Ancestry Recent Deaths database

[andrewalston]

A freshly added database on Ancestry claims to give death details for 2007-2013.

I've been going down the list for my one-name study and it confirms quite a few things I already had from other sources, BUT there are some inaccuracies.

One woman is stated to have died on 8 January 2008, but her death was registered in December 2007. The middle name of one man is given as John when all other sources have James. Another woman is said to have died on 3 July; the probate calendar claims 25 June.

I assume that the data is culled from newspaper sources, and probably includes funeral dates rather than death dates in some cases.

[davidft]

You are right it is a collection made up from miscellaneous sources. Indeed it says

This collection is a compiled index that covers approximately 55% of the total deaths that occurred in this time period.

Also it does not claim to be GRO information, whereas if you look at the information up to 2007 those do

[stanmapstone]

The General Register Office was part of the Office of National Statistics, but has recently become part of the Passport Office. Owing to the view that the Passport Office takes on this information, it has been decided that it should no longer be made public in such a manner. No further BMD indexes for any date after 2006 will be added to the website as a result of this.
 The only place you will find such indexes are at
Birmingham Central Library
Bridgend Reference and Information Library
The British Library
City of Westminster Archives Centre
Newcastle City Library
Manchester City Library
Plymouth Central Library
Certain Local Authorities have later indexes on line.

See Tracing after 2005 http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,547318.msg4008596.html#msg4008596
Stan

[Sinann]

Claire Santry had a piece about these records on her blog.
http://www.irishgenealogynews.com/2015/01/source-information-for-ancestrys-new.html

[dawnsh]

The statistics for coverage are way off

In 2013 the GRO recorded over 506,790 deaths, the database only has 170,000
(Its the same for other years too)

The database contains very few entries for those under 18

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/vsob1/mortality-statistics--deaths-registered-in-england-and-wales--series-dr-/2013/stb-deaths-registered-in-england-and-wales-in-2013-by-cause.html

I had a look at some of the database entries for 2007 and they did not appear on the information I have from the official GRO fiche.

The data cannot be used to order a certificate as the registration details are missing.

As the end of the day it's another finding tool but as with all research you should get to the primary source which in this case is the GRO death index.