Genealogy Chat

I have a death cert and it says in the informant box what looks like, a servant, is this possible or would they have put the persons name

Even if it was a servant, it should have the person's name. Could it be A. Servant (or something similar for the surname). Does it have the same address for the informant and the deceased? Kath. x

its the same address and she is a widow and I know she had servants I wondered if they ever just put servant as they were sort of lowly

I suppose they might have done, but it's not something I've heard of. It might be worth phoning the register office and asking them if they know whether it happened in the past. I'm sure it wouldn't happen today. The certificate itself states at the top of the column 'name and description of informant' so it should really have a name. Kath. x

thanks I could do that

Valerie When was this? Prior to 1875, the Registration of Deaths was extremely lax - you just sort of stuck your head in the door and said 'so and so has died' and the Registrar issued a certificate. No proof needed.So, seeing a humble servant, he might not have bothered to ask her name. Because the system was being widely abused (people getting death certs to claim the Burial Club Money, having either invented the person altogether, or having bumped them off) the law was tightened up and you needed a Death Certificate, signed by a Doctor, before you could register a death. (Bee in my bonnet - referring to Death Certificates, when you really mean a Registration of Death Certificate, which is an entirely different thing.) Not directed at you, Valerie, but everyone who thinks these two things are the same, they're not! Olde Crone

hi this in in 1898