Death Registration

[nappycat]

I have looked on wiki for this information, but cannot see it.
When was death registration compulsory? Or has it always been??

[KiteRunner]

From the 1st July 1837 when civil registration started, I would think.

[nappycat]

Thanks Kiterunner, that must mean he is there somewhere! I didn't know if it was like births, not compulsory straight away.

[KiteRunner]

Well, of course there must be a few that slipped through the net, and there are bound to be some that got lost between the local register office and the GRO indexes. Also, there are lots registered under the name "unknown" or with inaccurate details because the person who registered the death might not have known the person's real name and age.

[nappycat]

That has really cheered me up!
The one I am looking for is John Trappett Chambers. I am sure he died between 1851 and 1861. Trappett is used as a middle name for several sons, and they continued to use it for their children.
John married as 'John Trappett Chambers' so really think the family would register him as that.
His wife died in 1865 and she was 'widow of John Trippett Chambers'. You can see why I find him a mystery.

[KiteRunner]

He wasn't one of those pesky sailors who died at sea, was he?

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

I don't think it was actually compulsory until 1875, when the law was tightened for both births and deaths and all deaths had to be certified by a doctor.

However, it was always the case that a lot more births went unregistered than deaths........

I am currently investigating somone in my tree who married a man who doesn't seem to have died, then she is a widow on the census, but soon after she married again to another man bearing an anglicised version of the name of her first husband. Did she marry the same man twice? Was this an insurance scam?? This is one of the reasons the law on death registration was tightened! lol

[nappycat]

No he never died at sea, in 1861 one of his sons was living at his 1851 address.
The children are living at home unmarried in 1851 then between 1853 and 1856 four of them marry. Life must have been too cosy at home!
I have sent for numerous marriage certificates to see if one of them will tell me 'father John Trappett Chambers deceased, but so far they haven't. I have just traced the last one, and will send for that.

[Olde Crone Holden]

No, it wasn't compulsory till 1875 as Merry says. Most infuriating.

People could see no sense in it - if someone was dead and buried, then that fact would be recorded in the church registers.

It was only when insurance companies started to insist on certificated causes of death that everyone suddenly realised the advantage of registering a death, as even the poorest of the poor usually had a few bob in a "burial club".

OC

[Little Nell]

I've found that deaths were generally registered, but the early indexes in the GRO books are handwritten, so quite probably you can't find your chap as he's been misindexed.

Don't assume he was registered as John Trappett Chambers, people didn't always give full (or even correct) names when registering deaths, and even if they did, the registrar could have written something incorrectly, or it could be misread later. Which area are we talking about. And it might not have been registered by a close relative, if he died in hospital for example.