Death in Spain

[Stanza]

My G-Grandmother (UK citizen) left England for Spain in 1912 to stay with my Grandfather (who was working in Ferrol, Galicia) and his family.

As far as I am aware she did not return with them when they came back in 1926, and as she would have been between 47 and 61 in that 14 year spell it is quite possible that she died out there.

Is there some way I can check on this, or find any more information?

[Christopher]

Hello Stanza,

Click here for a map of Galicia.

Googling for Galician cemeteries and graveyards doesn't produce much information

Christopher

[Stanza]

Thanks, Christopher.

Looks like I'll need to dust off my schoolboy Spanish and get out to Ferrol to interrogate the locals!

[jorose]

Have a look on the overseas death indexes (you should be able to access them for free on www.familyrelatives.com ). There are several different indexes, (i.e. consular death indexes, also deaths at sea perhaps?)

[Stanza]

Jorose

Thanks for drawing my attention to that site.

Unfortunately I didn't find my G-Grandmother as I had hoped, either in the marriages or deaths, but I did find a few other relatives so it was definitely worthwhile.

[Mean_genie]

If she left a will it would be registered in the Principal Probate Registry, regardless of where she died.

It is also worth trying the Miscellaneous Overseas collection of BMD held by The National Archives, quite separate from the GRO indexes on Familyrelatives and Findmypast, although there is some overlap. Unfortunately these are only available on film (but will be online eventually). They are in RG32-36, indexed in RG43

Mean_genie

[cimbrio]

This is a very old thread and I'm not sure the user who started it is still searching, but here's a bit of information which might come in handy.

Ferrol is a city in the province of La Coruña, in the region of Galicia. For many years it has been an important naval base and therefore has strong links with the military. Any foreigner who went there to work would very probably gone to work in the ship-building business or else had a connection with the army/navy.

Civil registration begun in 1871, which means any death, birth or marriage should have been recorded. Civil registration districts correspond to municipalities, which means that the city of Ferrol only covers the district within its municipal boundaries. A village in the outskirts belonging to another municipality would therefore not be covered by Ferrol's civil registry. Ordering certificates is easy (if you speak Spanish), available online and free (for now), but it is advisable to give an estimate year of death when ordering a death certificate. As I understand this is not possible in this case, because the span is quite wide, I would drop the registry a letter (in Spanish, as not many people speak good English) and give them as many details about the person as possible. Make sure to mention the person's maiden name and married name (if any), as women do not adopt their husband's name upon marriage in Spain. Give the parents' names too, and explain the motive for your query - genealogy is not something registrars often deal with and may be suspicious of your request.

If you need further information let me know!

[dawnsh]

Hi cimbrio

According to his profile, Stanza hasn't been online here since late 2013, but as long as his email address hasn't changed he should recieve notifications that we have posted and hopefully come back soon.

Dawn

[cimbrio]

Hope so too - or hope the user has found that info already and our input is no longer needed