A Cause of Death 'Not Certified'

[Pennines]

A certificate recently received for a death occurring in 1862 - states the cause to be 'Cancer of the Face. Not Certified'. (This sounds dreadful).

 Does anyone know please whether the 'Not certified' means a Doctor has not certified this as the actual cause of death - and the Registrar is simply taking the word of the person registering the event?

many thanks for at least reading this.

[MaxD]

This would appear to cover the situation (scroll down to Cause of death) http://home.claranet.co.uk/dixons/Certificates/deaths.htm

MaxD

[Deirdre784]

'Not certified' appears on a lot of the early deaths in my family, for both adults and children. Does make you wonder if the informant - most of whom couldn't sign their name - knew what he/she was talking about, but maybe they had had the doctor earlier so knew what was wrong.

[Pennines]

Max - thank you so much for the link.

Deirdre - yes I have seen it a lot also - but with this one an awful picture came into my head - I hadn't actually thought that the family may have seen a Doctor in the past who had maybe diagnosed the condition.

When you think about it -- back then it would so easy to murder somebody - then just trot along to the Registrar and register the death!!

[stanmapstone]

Until 1874 entering the cause of death was not a legal requirement, but from 1874 a doctor's certificate was necessary before a death certificate could be issued. Between 1858 and 1874 the entry should indicate whether the cause had been 'certified' or 'not certified' by a medical practitioner.
See http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=658541.msg5074709#msg5074709
Stan

[AntonyMMM]

Today, you may occasionally get deaths shown as uncertified. There may still be a certificate from a doctor giving the supposed cause of death, but for one of a number reasons that doctor may not be able to certify it,usually because they haven't personally seen the patient  for some time before (or after) death. The coroner will be involved in deciding what will be recorded.

In some circumstances, the cause can still be taken from the informant alone.

Having said that I have spoken to many doctors about  causes of death for certificates when there has been a potential issue with what has been written and they are quite open that they often certify on a "best guess" basis  - especially where the person is elderly and has multiple medical conditions.

[Pennines]

Many thanks Stan and Antony for your helpful replies.

I can fully understand that with elderly people now, a definite cause of death may not be known. Actually in the case of my own mother - a post mortem was held -- and they actually rang me up to ask me if she had been suffering from a cough! Hence even the PM must not have revealed an obvious cause.

When I raised this query - where the cause was given as 'Cancer of the Face' 'Not Certified' - I was just thinking of the pain and suffering of the lady involved, especially as I assumed that she had NOT been receiving any medical treatment for a Doctor to not be able to certify the cause.

She was at her daughter's house and possibly being given something like Laudanum - which the family would still have to pay for -- so I can't really understand why they couldn't pay for a Doctor -- the cause just 'got to me' I suppose.

Many thanks indeed for everyone's useful information.