Informant is also inmate?

[caie]

Hello

Wonder if anyone can shed any light on information on a death certificate from 1889.

The where died address given on the cert is 38 Ashvale Place, Aberdeen.

The informant is 'son and inmate'. I have not come across that before in that context. Wondering is it a poorhouse, lodging house or similar?

Any ideas?

Caie

[Deirdre784]

Hi, I had the same query only last week, in Wales, but I guess it's the same. Apparently inmate means someone living at the property where the death occurred. I too had assumed inmate meant of the workhouse or prison!

Mine said Mary Davies, inmate. I was hoping to prove that Mary was his wife (big age difference), so was disappointed but it looks as if the informant was her mother, another Mary Davies    

Hope that helps.

Deirdre

[caie]

Hello - thank you for the response. Makes sense I suppose when you think about it but I, like you, thought it meant something different. At least good to know I don't have another avenue to search!! - and yes, helped a lot.

caie

[GR2]

If you want to get an idea of the street, look at the Aberdeen Post Office Directories available free to view on the National Library of Scotland website.

The street runs from Holburn Street to Great Western Place. The houses are all tenements. You will probably also find it on Google Street View.

[caie]

Thank you GR2 - I'll have a look - anything to give me some information. That branch of my family are proving to be a bit elusive 

Deirdre - I was lucky, as it said son and inmate. I have a few instances where there is a big age difference. Usually where the man is a widower and has children, one where his 2nd wife was nearer to age to his oldest son. For a long time I thought it was an error in the Census and should have been daughter.

caie

[suek2075]

Thank you for this thread everyone!

At the weekend I noticed that the informant on a death certificate from 1839 was recorded as 'Inmate' when it was actually the son of the deceased. Fortunately it had his name as well so we knew who it was, but couldn't work out why it said 'Inmate' - now we know! We've been busy searching for nearby prisons/hospitals/etc to try to figure out where he was an inmate 

Spooky how often this happens - a thread appears just when we have come across something we don't understand............

[anne_p]

I have a few death cetrt where the informant was  recorded as an "inmate".

I don't know if this was a local phrase but, from memory, all of these deaths were recorded in either Aberdeenshire or Dundee

[Forfarian]

I have a few death cetrt where the informant was  recorded as an "inmate".
I don't know if this was a local phrase but, from memory, all of these deaths were recorded in either Aberdeenshire or Dundee

That hadn't struck me before.

I did a quick search of mine for people with the word 'inmate' in their notes.
Aberdeenshire 14, Angus 9, Midlothian 3, West Lothian 2, Fife 2, Moray 1, Perthshire 1.

By way of comparison, these are the numbers of individuals for whom I have a death record in each of those counties
Aberdeenshire 493, Angus 1168, Midlothian 535, West Lothian 130, Fife 148, Moray 746, Perthshire 185. I also have 1804 in Lanarkshire and 594 in Banffshire, none of whose informants was desceribed as 'inmate'.

So it does seem to be mainly an Aberdeenshire/Angus usage. In other places the term 'occupier' seems to mean much the same.

I could do a much more detailed analysis but I don't have time this morning.