Genealogy Chat

Does anyone have any tips on how to find death entries? According to my tree, the majority of my ancestors are still alive! Finding births is relatively easy as if you find a census entry it narrows down place/year of birth, but if you have no idea when your ancestors died, how is it best to search? Year by year, county by county? Any tips would be much appreciated! Natalie Surrey

Hi Natalie, Have you tried Free BMD - if you just click on Deaths then just put surname in - unless it is a very common surname then you have to put a District. I found quite a few like this. At first I was putting too much information in and all I got was no matches found. For my relations (Dipple) I clicked on all types then put in Surname Dipple and I got all Births, Marriages and Deaths up to 1903. Hope this helps. Maggie

Thanks I'll keep giving freebmd a try when they get more updates! Natalie

Censuses can help to narrow down death dates to within 10 years - if you see an entry for widow/er you know for sure that the spouse has died. Deaths are certainly the most difficult to find, but I always get certs for direct ancestors if I can find them cos they confirm addresses/relationships and are generally interesting.

You can always use the will indexes, easier than the GRO, the index gives the address of the deceased. Bear in mind not everyone wrote a will. Ros

Have you tried WWW.1837online.com, has records of births, marriages & deaths, from 1837 to 1984. I found my Grandads Death on this site and I did not know what year he died, tried a couple of years then found him. Also found his birth, which was causing problems,it turns out when he was registered his surname was missing an "L". Pretty good site,cost £5 for 55 units which last for 120 days. Give it a try

I always thought you could not place anyone in your tree till you have confirmed their death as how do you know they are yours till age matches with birth etc.

John, I expect most people in our trees are listed without a date of death. As it is said before, its easier to find information to estimate a birth year. Speaking from experience I have found that it is not necessary the case that the age recorded at death matches the year of birth - either on death certificates or on gravestones. Paul (Researching Baker, Heslop, Snaith, Johnson, Wallington, Wilmshurst, Barker, O'Doherty, McCauley, Crawford, Hindmarch, Pringle, Lyons, Clarke & Waterson)

Have you tried the familyhistory site it is a pay site you buy £5 credits and you can get lots of info most items cost 5p yes 5p lasts a while but this has lots of national burial records some cencus and marriage dates not every county but worth a look you can search without paying and look to see if the database you want is there sandra

Rosemary .......... age on death cert would be provided by whoever reported the death - so just depends how accurate their information was. Of course you can specify supporting information, but this is more difficult for deaths. Maybe the address as most people died at home, but of course this was not always the case. Suggest you just narrow it down as far as poss then you have to bite the bullet I'm afraid. Have already got 2 wrong ones myself for 1 gt grandmother with common name so know how you feel! :)

Will try out some of the sites suggested! I too have experience of wrong dates of birth on death certificates of my great grandparents - the age is only as accurate as the informant knew it to be. I also take ages given on census with a pinch of salt! (But at least it narrows the age range down!) Thanks again, Natalie

Not all dates are right. With my great grandmother I had problems from the beginning to end. On her marriage she was 19. On her death she was 72. Having her son she was 19. In fact she was born 1875. Married at 16yrs and 7mths.Died at 71. Her mother I had her down on the 1881 census born 1842, she was born 1838. Some of them years ago couldn't read or write properly and that where all the confusion is!

Yes, ages at death have to be taken with a pinch of salt as you're relying on the age that was provided by the person who was there at the time. On my great-grandfather's gravestone, he's listed as being 2 years younger than he actually was. You can just imagine it...."how old do you think he was then"...."well, I'm not sure but we always thought he looked about 70". Say no more!

It can be so much easier before 1837 when you can buy microfiche of Parish Registers,although some are transcribed up until the 1980's.They usually list baptisms,marriages and burials,although it's quite surprising how many baptisms there can be and yet so few burials.It's little wonder then,at least pre 1837,how few burials most of us can record.

Hello, You may find this useful. I have taken notes from a genealogy book from the library but not the name of the book. The first census overall population count in the UK was made on the night of March 10th 1801 and made at 10 year intervals ever since, except during the second World War. 1841 was the first census to contain names. 1841. Street house names were rarely given nor was relationship of people to the head, marital status nor birthplace beyond whether it was in the county in which they were recorded in the census or elsewhere. Ages were rounded down to the nearest multiples of five. Exact ages were given of children of 15 and under. 30th March 1851 recorded house names or numbers as well as street names. DEATH. Between 1667 and 1814 bodies had by law to be buried in woollen shrouds. The parish registers often record that the affidavit was made. Often the letter P was written against the burial entry. This indicates the person was a pauper and the funeral paid out of Parish Funds. Just thought This was interesting. Shirley

Just an interesting point that was passed onto me. Earlier age records tend to be more accurate (I was discussing age differences in three different censuses). It is easier to say that someone is 40 when they are nearer to 50 than it is to say that they are 1 or 2 when they are 7. Melanie