Genealogy Chat

Thing is Nell, she doesnt seem to be related or live close by. Ive been trawling but amazingly there arent that many Elizabeth Lewins and certainly none in their street or anything like that. Oh well, I guess its not of prime importance, but would have been interesting. I know on my GGFx3 cert in 1861 the informant present at death was a Mary Ann Smith (yes, great) BUT as they lived in a small village I trawled and found her in 1851 living next door to my lot, so I guess they were close friends. Just fleshes out the picture of their lives, doesnt it.

From the highly recommended http://home.clara.net/dixons/Certificates/deaths.htm#COL9 '[informant of death could be] a person who found the body inmate of a house or institution - this was a person living at the same address who knew of the event person causing the burial person in charge of the body ... Someone present at the death could simply have been the person who made a living by sitting with the dying and laying them out after death, or a close friend or neighbour and is not necessarily a relative.'

Hi Heather The informant at a death has to either be a close relation, or an executor, or have actually been present at the death. This lady qualified as an informant because she was actually there when he died (the widow, if there is one, presumably being wracked with grief or trying to look after numerous small children etc). The fact that she was a nurse certainly would not have indicated that she could read and write at that time. She might just have been the old biddy from down the road who everyone called on to help when someone was ill and needed constant care. I don't think you can rely on her calling herself a nurse on the census. And, as other people have pointed out, nurse covers a multitude of occupations which these days we give different names to (nanny, carer etc). Tina

Hi thanks - perhaps he could afford a doctor, Im so used to my poor sods all dying in presence of a family member that I dont think about a professional being there.

i am a nurse and i pronounce death then the doctor does it again for the death certificate, sp perhaps as a witness to death in them days she could sign the death certificate with an x so long as her full name had been printed or written on the cert.

So a possible then I guess. In 1861 she has an 18 year old under nurse in the same household. It may just be she happened to live nearby Williams house. I shall have to check out her address on the cert and compare it with his at the time of death.

In 1861 most women would be unable to write I would imagine. Nurses wouldn't be trained in the way we know today. More likely just a 'carer'. Kath. x

Literacy skills in 1858 would be lower than elsewhere. Formal training for nurses didn't start properly until Florence Nightingale got going. I doubt if nursing training would have required much writing of essays etc then. But nurse on census could mean a monthly nurse, just there to look after a new mum, or a nursery nurse to cope with the children, or a nurse as we would understand it today, to look after someone ill or invalid. She may have been in a tearing hurry and put X to save time. I have quite a few relatives who sometimes signed and sometimes put X. nell

I had a civil engineer the other week who signed his marriage cert with an X !!!

Just got the death cert for GGFX2 1858, New Road, Whitechapel - the informant is an Elizabeth Lewin of 8 King Street St George's - present at death. I dont know who she can be and Ive just been trawling the 1861 for likely people. There arent that many in Middx who are of an age suitable to have been a witness at a death. One is living in a large wealthy household in Highgate with the position of Nurse. Now, 1. Is this Nurse as we know it, or basically a kids nanny? 2. She made her mark on the certificate - would a nurse not know how to write her name?