Genealogy Chat

Does anyone have any ideas where I could find the death entry of my Great Grandmother please? In 1901 she was in Beal, near Knottingley, West Yorkshire. Another contact has told me that her husband remarried in 1911 in Bridlington, and he was a widower on his marriage certificate. I have search the death records on Ancestry and can find nothing that matches her age. Her married name was Elizabeth Wood and she was born in 1862. Can anyone come up with any bright ideas please, because I have run out of them!!

Have you searched the complete index qtr. by qtr for each separate year, or just the partially transcribed index? Kath. x

Are you sure she actually died? Divorce was difficult to come by in those days and some couples just split up and went their separate ways, then remarried as if they had been widowed. There are a few Elizabeth Wood's on the partially transcribed index registered in Wakefield (I think that would be the right district for Knottingley). Have you checked them all? Kath. x

Hello Kath, I have searched the complete index on Ancestry (several times!!) without any success. Really has got me baffled.

Hello Kath, I think that Beal would come under Pontefract anyway, but I have checked them all and can't find anything the right age. The only evidence that I have of her death is her husband was named as a widower at his second marriage. Might have to look again at the years after 1911 just in case they were divorced.

My gg grandfather claimed to be a widower on the 1881 census. On the 1891 he is married to another woman (although I've never found the marriage). I searched high and low for my gg grandmother's death between 1871 and 1881. I eventually found it ............ ......... in 1896! It was definately her as she was described as 'wife of .... farmer, formerly a butcher (master)' which fitted him perfectly. The informant was the owner of a lodging house where gg gran had been living - poor soul. It was only about 6 miles away from her husband. Her family must have known she was there. Anne

Were they well off Maggie, because I doubt that they were divorced at that date unless they were very well off? Kath. x

Thanks for that Anne, looks like it's a bit more searching for me then! It would help if it was a less common name too!

Kath, I did think that the Ecclesall Bierlow one was a possibility because that is the district she was born in, but the age was a few years out. Might have to take the plunge and either order the certificate or see if the register office will give me any information. Thanks again.

Can't see them being well-off Kath. On the 1901 he was down as a labourer in a glass bottle works. Going to bed now, work tomorrow. Thanks for your interest. I'm determined that this one won't beat me!

I have death certificates where the age is out by up to 5 years. It depends on who the informant was and how well they knew the deceased. Kath. x

Have you checked these two deaths, as the year of birth isn't out by much, and she could have died away from home:- Elizabeth Wood abt 1867 1907 Oct-Nov-Dec Ecclesall Bierlow Derbyshire, Yorkshire - West Riding Elizabeth Wood abt 1867 1907 Oct-Nov-Dec Halifax Yorkshire - West Riding, West Yorkshire Kath. x

Will maybe email them tomorrow, see if I can be cheeky and get any information out of them. If not it might be worth taking the plunge and ordering it. Thanks again (definately going to bed now!)

Just a thought. Could Elizabeth have been her middle name? I have several people in my tree known to their families by their second names but actually their registration might show them with the little used first name. Sue

Thanks Sue, on her birth and marriage certificates her name was given as Elizabeth.

Kath, I have emailed Sheffield register office, which I think covers Ecclesall Bierlow, to see if they can give me any info. Wish me luck! Thanks for your help.

Had a reply from the register office today and it's the wrong person. The husbands name is wrong. A big thank you to Sheffield register office for looking for me. It's back to searching again, she is not going to beat me!!

Anyone else got any ideas where I can find the death of my great grandmother? Struggling now!

I do hope that the registration is found. Regrettably, not all deaths were registered - I know this for a fact because I knew the inscriptions on a gravestone for two brothers, found the registration for one but not the other. They had died within a few weeks of the other so the registrations should have been in the same quarter. I searched the quarters either side of the one that I found. I asked the staff for help where I was (in the records office in Winchester), and they could not find it either, and I was told that maybe because it was the same surname, it was thought that there could not have been one dying so soon after the other in the same district so therefore it was omitted!

Is it beyond the realms of possibility that she didn't die, that she simply vanished? I'm only asking because I've just come up with a similar incidence. 3x great grandma and grandad Hannah and James had their last child in 1872. James remarried to an Ann somebody a year later, but there is no record of Hannah dying. I have not got the certificate for this second marriage yet but I'm wondering if it says James was a widower on it to cover the fact that his wife was missing. I know this would technically be bigamous, but as people have said on this thread, rather than go through divorce (which would surely have been too expensive for most, especially my farm labourers and I imagine ones linked to others too), perhaps people did just separate and marry again.