Greater Manchester County Record Office (GMCRO) which is run jointly by the councils. The Record Offices collect,preserve and make accessible to the public important records of the life and history of their areas. The GMCRO cares for archives relating to the conurbation as a whole.
The records illuminate the history of Britain's second largest conurbation and the world's first industrial city. They describe the explosive growth of its industries, canals and railways during the Industrial Revolution They record the work of social institutions such as trades unions, co-operatives, hospitals and Nonconformist congregations, and the development of political parties and local government.
Users of the archives face a number of problems. Locating relevant records is particularly difficult in the Greater Manchester area. The dense network of personal and organisational relationships across the conurbation, and the frequent changes in administrative boundaries mean that records are often not deposited in the area that users would expect. Catalogues of the records are of very variable quality and accuracy, and there is no unified catalogue of the holdings of the Greater Manchester Record Offices. Finding relevant records is at best laborious, and can involve visits to several record offices. At worst, because of the inadequacies of current catalogues, it may be impossible to identify all the relevant materials."
Searching for "inquest" provided:
"Click on the number on the left to see a detailed catalogue entry.
RefNo Title Date
[ 1 ] GB124.A4 Records of Oldham Coroner's Court 1955-1969
[ 2 ] GB124.A5 Records of Rochdale Coroner's Court 1961-1996
[ 3 ] GB124.QSC Records of Salford City Coroner's Court 1912-1974
[ 4 ] GB127.M161 HM Inspector of Factories, papers relating to accidents during the building of Barton High Level Bridge 1959-1960
[ 5 ] GB132.CR Wigan Borough Coroners Court 1804-1919
[ 6 ] GB758.BCBO/3 Records of the County Borough of Oldham. Law and Order 1849-1977
[ 7 ] GB758.BCBO/32 Records of the County Borough of Oldham. Coroner 1905-1937"
PS Am just reading Sharon Creech's "Walk Two Moons" - not sure whether it's d/w post-natal depression, but it's a cracking good read, and very sympathetic to all the characters.
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Ivy
Thanks for all that info, the book sounds good, am not reading one at the moment so may give it a try.
thanks again
Nicky
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Nicky
when I wanted to know about the inquest of my Gt Aunt who was killed when she was 2 the local History Society found the newspaper details and emailed them to me,not nice reading but at least we then knew what had happened.
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Dawn, thanks for that ,will give the Local History Society a try, like you say, not nice reading, but it would be nice to know what happened.
Nicky
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Have you tried typing her name into an A2A search? I found some Manchester info there.
Janice
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Janice,
No I hav`nt, will give it a try
thanks
Nicky
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