Finding cause of death

[katiesam]

Hi all,

I have (like many i'm guessing) alot of ancestors in my family tree that died in early adulthood and i'd love to find out how.
I'm a member of myheritage.com and have all the relevant subscriptions which means I can see transcripts of death  records but this only tells me when and i want to find out why.
Can anyone point me in the right direction as to where or how i find this information out?

TIA
Katie x

[jorose]

When/where are you looking at? Depending on the when and the where, there might not be any consistent recording of cause of death. The further back you get the less likely it is.

England/Wales death records from the start of civil registration should have cause of death, whereas the French records never have it on.
I have sometimes seen older parish records in England list cause of death, for example where there was a cholera epidemic marking all the cholera deaths, but in most causes it wasn't necessary.

[stanmapstone]

Which country are you referring to? In the England & Wales civil registration 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=683765.msg5281546#msg5281546

This is what the 1874 Act states:
(2.) In case of the death of any person who has been attended during his last illness by a registered medical practi­tioner, that practitioner shall sign and give to some person required by this Act to give information con­cerning the death a certificate stating to the best of his knowledge and belief the cause of death, and such person shall, upon giving information concerning the death, or giving notice of the death, deliver that certificate to the registrar, and the cause of death as stated in that certificate shall be entered in the register, together with the name of the certifying medical practitioner:

To find out the cause of death you will have buy a copy of the death certificate.

Stan

[stanmapstone]

For Scotland see https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/socialpolitical/research/economicsocialhistory/historymedicine/scottishwayofbirthanddeath/death/

Stan

[katiesam]

Hi,

I'm looking for mainly England as that is the easiest part of my tree to research. I have alot of relatives from Ireland and Scotland but they are proving harder to trace.

I was thinking I'd have to order death certificate to see cause of death - I guess doing this for multiple ancestors would be costly

x

[medpat]

All you are seeing are the registrations you need to send for the certs. to see why they died. Order via GRO PDFs are £7.00 and certificates £11.00

https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/menu.asp


It is a free site you just register with it

[katiesam]

Thank you, was just wondering if there was a way around paying £7 per every person I was curious about. Nevermind, for now i'll have to just wonder haha.

[Crumblie]

Sometimes burial records have the cause of death but it can be in quite general terms.

[Peter L. Mitchell]

Hi katiesam.

Some additional, possibly helpful information. If you have ancestors who emigrated to Australia you can use this site to find when they arrived:

https://prov.vic.gov.au/explore-collection/explore-topic/passenger-records-and-immigration/unassisted-passenger-lists

If they emigrated to Melbourne or anywhere in Victoria, this site will allow you to access birth, death and marriage records:

https://www.bdm.vic.gov.au/ (click on the Research and Family History link, then Search your family history, then Search our records now).

Currently each record costs $20 (about 10 pounds) but they give excellent information that includes place and cause of death, age at death, known family members, who they married and when, and where and when they were buried. Records are emailed and they only take 2 or 3 minutes to arrive after the order is finalised. Records for other states don't seem to be as comprehensive, and some are outrageously expensive (35 pounds for South Australia!).

I hope that helps.

Peter