Death certificates

[Jillie42]

Up till now I haven't bothered with death certificates but could anyone tell me just how much useful information is on them - I'm thinking on certificates for about 1870 - 1900.

[kerryb]

Hi

A death certificate gives you in order:

Date and place of death
Name of person who has died
Female/male
Age - useful for comparing with census returns
Occupation
Cause of death - which can be very interesting sometimes!!
Signature, description and residence of informant - this is interesting as can be family member, neighbour etc and I have used this to tie in children's married names
When registered
and signature of registrar

Hope this helps

Kerry

[North Country Boy]

Hello Jillie42,

Info you will find on a death certificate (from left to right across the certificate) is

When and where died,
Name and surname,
sex,
age,
occupation,
cause of death,
signature, description and residence of informant
When regised
Signature of registar

Death certificates are well worth getting as they will tell you if the coroner was informed, if he was something sinister may have caused the death.

Hope this info is useful

Ian

[cath151]

Hi Jillie,
The death certificates are fascinating .They will give you date and district, where the death took place.Also name, age,occupation, cause of death and the name(or signature) and place of residence of the informant(often a family member or more excitingly ,the coroner).Also when it was registered and name of registrar
      I ve found lots of useful info and have been able to confirm addresses and relatives.I also found two accidental deaths and was able to trace the write up in the local paper that published coroners reports.
One of my ancesters died in a scaffolding accident and much later my great grandfather was run over by a car in the blackout during the war aged 81 poor love.
I had known nothing of this before. I personally think it finishes their story off if you know what i mean.
Good luck with the research.
 Cathy

[Jillie42]

That's all really useful information. Does it give the name of the spouse at all?

[kerryb]

HI Jillie

Only if they were the informant, which often they are not.

Kerry