Death records Index

[lisingreece]

Hi, Can mistakes be made on the Death Index?

I have a John T Butterfield marrying Margaret Hall in Canterbury in 1921.

In 1973 a Margaret Butterfield dies in Canterbury. Her birth being given as 14/6/1901.

She was called Maggie by her family and there is a Maggie Eliz Hall b 1901 but in the Jan q in Eynesford. On A* there is a family tree that takes this Eynsford Maggie E Hall as the one who marries John T Butterfield.

I have sent for the marr cert so in time will find who her father was.

But has anyone come across mistakes on the dates on Death Indexes?

Silly question I know and I should be more patient but...

Thank you for your time

Lis

[CaroleW]

Dates of birth on death registrations are only as reliable as the source they came from (ie) the person reporting the death.

If her birth was registered as Maggie Elizabeth - why didn't she marry as Maggie Elizabeth or die as Maggie Elizabeth?
 

[lisingreece]

Thank you for replying CaroleW, it is as I thought
Cheers
Lis

[nanny jan]

One of my gt.aunts had a choice of 3 birthdates......one on her birth certificate, a slightly different one on her baptism record and another one on her death certificate. 


Nanny Jan

[artifis]

My wife's mother had two dates of birth, her actual one and the one registered by her father who was drunk at the time!   

My 4x great grandfather's death was registered twice, the first on information supplied by the coroner who investigated his death after an accident and the second five weeks later on information supplied by his son in a different county and different registration district.  His surname was spelt differently as well - caused me no end of confusion.   

[lisingreece]

Thank you both for those amusing stories.

Lis

[artifis]

I forgot to add that the two death certificates gave different locations for his death, the correct one by the coroner and two different ages, both actually wrong.  The only person who got his age correct was the Curate who buried him and entered his details in the parish records - I guess he looked up his birth/baptism records, both of which were recorded in the parish records.

To add confusion the accident and death report in his local paper three days after his accident/death got the date of his death wrong.  The accident and death report in the local newspaper where he had his accident got his name wrong and had to subsequently correct that in its report on the coroner's inquest.

The only 'good' thing to come out of it all after unravelling all this nonsense was the description of his injury which allowed a retired consultant anaesthetist distant cousin of mine and his GP daughter and her consultant radiologist husband who deals with head trauma MRI scans to say what his exact cause of death was - what Schumacher is suffering from - but also highlighted discrepancies in the evidence given by the Infirmary dispenser who admitted him and initially treated him for being drunk and the surgeon who stated the cause of death - in general terms, i.e. head trauma with fractured skull.  The really 'good' thing is that this ancestor now is three dimensional rather than the bland two dimensional facts we usually get. We don't really know what he was doing so far from home apart from selling chairs he'd and his family had made nor why he set out late at night to travel cross country to a distant village and why he was going there.

He took secrets to his grave and I rather like that, he's an enigma which intrigues me.

[lisingreece]

How very interesting artifis. It is encouraging to know that through our struggles to understand better and learn more about our ancestors who knows what we will discover.
A fascinating unravelling.

Thanks
Lis

[miw]

Hi you said
On A* there is a family tree that takes this Eynsford Maggie E Hall as the one who marries John T Butterfield.

Be very careful with these trees, they can be very helpful but can also lead you down the (wrong) Garden path.  I have seen many mistakes on these where people have just used a reference that came up on a search even though it is clearly wrong, I've even seen a grave stone photo from USA attached to a death in England, and there is a photo of a lady who may be my Son-in-law's GG Grandmother but the same photo is attached to two different women of the same name.
Mary