RootsChat.Com

I always try to tie up loose ends, and find out when and where people died. I was wondering how many of you do the same...

Anyway, here are my tips for locating deaths for relatives in England & Wales, after 1837. Please add your own!

• If their name is fairly rare, use FreeBMD to look for deaths, and eliminate those which are the wrong age. If their name is more common, I find Findmypast has a useful search form for the death index - you can enter the year of birth, plus/minus a few years. Take a note of deaths in a likely part of the country, and investigate them further. Remember, ages aren't recorded until 1866, and full dates of birth are recorded from 1969.
• Ordering lots of death certificates will be expensive, so I try to confirm I've found the right entry by other methods first.
• See if there's an entry on the probate calendar for any of the deaths you've found. This could confirm whether you've found the right death - e.g. it will include all middle names which might not be found in the death index (particularly after 1911), it will give the residence and place of death, marital condition (for women), and may give names of executors which are likely to be family members. Ancestry's probate calendar can be searched up to 1966, but you can look at the entries for free at https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/#calendar, which also has records up to 1995 which need to be searched manually. Remember that the entry may not appear in the year of death, so look at subsequent years too.
• Burial records can provide additional information too - e.g. residence, others buried in the same plot. If your relative died before 1866, their age won't be in the death index, but is likely to be on the burial record.
• Depending on the part of the country your relative died in (coverage varies), you may find a report of their death in the British Newspaper Archive. This may tell you where they lived, their job, and which family members attended their funeral.
• If you've got too many possible deaths to look at, you may be able to narrow them down using electoral rolls.
• If you're like me, there are probably lots of girls on your tree who were living with their families in the 1911 census, and you can't be sure if/when/where they married. I start by using FreeBMD to look for marriages in the area they were living in 1911, then trying to trace them in the 1939 register and death index using their married name. If you know their exact date of birth (from their birth certificate, or if you're lucky, their christening record or father's army records), they will be easier to locate in 1939. If you think you've found the right marriage, you can order the certificate to check. If you can't find a marriage around the time you would expect to, start looking for deaths as before - the probate calendar may say whether they're a spinster.
  
• If you can't find a death for a man born about 1880-1900, it's possible he was a war casualty, so have a look at all the military records at your disposal!
• If several members of the same family prove elusive, there's a chance they emigrated, so look for them in passenger lists.

Hope my tips help

A conundrum has arisen!

I'm looking at the children of Thomas and Mary Pardoe baptised in Ombersley in the late 1700s. The parents could be Thomas Pardoe and Mary Cook married 5/6/1781 Ombersley.
John 23/6/1782
Mary 22/1/1786
Elizabeth 15/6/1788 (possibly my ancestor - married William Woodward)
Sarah 6/6/1790
Thomas 17/6/1792
William 4/5/1794
Hannah 23/8/1801
Ann 9/5/1803
Of course, the parents might not be the same Thomas and Mary

Looking at Hannah born about 1801 - there is a marriage to George Dainty in Ombersley in 1830, and in the census her ages are given as 40, 50, 60, 70, birthplace Ombersley, so I thought it likely that it was the right Hannah Pardoe.

Now I've found some marriages of Pardoes at St Clement Worcester. One of these is Ann Pardoe to John Snow - looking at censuses, it seems to be the Ann Pardoe baptised in 1803. Another is Hannah Pardoe to Jeremiah Baker. Children from this marriage are baptised in Ombersley, and there is a burial of Hannah Baker in Ombersley in 1833, and she is the right age for the Hannah Pardoe baptised in 1801.

So are there in fact two Hannah Pardoes born in about 1801, and have I been tracing the wrong one?

Jeremiah and Hannah Baker have a son William baptised in Ombersley in 1830. In 1841 he is probably living in Ombersley with Thomas Pardoe age 85, John Pardoe age 55, and Mary Morris age 55. This could be Hannah's parents and siblings (there is a marriage in Ombersley of Mary Pardoe to John Morris). In 1851 and 1861 he is with his "uncle" Richard Pardoe born about 1797 Ombersley, yet I can't find a baptism of Richard Pardoe in Ombersley at the right time.

I enjoy disentangling families like this, but I may need some help with this one!

P.S. My information comes from baptisms and marriages on Familysearch, and the National Burial Index on Findmypast

I'm looking for two potential relatives, Benjamin Nind born about 1776, and Philip Nind born about 1772, both born in Alcester, Warwickshire. They may be brothers.

I've not found either of them in Alcester parish records (on FreeREG and Ancestry). I suspect they may have been non-conformist - I've found some possible baptist records for Benjamin's family in Birmingham. This would explain why they don't show up in Alcester's Church of England records.

Is anyone able to do a look-up of non-conformist registers in the area.... or suggest where else I can look?

Any help is much appreciated

I'm looking for a marriage of William Sutton, probably in Wordsley or Kingswinford, Staffordshire, before the birth of his son John George Sutton in 1836 (christened at St Mary Kingswinford, according to Familysearch). William's wife's name is Mary, and her maiden name is possibly Webb.

William and Mary were both buried at Holy Trinity Wordsley in 1846, which is transcribed on FreeREG. There are no marriages transcribed yet for that parish.

Any help is much appreciated

Been learning loads from the 1939 register since I've had unlimited access to it, but have found some unexplained things too....

1) How were deaths recorded on the register? Findmypast's FAQs say something about a "D-code" being added to the register when someone died, but I'm yet to find this on any of the images I've looked at.

2) Some people have been crossed through entirely in red ink, presumably at a later date. What does this mean? I've found one of my relatives crossed through, and I can't find her in the death index at all, so I'm wondering if these facts are connected. Perhaps she died abroad?

3) One female relative married in the 1950, but her married name was never recorded on the register. Is it possible her record was never updated? I've gone back and checked my facts, and I'm 100% sure she married.

Any other puzzles you've found, feel free to share them here