Genealogy Chat

thanx all for your replies so far. joshua died n 27.11.1859 at home in Nineveh st, Colne, lancs. The informant was his son-in-law john Spencer who is listed as being in attendance. So it could be that it was a w/e and there was no doctor available to sign the certificate but it woudl be really interesting if there was a coroners report to read. does anyone know where i can find such items and how i go about finding one (if there is one) for Joshua. alison

This is from Barbara Dixons site. In the early days of registration all the deaths were uncertified. The informant simply gave the cause as they saw it. And they were probably not far off the truth. You tend to get simple causes such as measles, stroke, gout, childbirth and so on. It is still possible to have a death not certified by a doctor in which case it is still the informant who is supposed to tell the registrar what the cause of death was. If you have a death certificate without the name of a certifiying doctor and it was not a post mortem or an inquest then you have an uncertified death. They are pretty rare today - but the sort of situation in which you would have an uncertified death would be where a person died at home at the weekend - they had only been treated by the one doctor from their surgery and that doctor went on holiday for a fortnight starting that weekend. In that case there is no other doctor who can legally sign a certificate. The coroner would then be notified - but if he decides after looking into the matter that there is no need for a post mortem then you would have an uncertified death.

An uncertified death is rare. For instance, a dying patient attended before death by the GP who discussed this with his or her partners and then emigrated to Australia. No doctor fulfilling the criteria to complete the certificate would be available. If such a death is reported to the coroner or procurator fiscal, he or she may allow an uncertified death, without requesting a postmortem examination or inquest. After the Harold Shipman case this is very unlikely.

I recently received a copy of my gggrandfather's death certificate dated 1865 which said he had died of accidental asphysia etc. with the informant details as 'information received from William Carter Coroner for Surrey - Inquest held 28th November 1865'. I therefore suspect if there had been an Inquest for your gggrandfather the certificate would say so. It's probably more likely that he had, perhaps jaundice or something, which would have obvious signs of liver impairment but from an unknown cause...

I have obtained a death certificate for my 3xgreat grandfather. It states that he died of a "liver complaint - not certified". Does anyone know if this means there would have been an inquest into his death, and if so where i would be able to find a copy of it (if one exists)? The registration district was burnley and he lived in colne (oh, he died in 1859) thanx alison