Death which didn't get recorded in the national registers

[Elizabeth Herts]

I was searching for Alexander events in Lancashire, and I found the death of

OWEN ALEXANDER aged 12
in 1840 at Heywood

in LancsBMD

He is one of 8 children of my 3xgreat grandparents. Only 3 survived past their early 20s.

I am trying to send for a batch of certificates, but his death does not show up in Find My Past records or in FreeBMD.

This means that if you can't find a record, do not despair - check on a local level before you give up.

[Anne in Carlisle]

My gg grandfather's death in 1856 is only found in burial records :( I have a couple of wrong certificates and also applied to the local offices (two, because its on the border). His death must never have been registered. Fortunately he is easily identified in the place he lived for many years - buried aged 88. It would have been nice to have a certificate though :(

Anne

[maggiemay]

I also have a g/grand father whos death was not registered between 1889-1891 and it also is not at the local office I have searched for over 7 years all to no avail

Margaret

[Elizabeth Herts]

OH's great-great-grandfather's birth was never registered, although I have his christening record print-out. However, his older siblings' births were registered.

His mother's death isn't registered as far as I can see.

At least I know I can apply to Rochdale register office for Owen Alexander's death certificate - I wonder why it missed the national register? Human error, as always, I suppose.

[dicole]

I looked for ages for the death of Christopher Eccles before 1947 (when he would have been 100). Finally found his 1927 burial record on the Manchester City website. When I asked the Lancashire RO, they have the death registration, and gave me their number to get a certifcate. The registration was not passed on to the national index - perhaps because it the death happened on 21 st December, may be they were all in a happy Christmas mood.

[Elizabeth Herts]

Diane, it's so frustrating!

Do they ever add deaths etc if an omission has been pointed out? You sometimes see hand-written entries at the bottom.

If I phoned Rochdale and told them that Owen's death had not reached the national register, could they rectify this and ensure that anyone else searching could find his death and order the certificate centrally?

[Glen in Tinsel Knickers]

I despair sometimes when i see threads on varied sites, so often it's assumed that because something isn't on freebmd or in the full index it was never registered when in many cases it's completely untrue.

I know of at least two events in my tree that don't appear in the GRO index (plus another that is so far off tne name it wouldn't appear to be the event i was looking for), they are however registered correctly and available from the local registrar.

Estimates vary but i have seen figures of between 750,000 and up to 1.2 million events never making ot to the GRO index, when you think how many bmd records there are from 1837 and the process involved it's hardly suprising.

[Mary from Italy]

Might be this one? (from FreeBMD):

Deaths Dec 1840
ALEXANDER * Bury 21 205

Bury RD included Heywood.

I've looked at the scan, but it's illegible (the page is all dirty). You can see a tiny bit of the beginning of the Christian name, and I'm not convinced it's Owen, but you never know.

Is the quarter right?

[Elizabeth Herts]

Mary, thanks, it could well be him.

I don't know what quarter he died in because LancashireBMD only give a year - 1840, but not the quarter.

I know he was 12 when he died, however. It must be him - the name Owen isn't that common and he was baptised 26 Aug 1827 at Lambourn Berkshire.

I'd love to know where they are all buried.
8 children and their parents Charles and Martha. They left Berkshire some time in the 1830s. Charles was a joiner. He died in 1840 (inconveniently before a census).

William John died in Berkshire 1829 aged 10.
Charles my gt-gt-grandfather lived but 3 of his four wives died very quickly.
Hannah survived.
Mary Ann died 1847 aged 22
Owen died 1840 aged 12
Sabina died 1845 aged 16
Martha survived
George died 1855 aged 21

Poor Martha, the mother.

[Elizabeth Herts]

Mary, how very odd.

I click on the Free BMD page and find the entry you mean and view it - (I don't think it says Owen). However, FMP brings up a totally different page for Dec 1840 deaths!


Aaahh, I have worked it out!

FREEBMB's copy is horrendous.

If you look at Find My Past's much better copy, the man is

ALIXANDER (sic) Charles

He is my ancestor and father of Owen!! Sometimes they misspelt Alexander and a couple of times it comes up as Alixander - I have this death certificate and it is definitely Charles Alexander, my great-great-great grandfather!

[Night Owl]

On that basis it could be the Alixander *wen In Bury June 1840 - an equally bad copy

[Elizabeth Herts]

Jackie, thank you so much! It is him - the FMP copy is perfectly clear, nothing wrong with it at all!

Bury has Alexander and the national register has Alixander!!

It begs the question why BMD doesn't use good copies when they are readily available from FMP.

[Mary from Italy]

How strange, I always assumed they all worked from the same copies.

[Anne in Carlisle]

I think there are a number of different copies of the GRO index. I know I've seen at least two over the years. The fiche at the local library was different to the one FreeBMD are using. I have seen different versions of the same page on Ancestry to FreeBMD. Over the years they have been retyped as they have become poor, I suppose.

Each time a copy of the index is made there will be more errors!! :D Yippee!

Anne

[Uncle John]

I have 2 tales of GRO versus local RO.

A death in which the GRO index has mistranscribed the surname as starting with S instead of L. That means an Ancestry wildcard search won't pick it up. Fortunately a FTF genius found it and I was able to get a certificate from the local RO.

A birth in Newcastle on Tyne in which 3 children with exactly the same name were born in the same quarter circa 1840. I specified parents' names on my application to the local RO and they produced the correct certificate.

[Christine in Herts]

When the FRC was closing, FreeBMD recruited people to get digital photos for them, as I recall.

That suggests that the digital images available to FreeBMD won't be the same as FMP's or Ancestry's.

Christine

[Elizabeth Herts]

I just double-checked to make sure I got it right - I did!

Lancashire BMD Death 1840
ALEXANDER Owen 12 Heywood Rochdale H/3/62

FMP
June 1840
ALIXANDER Owen Bury XXI 245? (not very clear)

[Jessbowbag]

FreeBMD'd version

Deaths Jun 1840
ALIXANDER *oen Bury 21 745