jacqui,
I have two passions.... family history and gambling (the first one more stressful)
If my bookmaker would allow me to bet on whether or not those two Tynemouth-registered deaths were yours, I would put my mortgage on and make a killing.
I strongly believe they are yours.
1) fairly uncommon surname
2) second names fit
3) ages on death (which is ususally inaccurate) are spot on.
4) Tynemouth Reg District not very far from Washington/Chester-le-Street.
The GRO headquarters reference number "10b" just indicates the counties of Northumberland and Cumberland, ("10a" =County Durham, "1" = London etc)
210, 220, are the page numbers upon which the London GRO entered the details of the copy registration, received from Tynemouth after the Sept Qtr ( or Third Qtr) closed.
The fact that Thomas and Mary are on different pages might indicate that they died on different dates or in different places, within the area under Tynemouth Registration District juridiction ( this area covered Longbenton, Walker, Wallsend, North Shields, Tynemouth itself, Whitley Bay, Seaston Delaval Blyth Cramlington etc)
The two deaths are together on the GRO index because these were the only two Fairlamb deaths in all England/Wales, registered within the Sept Qtr of 1928, and of course both within Tynemouth RD.
One might guess that they had moved away from Washington or that there was a tragedy on a visit to Tynemouth area.
I am not a serial certificate buyer ( £7 a good number of geegee bets) nor a recommender of the same, but I do spend £7 when I am desparate for a snippet of info (and when I have exhausted all other avenues, e.g church records)
But maybe you could try this. Contact North Shield RO ( the modern-day version of Tynemouth* ) and say you are interested in buying death cert for Mary E Fairlamb, whose death was registered at T/M in Sept Qtr 1928,** as long as her second name is Eleanor, and her maiden name was Wilson***.
If this was your Mary, then the date, place and cause of death and who informed the registrar, will provide with good clues as the reason why they were in T/M area.
* When T/M Reg District Office was closed, all the registers were divided up between modern day Record Offices, North Tyneside (North Shields), Newcastle, and Northumberland Central (Morpeth) .
** Because Register Office keep their own reference system and do not recognise the London reference system
" What good is this number 10b to me?. I already know we are in Northumberland. And 210 is a HQ page number, not ours ! ", ............the local staff will probably ask where the death happened, to help them trace the registration . Can you shrug your shoulders over the phone ?
*** Modern death certs at Section 4, hold "Maiden surname of woman who has married".
Older certs did not have such a section, but some registrars entered maiden name in "Occupation " section
Michael Dixon,
