Genealogy Chat

Just wanted to check that I have looked at all the possibilities of trying to see if someone has died since 2010.

I have checked the GRO website, Ancestry and in particular the England and Wales death index 1989-2021, and I have searched for a probate at probatesearch.service.gov.uk

Is there anywhere else I should look?

Local newspapers for obituaries and Electoral Rolls.

Would I need to visit the area to see the latest ER?

If the name is not too common, a search for the name on Google plus the name of the town might show up an announcement.
You would have to judge whether or not is the correct person by looking at any family mentionedt

Look on this site for ER’s. BUT……people can opt out - I certainly have

If it’s a person whose address you knew, send a letter enclosing SAE

Presumably, you have some factual basis for the idea that this person has died?

If John DId know that the person had died, which is not his I read his post, he would be able to ask the cemeteries officer for the local authority for the burial/ cremation place.

No I do not know the person has died that is what I am trying to establish, whether he is alive still.

He is shown on the ER at this website till 2013 I assume he must have opted out since then.

Writing a letter would be sensible

If the death doenst show on the GRO site then it’s most likely the person just opted out out of the public electoral rolls

Hubby and I show on the rolls till opting out became an option

He passed in 2015 and that shows on the GRO site

I,m still around ! but not showing on the electoral roll :-D

Many older people ( assuming here) often have kept their landlines unlike younger ones. So might be worth checking the telephone directory.

I live in Canada, one year we didn't get a Christmas card from an aged aunt-by-marriage, the sole survivor of that generation, and with no children.

I couldn't find out anything, checked whether my brother's daughter had heard anything. She ended up sending a letter to as many of the neighbouring addresses as she could find, and eventually got a reply from a close friend of the aunt but who lived in a a neighbouring street. She had originally thought it might be a scam letter, but eventually decided to reply.

So we found out that the aunt had died the previous year, her nephew on her side had quietly had her cremated without notifying the church aunt had attended for over 90 years.

I knew of him, he must have known of me, but ..................


I tell you this as another option, try contacting a neighbour or neighbours, enclose a stamped self-addressed envelope.

Check the 2013 address on both Zoopla and Rightmove, to see if the house has been sold since then - though of course that's only helpful if the person was the owner:

https://www.zoopla.co.uk/house-prices/

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices.html

If it hasn't been sold since then, the person may still be living there.