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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: Margarett on Tuesday 25 August 20 11:06 BST (UK)

Title: England/Wales Death index 1989-2019 on Ancestry.
Post by: Margarett on Tuesday 25 August 20 11:06 BST (UK)
Beware of using this! My late Mother's death entry reads that she died on 3 September 2017. (03/09/2017). She didn't. She died on 9th March 2017, (09/03/2017). If they have all been transcribed like this, they will all be wrong.
Title: Re: England/Wales Death index 1989-2017 on Ancestry.
Post by: carol8353 on Tuesday 25 August 20 11:07 BST (UK)
Most records on Ancestry will be transcribed in the American format,it's an American company.
Title: Re: England/Wales Death index 1989-2017 on Ancestry.
Post by: Girl Guide on Tuesday 25 August 20 11:11 BST (UK)
Yes, the American way of using dates can be confusing.  It's obvious if you have a date like 12/31/2017 as there aren't 31 months in the year.

It's when you have single figure months that it can get confusing.  Caught me out a few times until I realised how the Americans wrote their dates.
Title: Re: England/Wales Death index 1989-2017 on Ancestry.
Post by: Margarett on Tuesday 25 August 20 11:13 BST (UK)
It hasn't been reproduced in the American way, it actually says 3 September 2017!!! In words and figures!
Title: Re: England/Wales Death index 1989-2017 on Ancestry.
Post by: Girl Guide on Tuesday 25 August 20 11:17 BST (UK)
I wonder if someone transcribing it seeing it as figures only, thought oh that's the American way of doing dates and then wrote it in the English way.  ???
Title: Re: England/Wales Death index 1989-2017 on Ancestry.
Post by: rosie99 on Tuesday 25 August 20 11:18 BST (UK)
The entries for that year are from sources other than the GRO index so date can be sourced from anywhere and sometimes incorrect.
Title: Re: England/Wales Death index 1989-2017 on Ancestry.
Post by: Girl Guide on Tuesday 25 August 20 11:20 BST (UK)
The GRO don't do that.  I just checked my mother's details and all they give is year of birth and no exact date of death, just the quarter/year and area.
Title: Re: England/Wales Death index 1989-2017 on Ancestry.
Post by: Margarett on Tuesday 25 August 20 11:24 BST (UK)
I don't think it's been transcribed by a human, Wilmington Millenium appears to be a data company.
Title: Re: England/Wales Death index 1989-2017 on Ancestry.
Post by: Girl Guide on Tuesday 25 August 20 11:27 BST (UK)
I wonder where the company get this information from?  It seems it's not being correctly done.
Title: Re: England/Wales Death index 1989-2017 on Ancestry.
Post by: rosie99 on Tuesday 25 August 20 11:27 BST (UK)
My mothers entry for around that period on Ancestry's records is not an entry from the GRO registers, they have found information about her death from GreyPower Deceased Data compiled by Wilmington Millennium, West Yorkshire

It does give an exact date of death which is correct, it mentions the month by name not number.   
Title: Re: England/Wales Death index 1989-2019 on Ancestry.
Post by: stanmapstone on Tuesday 25 August 20 11:47 BST (UK)
The information apparently originates from: GreyPower Deceased Data. compiled by Wilmington Millennium, West Yorkshire.  The data apparently comes from funeral directors and obituaries. It is then packaged for marketing companies to ensure they don't contact the deceased.

Stan
Title: Re: England/Wales Death index 1989-2019 on Ancestry.
Post by: rosie99 on Tuesday 25 August 20 12:13 BST (UK)
The information apparently originates from: GreyPower Deceased Data. compiled by Wilmington Millennium, West Yorkshire.  The data apparently comes from funeral directors and obituaries. It is then packaged for marketing companies to ensure they don't contact the deceased.

Stan

It is ironic that they specialise in data protection but Ancestry has access to this information of theirs.  My mothers information would have come from the funeral directors and as she had been in a care home for a few years it is doubtful that marketing companies would have any record of her.  Any correspondence to her would be care of my address which the funeral directors would not have had.
Title: Re: England/Wales Death index 1989-2019 on Ancestry.
Post by: jc26red on Tuesday 25 August 20 18:35 BST (UK)
I usually try to double check by doing an obit search and a probate search. Not always successful but at least it’s a second verifiable source.
Title: Re: England/Wales Death index 1989-2019 on Ancestry.
Post by: Margarett on Tuesday 25 August 20 18:53 BST (UK)
"I usually try to double check by doing an obit search and a probate search. Not always successful but at least it’s a second verifiable source."

In this case, it's not a case of not knowing the correct date. I do know it, it's a case of wrongly interpreted data.
Title: Re: England/Wales Death index 1989-2019 on Ancestry.
Post by: ansteynomad on Tuesday 25 August 20 19:55 BST (UK)
My mother died on 8 July. Thanks to a PP I now understand why her DoD appears in this Index as 7 August.

Thank you. This is  certainly something to look out for.