Precognition - what does this mean?

[RJ_Paton]

Hi did you get any further with the  'Result of precognition'.  I have found a member of my families death registration with this on it.  No other cause of death and the death was registered by the chief constable.  Also says ' in a drain in barefoot' … which makes no sense at all.

thanks for any enlightenment you can give

Jax

Where a death occurs in a public place the Procurator Fiscal  has a duty to investigate. The preliminary investigation would have been carried out by the Police and a report of their findings submitted to the Fiscal. Upon receipt of the report the Fiscal  could decide to investigate further and in this capacity would formally interview the witnesses (the precognition) before deciding upon any further action.

[carolineasb]

Is there any stamp or annotation at the side of the death entry showing that there is an RCE (entry in the Register of Corrected Entries)? If so, there should be a "button" above the death entry image on Scotland's People which you can press to see the entry which will be free of charge. It may have nothing different from the original entry but there may just be something different on it. It is quite common for there to be an RCE in the case of a sudden or suspicious death.

[garngad]

Regards to Precognition i have come across a relatives death cert citing same and a RCE then states that death was due to asphyxiation due to overlaying as this relative was only 2 months old i presume that one of the parents has rolled over them in bed and as it had been reported as a sudden unexplained death then the PF conducted a Precognition to determine if a crime had been committed.

[hdw]

I have copies of the precognitions taken from witnesses to the May Island disaster of 1837 in the Firth of Forth, when one of the fishing boats taking day trippers on their annual jaunt to the May overturned, and several women and girls were drowned. The procurator fiscal decided there was enough evidence to try skipper John Sutherland for manslaughter at the High Court in Edinburgh, but so many of his fellow skippers stepped up to praise his character and his seamanship that the judge told him he could leave the court without a stain on his name. The fiscal, who lived in Anstruther, was persona non grata with the local fishermen after that.

The precognitions are useful for amateur genealogists like me because each person interviewed has his age given and we are told which boats they were in, or owned. Useful when so many men in the fishing community had the same surname.

Harry