Nicholas / Nicol Mills

[cupasoop]

Hi folks, I've been told by 2 separate members of my family of a great uncle of mine who drowned in the river Nith around 1952. I've been hammering scotlandspeople all morning and getting nowhere, cant find any names that even come close to his. Is there any newspaper archives available for the Dumfries area available?

[MonicaL]

Hi

What was his birth year? I can see on death in Dumfriesshire for a Nicholas Mills, but this is for an 86yr old man in 1948.

Monica

[cupasoop]

Hi Monica, should have said it was 1906 in Noblehill. Birth certificate says Nicol but my mum and aunt/uncle all have called the drownee Nicholas. The 88yr old is Nicols uncle. His death certificate says he died from a cerebral something or other (cant make the second word out but it's not drowning) so I don't think it's the person i'm after.

[cupasoop]

Found him. A lesson in not listening to family gossip I think, he drowned in 1907 at 17 months old. Heartbreaking. Quite where the 1952 came from is anyones guess.

Thanks anyway.

[MonicaL]

Gosh, how sad indeed 

Monica

[cupasoop]

This is my first non natural death in my tree, war deaths aside. In the left hand margin of his death certificate is a note I've never seen before. I cant make it all out but i can make out "precognition", which means gathering of witness statements in scots law. Would anyone know if these statements would be available to public after all these years and where i would start looking for them? I can make out a reference to a book and page numbers in the image.

[MonicaL]

This note on the margin refers to the Register of Corrected Entries (RCEs). Scotlands People have been trying to attach these documents where mentioned to the actual death record. If you go back to your search results page and click on Nicholas entry. You should see a button for the RCE if avaible. I think it is just above the index entry to the right corner. Costs 2 units to view the image online via SP.

Monica

[cupasoop]

Many thanks Monica, first one of these I've came across. I've downloaded it but at first glance there doesn't seem to be any difference to the information in the death certificate. I should add that the image isn't the greatest quality so I've asked scotlandspeople for a re-scan and see if anything is obvious then. I'll try and find local newspaper archives, surely a 17 month old drowning in a river is worth reporting.

[MonicaL]

Hope you find something there in the archives for newspapers. The RCEs, in the main, just add a little more substance and detail to what you saw on the death cert reg. The most I have seen on these are two pages.

Monica