How many certificates haven't you bought yet?

[Olde Crone Holden]

Carole

Thing is - what constitutes "all"? A full set for every sibling and their children, or what? It's knowing when to stop that is the hard part.

My 2 x GGF was married twice. I catch up with him at his second marriage - he is a mystery before that. He brought to his second marriage a son, born in 1855.

I cannot find his first marriage, nor the birth of his son. I have made a short list (although short isn't really the correct word) of all possible marriages and all possible registrations of birth.

I started to send for these, three at a time, then quickly realised that I won't actually KNOW if I get the correct one or not - very common name at the time and in the area.

However, if I ever win the Lottery I shall send for the lot all at once and play with them!

OC

[taffyfrog]

Yes, I really mean all, unrealistic I know, unless as you say, you win the lottery or something. I try to be reasonable and be content with what the census shows me is 99.99% true. But then there's just that little inkling doubt which niggles me. I do tend to do all lines as fancy takes me and fellow reseachers turn up. Am having a great time at the moment with a 2nd and 3rd cousin! But then once you've got the cert there's no absolute proof that the father was really the father unless you get involved in DNA testing I suppose, which I haven't as yet.

[Vivienne]

I've just realised there is one I need that I haven't got. :o
My 3xgt grandmother outlived her daughter who died in 1850 & I lost touch with her after my gt grandmother left her houshold between the 1851 & 61 census.
You prodded me into looking for her & I think I have found her death in 1867 so that is the next cert to send for. lol:D

[Olde Crone Holden]

Carole

Oh definitely, a cert doesn't PROVE that the daddy on the cert was REALLY the daddy - but it does prove that's what the family was SAYING.

My 2 x GGF was the fifth of ten children. I got his birth cert, all correct. Decided not to get his siblings certs, but to look for baptisms for them instead, which I found, again all correct.

Except my 2 x GGF. He wasn't their child, even though they had registered him as if he were. He was the illegitimate child of his "father's" sister and Mr Unknown.

I have no idea if he ever knew the truth. The Registrar certainly didn't!

OC

[taffyfrog]

Luxery Tom.
I tend not to get the deaths unless very close ancestors or situations that need elucidating. After all, dead ancestors don't get married and produce children.

[Peter Evans]

I need three death certificates for a full-house of direct line ancestors. I am aiming to collect a full set for all the siblings of my direct line; I have about 300 certificates in all and reckon I need another 30 or so. As others have said, the problem is finding them.

Peter

[Olde Crone Holden]

But sometimes death certs can be unexpectedly informative!

The informant turns out to be a married daughter you knew nothing about, or an unrelated name that nevertheless pulls together some sketchy guesses, or in one case, a third wife who nipped in between censuses and was remarried before the next, taking two of the children of this marriage to a new name.

I never would have known of her existence any other way because I was not expecting another marriage!

OC

[JBee]

I've bought a very few on my side but am about to go really mad - Dad's side I need about 20 mostly birth and deaths. Rather less on the other - Unfortunately too many born in Ireland too!!!!

[KiteRunner]

If you're lucky enough to find entries for your ancestors in the National Probate Calendar (i.e. they left a will which went to probate or an estate large enough to require administration to be granted) then you will probably get quite a lot of the info that would be on the death cert for free - date and place of death, occupation and residence. And if you get a copy of the will it actually costs less than a death certificate and may well give you more names than the one informant's name you would get from the cert. Of course, it might just say "my wife" and / or "all my children", name the bank manager as the executor and be no help at all!

[SuffolkSue]

Trouble is you never know what a certificate can tell you. I decided to get all my g.grandmas brothers and sisters birth certs, as I was trying to connect to another line. On one of these mum has a different maiden name, so thats put a spanner in the works. If I hadn't decide on getting these I would never have known this.

Mind you I am an SCC (serial certificate collector).


Stands outside Tescos rattling a tin.

[Phoenix]

Wills are definitely worth getting, as Kite Runner says. I got Daniel Marsh's address, married names of the girls, who he left the silver spoons to....

I also had seen the cemetery records, so knew where he was buried, how deep the grave was and what the family paid for it.

The death certificate came as a real shock: he had dropped down dead in a police court! I was only buying the cert to "complete the set" but that lead to the newspapers and the whole lurid story.

Anthony Camp always said "kill them off" and until you actually have the death certificate, you don't know that you have made away with the right person. (And okay, sometimes you have your doubts even then!)

[Olde Crone Holden]

Phoenix

Yes, that was the rule I learned too - kill em off first. Saves you endless hours of frustration looking for them, if they turn out to have died aged 5!

Wills are invaluable too as Kate says, even more so pre registration and have helped me to reconstruct many a wobbly sketch family.

OC

[Michael]

I've only managed to find wills for two of mine, despite knowing the exact dates of death for numerous others. Anyone know of any particular reason why someone might not have left a will, or if they did, why it might not appear in the probate indexes? Doesn't appear to have anything to do with the size of the estate, since although one of my two left an estate valued at over £4000 in 1914, the other was under £100 (1872). The latter also suggested that his death wasn't entirely unexpected, since the will was made less than a month before.

[vikki brace]

Don't know how many I need, but if I am ordering one to solve a mystery or to help with a wall, I also order a cert for my direct line (usually deaths). That way I get 2 certs and that will ususally keep me busy for a while.

Also can I also agree with Kiterunner about the Probate - I managed to visit the office in London, and came away with loads of info, I only ordered 1 will and 1 Admon but the info you find from the books is invaluable

[KiteRunner]

Michael, it seems that some people gave all their money etc away while still alive, to avoid death duties.

[yummy-mummy-amy]

i dont have at all. the wish list is much bigger than the got list. but hilst the kids keep flooding my bathroom (£115 electricians bill) and daamaging their school shoes after 4 weeks (£30 per pair) i cant buy them.


considers leaving kids dirty for few days and sitting in a shop doorway in hope of money and sympathy...

[Glen in Tinsel Knickers]

In my direct lines i have four outstanding death certs and several marriages (not the important marriages, more the first marriage or the re-marriages etc),

That puts me in a quandary really, my birth mother married twice before i was born, as yet i haven't ordered either cert but from my birth cert and her death and birth cert it is obvious that i have the correct details. I don't really want to order the certs because of the living descendants from those marriages but things aren't "complete" till i do.

Also both my maternal grandparents ancestry is slightly complicated because of re-marriages for their parents, (both were raised or lived with older half siblings/uncles). I really need to get the certs for the half sibs to show the relationships and interfamily marriages to clarify things (i know what happened but others don't !!!).

If i get all the certs mentioned above then the total stands at around 12 or 13.

[Michael]

Thanks KR, that might tie in with my theory about the 1876 one - if he'd been ill he might not have been in much of a state to go round distributing his stuff, and just scribbled down the will and let someone else sort it. I doubt there'd have been much duty to pay on an estate that small anyway.

[Olde Crone Holden]

Michael

Just as today, some people thought they were never going to die and didn't make a will.

My 4 x GGF died in 1817. He was a very comfortable farmer aged 73 - but he didn't leave a will.

This turned out to be greatly to my advantage in fact, because there was an Admon, which of course, didn't tell me much, except that admon was granted to his widow, and then regranted, after her death, because she couldn't be bothered with the admon.

However, someone must have got to her because she herself left the most fantastic will, in which she detailed every spoon and bucket, named all her children ( a nice checking point) and all her grandchildren too, many of whom I didn't have. I also got the information that most of the children had had their share long before their father died.

I got 37 names out of that will, all for £3.50!

OC