Death Certificates

[Starfire6]

What is the best method to obtain a copy of a death certificate? My grandfather died of his wounds, at home, in 1916.

RJ

[chaz]

too new for Ancestry and the like I expect.

you can visit the local registry office as ...

firstly not all records have been scanned and copied yet.

secondly A and FMP would only have a page with other deaths in a register.

your local registry office in the town or county records office

[seaforths]

I did it over the phone with the government records office. I gave the details and made the payment and they were posted to me.

[CGM]

The cheapest place by post is from the General Register Office and you can order and pay online through the website.

Genealogy websites charge an (often substantial) handling fee.

However, you can find out the information which the GRO will ask for, to facilitate the finding of the certificate, from the Deaths section on these websites.

You will need the year and the quarter and the district the death was registered in, and the volume and page number.

CGM

[seaforths]

I only gave them name, rank, regiment, battalion and service number, country I believed they had died in and approximate date of death (because there was a discrepancy over that bit). I'm glad I did it by phone because the chap I got to speak to was into WW1 research but not in a big way and loved to deal with these queries. It was much less complicated than filling in their online form and I didn't have the information anyway.

[CGM]

I have phoned when looking at a death abroad, but not for deaths in the UK. Registration here follows the same pattern as that of a civilian.

[Phil Evans]

Assuming that home is England or Wales, I have always just looked up the relevant information on FreeBMD and gone through the General Record Office as per CGM's post.

Phil

[seaforths]

Thanks Phil, from your post, I now realise it is the location that makes the difference (I thought it was the year of death). I had to go through GRO for Scots dying during the war (they were overseas) but got a GUncles death cert via Scotland's People and he died in 1920 in Scotland, because it was after and not during, that was what made me think it was when and not where.

[John_Hartley]

Phil's process at post #7 is the way to go.

Use FreeBMD to get the registration district, register volume and page, then go to GRO to order online. Cots £9.25 and you should have the certicate within 3 or 4 days.

[Phil Evans]

Marjorie,

I have "lost" several men while researching memorials down my way, until I have subsequently found out that they died in Scottish hospitals.

Phil

[CGM]

Yes, if "home" is in Scotland you go to Scotland's People.

CGM

[seaforths]

Marjorie,

I have "lost" several men while researching memorials down my way, until I have subsequently found out that they died in Scottish hospitals.

Phil

It is befuddling that they segregated the records the way they did and suspect that as death occurred on Scottish soil their deaths were certified under Scottish law and held in their records. I suppose the opposite is true for Scotsmen dying in England. Also a bit annoying that the English then certified Scottish deaths occurring overseas and retained their records. When I needed a batch of POWs certs that included Scots, it cost a lot more than it would from Scotland's People. I suppose they wouldn't have been thinking of the convenience of 21st century researchers when they decided what was going to be kept where. I spent ages searching Scotland's People for the Scots POWs that died until I discovered they were registered with the English. Then found the website thoroughly confusing not being accustomed to getting certs via English sources that's why I ended up phoning. The guy on the phone said they didn't need all that stuff on the website to find them