Genealogy Chat

When I first started, and was concentrating only on my direct line, I didn't bother with death certs, probably cos the first couple I sent for just confirmed what I already knew. Of course it helps that I was looking for fairly rare surnames, so I was pretty sure I had the right person before I sent off for the cert. But as I've been looking at the wider picture - my grandfather & gt grandfathers families - I've tended to get more. I've already posted a couple of replies on other threads about how useful info gleaned from death certs can help fill in blanks: informants being married daughters when you didn't know their husbands names on and so on - but I was stunned by the latest one. Investigating the informant who registered my gt grandfather's death lead me to discovering that he remarried after my gt gran died - when he was 73. My father & his sister were both in their late teens at the time, and must have known about it, but it has never been mentioned. Ever so slight whiff of disapproval there I think LOL

Thanks for the advice everyone, at least now I don't feel I've committed a cardinal sin by not bothering, but completeness would be nice

In the last month I have received 2 death certificates and on each of them the 'informant' was a child of the deceased that I knew nothing about. Having that information has meant I can more accurately complete the family grouping. It's also a good way of getting round brickwalls (sometimes!)

A death certificate, and therefore a date of death can also lead you to newspaper reports of funerals which often included lists of all the mourners and can be useful for names of previously unknown relatives.

I like to have the death certs of my direct line people, it gives you an idea, sometimes of what their lives were like and how they coped. I have my grandas twin sisters death certificate too--I always wondered how she had did so young with a little boy left motherless, it turns out she sucumbed (at only32) to lobal pneumonia, it was just prior to anti-biotics being used widespread, how sad, if it had happened a fw short years later she probably would have lived a longer life. My G G. gran died of 'bleeding and exhaustion' following the birth of a child,sh was just 26, I didn't know my G granda had brothers or sisters and th search from the cert led me to find his baby brother who had not survived the birth either, but it also explaind why he was living with relatives on one of the census and his dad was living a few doors away!

In my family, it was always a rumour that there was a history of weak hearts, and my Granddad and Dad died of heart-attacks (Dad was 51) My Great Grans death certificate confirmed that she died at 24 of a weak heart. Canny but she died on the 14th October, my Granddad was born on that date, my Dad died on that date and that was the date that I was due to be born. Bev

Always kill off your ancestors if you can. Why? Well, its tidier. You can see if their spouse was really widowed or committing bigamy if they remarry. You can see if illnesses run in families. Sometimes the death cert can be a HUGE clue. I had a gt grandfather called Thomas Matthews. He died young and I only knew that he lived in London. I had no idea where he was born. His marriage in Islington gave his father as Emmets Matthews. This is an unusual first name and there was only one Emmets Matthews death on Freebmd, registered in Shipston on Stour. Getting the death cert gave me a village name and I was able to trace Emmets back and find my Thomas in the village in 1851 but not 1861, thus helping find out when he moved to London and also giving me the village name to help me locate which of the many Thomas Matthews in London was mine. nell

Ive bought quite a few for mine, cos I suppose I am curious how they ended their lives. The names of the informants are also handy and the addresses. It just makes the whole picture clearer I guess.

If someone died young and you don't know that, you can end up tracing a wrong person who happens to have the same name. Janice

I think it depends on how far you want to research your tree. I have hit a brick wall with adding new people to my tree at the moment and now I'm going back over people already in it and adding more information. I went to my aunts yesterday and she showed me a tin my nan kept. It had loads of newspaper clippings from when people died which has given me some more dates. Also it was interesting to read them as in some flowers were not to be taken to the funeral but instead donations requested to certain hospital wards which gives a clue as to what that person died from.

Hello Heidi Getting the death cert completes the information for me if I have followed them through their lives, it supplies you with an address if they died at home and the person who was present at the death. I obtained a death cert once for a relative hoping to tie in the fact that the two women were sisters, as so far one of them doesn't seem to be in any known record that I can find. It's all down to your personal choice and how you want to keep your records, hope this helps. Elaine

I've not been doing this that long (you'll see that in a sec), but so far have only bothered with collating deaths info when I stumble across it or if someone re-marries (just so I can confirm that the actual relative died). Please could you enlighten me as to whether this info is of any importance, or if it's just a 'nice to have' ?