Death certificate - no cause?

[Rosie Knees]

This is a first for me. Received a death cert this morning (ordered on line from Lincs County Council on Thursday afternoon! but I digress)

William Clayton died aged 42 in Wilsford. Informant was Thos Clayton, present at death.

Cause of death: "unknown. Not certified. No medical attendant"

What's that all about then?

[Night Owl]

Rosie

This might help

Death Certificate Tutorials

Scroll to the bit about "Cause of Death". It sounds like the example quoted.

Is yours an early one?

Jackie

[Little Nell]

Is there a big gap between date of death and the registration?

[Rosie Knees]

sorry, been making fishcakes *washes mashed potato off hands*

Jackie, I wouldn't say it was an early one at 1849.

Nell, no it was registered the very next day!

[Rosie Knees]

and he was buried on the very NEXT day

Isn't that rather quick?

[Olde Crone Holden]

1849 IS early in terms of death certs.

Death registration wasn't compulsory then, and neither was it compulsory to have a medical cause of death.

These uncertificated deaths only bear a cause of death which relates to what the informant THOUGHT the deceased died of. In those days, the informant's guess was probably as good as any doctor's, anyway.

Burial next day not at all uncommon. There were no morgues and no funeral parlours, and if you lived in a tiny cottage say, or one room, you wouldn't want the deceased lying around for days.

There was also a certain amount of superstition involved too, especially in the rural areas. An unburied body was a magnet for the devil, who might snatch the soul before the words of the burial service were said. That is how the tradition of wakes came about - someone sat with the body all the time,usually saying prayers, to make sure the devil didn't appear.

OC

[Rosie Knees]

Thanks OC. It was certainly rural in Wilsford Lincs.

Another let down *sign*. Still, at least I have 'killed him off'.

[Little Nell]

As OC says, the cause of death is a bit of guesswork quite often anyway. I would assume that as the cause on your cert is unknown, he wasn't suffering from any long-term illness that would have shown itself. Possibly a heart attack or an aneurysm.

[Rosie Knees]

poor fella was only 42.

I'll have a look on the online newspapers to see if I can find an announcement but I doubt it. If they didn't have the money to call a doctor they wouldn't waste cash on an announcement int he paper.

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

How likely is it that the informant was his son, Thomas, who was only 8 in 1841? If he was only about 13 and registering the death was something new that the family hadn't had to do before (or if they had, Thomas hadn't had to do it before) then they/he might not have known what he would be asked at the register office. Maybe they didn't question this young lad too hard - after all, only a few years earlier the cause of death wasn't recorded anywhere for the vast majority of people.

[Little Nell]

The man may have been taken suddenly ill and died before they could call a doctor. No point in paying a doctor to say someone was dead (which was obvious) if you didn't need to, which in 1849 you didn't.

He may have died in his sleep.

[Rosie Knees]

I have stopped feeling miffed and now am feeling sad! Merry, the cert doesn't say Thomas was his son but I'm guessing it would be. He was born in 1832 so would have been 17 when his dad died. Being the first born that would have elevated him to head of the family and his mum, apart from being bereft (OMG! imagine if he HAD died in his sleep), had children of 15, 14, 9, 7 and 3 to take care of.

Poor Thomas. Poor Sarah who was left a widow for at least 22 years.

*must plan a POW trip to take in Wilsford*

[Tom Tom]

Rose, I have a cert from about 1843 where the cause of death is just blank. Nothing written in it at all. I rang up the local RO and they checked the original and said a few of them were like that.

Tom.

[Glen in Tinsel Knickers]

Rosie

Glad the office turned the cert round quickly for you, sorry i can't add much to the original query you had.

Just being nosey.........was the cert signed or marked with an "x", as a scanned copy comes from Lincs i always feel they are a bit more "genuine" than a GRO version and make the names a bit more "real".

[Little Nell]

As for feeling sorry for the family, how about this, amongst a list of deaths in a mining disaster, source http://www.welshcoalmines.co.uk/deat...20Merthyr.htm:

John Rees, 16, of Garth Road, Garth, Maesteg
Thomas Rees, 39, of Garth Road, Garth, Maesteg
(married 10 children, father of above, wife expecting 11th child, eldest daughter due to wed the following day)

heartbreaking, isn't it!

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

That's dreadful Nell......

I couldn't stop myself from having a quick look (not difficult as the family were at the same address in 1891 and 1881). It looks like the eldest dau's wedding was put off until the following Q (Sarah Ann Rees m Bridgend Q3 1897)

There's so much heartbreak recorded in those pit disaster records.......

[Little Nell]

Merry

I knew you'd rush off to find out!!!

I was looking for info about husband's gt grandfather who died in a colliery accident and stumbled on this sad tale by chance.

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

Nell.....I have got to stop looking at that site :( On one list there was three people from one house and about a dozen or more from the same street that only went up to house number 15.

Sorry to hijack your thread Rosie!!

[Rosie Knees]

don't worry Merry, it all adds interest to the subject.

Glen, it looks to me as if the whole cert was completed in the same hand.

Thomas, the informant, became a wheelwright so I reckon he would have been literate, but on the cert his 'signature' seems to be in the same hand as that of the Registrar.

[Rosie Knees]

I have just looked at my FTM at Thomas was baptised 19 Aug 1932, so I reckon he would only just have celebrated his 17th birthday when the poor lad had to register the death of his dad.

*dabs eyes*