Thread: Finding deaths

Can anyone tell me where I can find about deaths? I know by using the freebmd you can get the name and quarter of death, but how do you get enough information to be sure it's who you are looking for?



Dan

Hi Dan

You get precious little info on a death certificate, but that is your only chance of tieing somebody down.

Hopefully there will be an address that you can cross check against censuses, and possibly a family member may be the person who reports it. That and cause of death is pretty much it!!

You can purchase certificates at £7.00 a throw at http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/



Best wishes

Mark

Hi Dan,



If the death was before 1837, the date may be found on the parish records when certificates were not in exsistance. The parish records will not actually tell you very much. If the family did not move around very much and the name not common in the parish that they were living you may be able to connect them. Parish records do not stop in 1837 but depending how far away you live, other sources may be easier to find.

Thanks all, sounds like there's no easy way to find out

Whose death are you looking for? If its a very common name it can be hard. If its after 1866 the age at death is included in the index - but of course all the information on a death cert, name, occupation, age etc are necessarily 2nd hand from the informant and not necessarily accurate.

Hi Dan

Don't tease us... who are you trying to isolate???

Mark

Sorry, not trying to be coy, I'm actually looking for everyone I have so far which is about 30 people. I know the easiest way is to contact the local archives to look for the certs with whatever info you can supply, but that will cost a small fortune so I wanted to see if there were any alternatives. Of course the thing is I have no idea when they died.

Only 30!!!!!

Give us a name.. the whole idea is to accept the challenge.

Possibly there is no result that we can provide, but the chance of trying is why people belong to this site.

Mark

Ok, I have an Alfred Skitt, born portobello, willenhall in 1899, he is on the 1901 census. That is all I know of him.



Dan

Well he didn't die 1984-2005. I guess its a long trawl through the death indexes. Skitt isn't that common a name, so I'd suggest you jot down all the Skitt deaths you come across in case they turn out to be yours.