Author Topic: Occupation of unmarried women on English Death Certificates  (Read 7923 times)

Offline StevieSteve

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Re: Occupation of unmarried women on English Death Certificates
« Reply #36 on: Friday 08 April 16 07:09 BST (UK) »

You sound like a conspiracy theorist. 


Didn't intend to - was trying to explore the rationale for the records existing in the first place, how they were used and thus explain why certain fields in those records were filled in (or not filled in) as they were.

Clearly missed the mark and off topic for this thread so I'll stop

Middlesex: KING,  MUMFORD, COOK, ROUSE, GOODALL, BROWN
Oxford: MATTHEWS, MOSS
Kent: SPOONER, THOMAS, KILLICK, COLLINS
Cambs: PRIGG, LEACH
Hants: FOSTER
Montgomery: BREES
Surrey: REEVE

Offline pharmaT

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Re: Occupation of unmarried women on English Death Certificates
« Reply #37 on: Friday 08 April 16 07:19 BST (UK) »
Perfectly valid theory Stevie. BDM registration does provide statistics.
Campbell, Dunn, Dickson, Fell, Forest, Norie, Pratt, Somerville, Thompson, Tyler among others

Offline venelow

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Re: Occupation of unmarried women on English Death Certificates
« Reply #38 on: Friday 08 April 16 18:07 BST (UK) »
To answer ScouseBoy's question (and anyone else who is wondering if I have mixed two people up)

Details on the marriage record of the informant, the son of the deceased, states his wife's and her father's name.

Census records for the son and his wife show the previous household entry is for his wife's parents and two of her younger siblings. Her father states his occupation is Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages. The next household contained another son of the deceased i.e. the informant's brother.

The Registrar who signed the death certificate is the same name and initials as the informant's father in law.

Also the same year that the son married the daughter of the Registrar, the widow of another of his brothers married a son of the Registrar. At that time the the father was stated to be a farmer. He was described as a retired farmer in the census prior to him giving his occupation as Registrar. His burial entry states he was District Registrar.

I mentioned this relationship because it was an interesting aspect to the death certificate. I don't think the persons who asserted that information was suspicious were aware of the relationship between the informant and the Registrar. In fact I did not realize it for some time myself.

I think what I can take from this discussion is that sometimes the death certificates of unmarried woman did record who their father was and his rank or occupation and this would not be an unusual or questionable thing to happen. However it would be subject to how the Registrar proceeded in carrying out his duties and how much the informant knew or was willing to impart.

I had hoped there might have been a few more examples that I could cite to strengthen my case that there was nothing unusual about the certificate in question though, as I stated in my first post, spinster's certificates are not what most people spend their money on. I obtained this particular certificate because of the questions raised by other researchers and the fact that this spinster did have children and her parentage has not been satisfactorily established.
The certificate from the 1950s was in bundle of family papers that I was given.

If anyone has seen examples of such death certificates for an unmarried woman I would be grateful if they contacted me by PM.
Many thanks.
Venelow
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Offline AlanJD

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Re: Occupation of unmarried women on English Death Certificates
« Reply #39 on: Monday 13 July 20 14:12 BST (UK) »
Venelow

I can't respond to your PM request yet (not enough postings) but I'm working on it


Offline sarah

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Re: Occupation of unmarried women on English Death Certificates
« Reply #40 on: Monday 13 July 20 20:09 BST (UK) »
Hi Alan,

You can just put all the information in a reply, if the person is deceased ???

Regards

Sarah
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Offline venelow

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Re: Occupation of unmarried women on English Death Certificates
« Reply #41 on: Monday 13 July 20 21:55 BST (UK) »
Looking forward to your PM Alan.

Venelow
Canada

Offline Guy Etchells

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Re: Occupation of unmarried women on English Death Certificates
« Reply #42 on: Tuesday 14 July 20 07:19 BST (UK) »

I think what I can take from this discussion is that sometimes the death certificates of unmarried woman did record who their father was and his rank or occupation and this would not be an unusual or questionable thing to happen. However it would be subject to how the Registrar proceeded in carrying out his duties and how much the informant knew or was willing to impart.

I had hoped there might have been a few more examples that I could cite to strengthen my case that there was nothing unusual about the certificate in question though, as I stated in my first post, spinster's certificates are not what most people spend their money on. I obtained this particular certificate because of the questions raised by other researchers and the fact that this spinster did have children and her parentage has not been satisfactorily established.
The certificate from the 1950s was in bundle of family papers that I was given.

If anyone has seen examples of such death certificates for an unmarried woman I would be grateful if they contacted me by PM.
Many thanks.
Venelow
Canada

I have checked the many death certificates of females I have but still cannot answer your question. They certs I have are either for a wife or widow or for a minor.
In the case of the wife or widow the husband's name and often his occupation is shown and for minors the father's name and occupation is shown.
It is not too much of a leap to think the father's name & occupation would be shown on death certificates of females until they married but I cannot confirm that.
Cheers
Guy
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Offline AlanJD

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Re: Occupation of unmarried women on English Death Certificates
« Reply #43 on: Tuesday 14 July 20 08:54 BST (UK) »
In summary I have a death cert for an unmarried aunt who died after retirement age.  The registrar put her father's details on the cert.  They were not known by the informant.  Where did the info come from?  Did the registrar have to search the records to find her birth cert?

Offline Meelystar

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Re: Occupation of unmarried women on English Death Certificates
« Reply #44 on: Tuesday 14 July 20 09:46 BST (UK) »
I’ve got a couple of spinster certificates, I will look them out now.