Statutory Declaration on Death Certificate from 1928

[BSmith2268]

Hi all,

My x3-great grandmother, Selina Gleeson died on the 13th March 1928, aged 72 in Neath, Glamorganshire.

Her death certificate says '70', but there is a note below that says;
"In entry No. 349 Col 4 for '70' read '72' corrected on the 11th May 1928 by Mr W Evans Registrar on production of a statutory declaration made by A Baker and S Groves'

Does anyone know what this means and why the age was altered  two months after her death registration?
Does anyone also know why you needed two people to make this declaration to the registrar?

I have seen her birth certificate, and she was born 2nd December 1855, therefore making the age correction on the death certificate correct.

For context, A Baker was her son-in-law and S Groves her nephew.

Thank you,
BSmith

[KGarrad]

A statutory declaration is a formal statement made affirming that something is true to the best knowledge of the person making the declaration. It has to be signed in the presence of a solicitor, commissioner for oaths or notary public.

Statutory declarations are generally used to satisfy a legal requirement or regulation when no other such evidence is available.

Statutory declarations need to be completely truthful and accurate so a solicitor other than the one acting for you in a legal matter will deal with the statutory declaration to ensure that it is valid on the grounds of being impartial.

Examples of how statutory declarations are used

    By people who wish to change their name as a method of legally adopting their new name so they can use it on documents such as passports and driving licences
    By financial institutions to transfer money to people legally entitled to deal with the estate of a person who has died, such as executors of a will
    Declarations of identity, nationality or marital status when documentary evidence is unavailable
    By company directors declaring solvency when going into voluntary liquidation
    Affirming the provenance and nature of goods for export or import
    Declaration statements of originality of an item as part of a patent application.

[phil57]

I'm not sure who could make a statutory declaration in respect of a birth or death registration, but it probably had to be someone connected to the individual.

One of my GG Aunts gave birth to a daughter towards the end of WW1. Her husband was still overseas and a lodger who had been living at the same address was named as the father.

Almost 3 months later both parties returned to the registration office with a statutory declaration to the effect that the lodger was not in fact the father, and the entry was amended to remove him from the register.
.
No "new" father was named, and the birth was indexed under both the lodger and the mother's surnames, although only the latter can be found in the GRO online index.

The child appeared in the 1921 census living with her maternal grandparents, and recorded in the census with the surname of the lodger whose name had been originally entered as the father.

Make of that what you will!

[Darnity]

Hi all,

My x3-great grandmother, Selina Gleeson died on the 13th March 1928, aged 72 in Neath, Glamorganshire.

Her death certificate says '70', but there is a note below that says;
"In entry No. 349 Col 4 for '70' read '72' corrected on the 11th May 1928 by Mr W Evans Registrar on production of a statutory declaration made by A Baker and S Groves'

Does anyone know what this means and why the age was altered  two months after her death registration?
Does anyone also know why you needed two people to make this declaration to the registrar?

I have seen her birth certificate, and she was born 2nd December 1855, therefore making the age correction on the death certificate correct.

For context, A Baker was her son-in-law and S Groves her nephew.

Thank you,
BSmith

I wonder if Messrs Baker and Groves had found/acquired a copy of her birth certificate by May and realised that the age given by the person registering her death didn't match her birth certificate?

Who registered the death?

And did she leave a will - were Messrs Baker and Groves the executors? Maybe in doing their duties they realised the age mistake and felt obliged to correct it so they were seen to be doing their executor duties correctly.

[Sinann]

I have a birth certificate of ‘Jane female’ born 1887 which was changed to Daniel male in 1922 by the statutory declaration of John, brother and on production of the baptismal cert.
Jane was the mother and also the informant, clearly a bit of crossed wires on the day.

[BSmith2268]

Hi all,

My x3-great grandmother, Selina Gleeson died on the 13th March 1928, aged 72 in Neath, Glamorganshire.

Her death certificate says '70', but there is a note below that says;
"In entry No. 349 Col 4 for '70' read '72' corrected on the 11th May 1928 by Mr W Evans Registrar on production of a statutory declaration made by A Baker and S Groves'

Does anyone know what this means and why the age was altered  two months after her death registration?
Does anyone also know why you needed two people to make this declaration to the registrar?

I have seen her birth certificate, and she was born 2nd December 1855, therefore making the age correction on the death certificate correct.

For context, A Baker was her son-in-law and S Groves her nephew.

Thank you,
BSmith

I wonder if Messrs Baker and Groves had found/acquired a copy of her birth certificate by May and realised that the age given by the person registering her death didn't match her birth certificate?

Who registered the death?

And did she leave a will - were Messrs Baker and Groves the executors? Maybe in doing their duties they realised the age mistake and felt obliged to correct it so they were seen to be doing their executor duties correctly.

Hi,
Baker was the one who registered her death, he lived on the same street as her, too and her nephew lived on the next street over.

No, she didn't leave a will. I wonder if maybe she didn't actually know how old she was, as she gave her age in the 1921 census as 63 and then the family assumed she was born into 1858 until they somehow got hold of her birth certificate?

[BSmith2268]

Thank you for all for getting back to me and to KGarrad for the definition.

Some very interesting stories on examples of statutory declarations.
I'd never seen a certificate like it before and haven't come across one in my family since, so it was very intriguing to me.

[gaffy]

Just to add that another example, which is one of the more common I've encountered, is a Statutory Declaration made decades later on a birth registration to support a claim for pension. For example, a child registered with one forename, but who was baptised with a different forename and used that different forename all their life.  Or differences in surname as well. I had two such examples in my own family, in both cases, pension was only paid after the subject of the birth registration and A. N. Other attended the Registrar's Office to make the Declaration.

[Blue70]

I have one of these amendments on a death record for an ancestor who died in Belfast in 1893. Most of his family were in Liverpool and may not have realised he had died at the time. Nearly two years after the death his daughter and daughter in law must have gone to Belfast, seen his death information and gave the corrections at that time which were added in note form beside the entry. An additional one entry record has also been added to the page with the same information but with text underneath certifying the entry, the amendment, including signature, date etc.


Blue