Genealogy Chat

Hi, for what reason would a death go unregistered? Margaret

Margaret Depends when you're talking about. It was not compulsary to register any event until 1875 even though registration started in 1837. Joy

Hi I am talking about from 1888-1891 so it is after compulsory registration I have been looking for this death for over three and half years everywhere I know it is not registered I just wondered how you could get away without doing so Margaret

Margaret Who are you looking for? I might be able to help. Joy

Hello Jan, It is nice of you to offer to look but I know he is not there I have had a search done at the local register office where he lived and I know he may not have died in that area and there is so many William Poole (Pool) I could never afford to buy all the certs. in the hope of getting the right one. I just wondered how he never got registered. Thanks Margaret

Could William have died at the home of one of his children, in another reg district? (Just trying to think of ways to narrow down the search)

Hi No none of his children were married at the time, I have the two eldest girls marriage certs. and on both it says the name of the father but deceased. Margaret

Margaret I searched for nearly five years for the death registration of my 2 x GGF who died in 1898 - his death date was on the family tombstone. After sending for endless wrong certs, I paid the GRO for a search. They came up with nothing. By a sheer fluke, I found his death registered in the LOCAL Register Office - for whatever reason, it never reached the GRO. Also, he had mysteriously died, as a lodger, some 50 miles from where he lived all his life. This is not the first time I have found an event in a local Register Office, which never reached the GRO - I now have four such certificates. All events were in the 1800s, and in Lancashire. Olde Crone

I have had certs that are definately not on the GRO indexes but I have managed to get them from the local register office where the person died. Sometimes they just get missed off when the records are sent to the GRO. Margaret

How you do you know when this person died? If you have an idea of the area, I suppose you could check the burial register. nell

Hi Nell, I know this person died between 1888-1891 because his last child was born early 1889 and he was not on the 1891 census his wife was a widow she remarried in 1893 and his brother was a witness to the marriage. Margaret

Do you have the birth certificate for his last child? WAS he the father? I ask because my great grandmother was a widow with a baby 1 month old, in 1881, indicating that her husband had died 1880/1881. ... Fortunately I already had a copy of his death certificate, ... for November 1876 !! Have you looked for William's death in his home area ... for some years prior to the child's birth? Are you able to check burial records for the local graveyard or cemetery? Does his occupation link him to another area?

I agree with Gwyneth, the child would be registered with that surname whether or not the mother's husband was alive, as it was the mother's surname at the time. If you see what I mean. One of my partner's rellies had a child in 1884, with her husband's surname, but the husband died in 1875! Easier to sort out, of course, because there was a census in between. Kate.

Hi, Well they are together on the 1881 census, the last child born in 1889 says the fathers name also his occupation have certificate I suppose he might have died earlier but there was also a child born 1882 which i have certificate for. But then he must have died between 1881 and 1891 if either of the last two children were not his. I have had a search done at the local office and they have no record have also phoned cemeterys and they can find no record of him. I know it must be a lost cause. Margaret

Are you saying the last two children were 1882 and 1889????? Sounds highly suspicious to me - a large gap, isn't it??.......(sorry, I don't mean to be unkind about your rellies!) Maybe he died after 1882 (maybe not long after, and after a few years she had a child with someone else. She may have lied about who the father was to the registrar............(and as previously mentioned, this child would have her surname in any case). As you cannot find a death 1888-1891, have you tried 1881-1888?? Merry

Don't give up Margaret. Do you want to share some details so that we can have a look, eg. where were the family in 1881?

What was William's occupation? He wasn't lost at sea or something similar, was he? I'd have thought that by then a death certificate would have been required before burial, so was there maybe not a burial? Is is wife referred to as a widow, when she re married?

Hi, yes the wife Emma was a widow when she remarried and his brother was a witness to the marriage and if he had not had died the brother would not have been a witness surely. The wife is still living at the same address in 1891 as they were in in the 1881 census. Why do you think she could not have gone 7 years between the last two children she might have lost some in between. the one from last child was my grandad. He was a farm labourer. Margaret

I didn't say she couldn't have gone 7 years between births (of course she could and as you say, she might have lost some inbetween)......I was just making the suggestion that if there is no death for her husband after the conception of the last child, then just MAYBE he died before that. I have a man on my tree who died in WW1 two years before he was named as the father of his wife's child. Also, my husband has his mother's husband named on his own birth cert as his father, but my mother-in-law hadn't seen her husband for a year when she gave birth!! (He wasn't dead though!) I'm just saying it is POSSIBLE that your William Pool(e) died earlier, unless he was the person who actually registered the last birth. If his wife was at the same address in 1881 and 1891 then presumably any children born in between those dates would have been born there? A possible checking point if you were going after any more certificates?? Merry

Margaret, what area of the country did this happen in? Just curious as I have Poole family in my tree. Selena