The Diary of Nathaniel Bryceson Revisited

[juliew]

HI,

Burial - Mary Ward - 1847 - age 50yrs - Richmond Buildings

Est death abt 1847
Burial date 29 Oct 1847
Parish/Poor law Soho St. Anne
Borough Westminster

[Ruskie]

HI,

Burial - Mary Ward - 1847 - age 50yrs - Richmond Buildings

Est death abt 1847
Burial date 29 Oct 1847
Parish/Poor law Soho St. Anne
Borough Westminster

Thank you Julie, but we already have this information. It is the death registration we are looking for so we can order the death certificate (to find the official cause of death plus any other little snippets). 

[Ruskie]

Bad news everyone. No Mary Ward death certificate has been found. I just received this from the GRO:

Thank you for your order as detailed below.

Death Certificate: MARY WARD died 01-JAN-1847 in MIDDLESEX

We have been unable to process your application, please refer to the paragraph below.

We have searched the indexes for events registered in England and Wales during the years specified (1846-1848). We have been unable to find any entry with the details you provided.

Where do can we go from here? 

[alpinecottage]

Do you think this is because the date of death is specified as 1 Jan?  I know you can't give a burial date, but could you have given the date as Oct 1847, leaving the actual day unspecified?

It's so frustrating not knowing what they disregarded and why, isn't iy?

[Ruskie]

Do you think this is because the date of death is specified as 1 Jan?  I know you can't give a burial date, but could you have given the date as Oct 1847, leaving the actual day unspecified?

It's so frustrating not knowing what they disregarded and why, isn't iy?

They do say that if you do not know the date of death (which we don't - we only know date of burial which is only presumably a day or two later), then leave the date as 1 Jan. They search a year earlier and later anyway, so that should have picked up all the other deaths. It is a shame that there is nowhere on the form to specify what we DO know about Mary. 

I expect that she was simply not named as wife of Matthew Ward ....

[alpinecottage]

They also say this on their website;
"If you are not aware of the required information and therefore cannot complete the required criteria you can telephone the Certificate Services Call Centre on +44 (0)300 123 1837 to place your order or write to Certificate Services at PO Box 2, Southport, Merseyside, PR8 2JD."

Is it not worth writing, (or even better, persuading one of your contacts in Westminster Archives to phone), giving a couple of sentences of explanation about Mary and this thread and the diary, and seeing if they can come up with anything?

[Ruskie]

Thanks alpinecottage, I was not aware of that. I will definitely drop them a line. Some hope at last. 

[Ruskie]

Extremely detailed explanatory email now sent to the GRO. 

[alpinecottage]

Fingers and toes crossed!