Finding a death certificate for your ancestor (post-1837)...

In 1837, the National Registration of births, marriages and deaths was introduced to England and Wales so "technically" if your ancestor was born, married or died after 1837 there should be a record to find for your ancestors...although some ancestors will always remain elusive.

There are numerous ways of finding records for your ancestors but I will focus this blog entry on the resources I regularly use for finding a death certificate.

Finding a death certificate:

I have ordered only a few death certificates for my ancestors, but I do intend to order a few more soon. They can tell you a lot about how your ancestor died and who was present at the time of the death or who was the next of kin.

We will search for the death certificate of Frederick Sutcliffe, my great, great grandfather. (We searched for his birth certificate a weeks ago...see previous blog post).

Using the censuses we can find the last census that our ancestor is mentioned in, which can help us figure out a little more accurately which decade your ancestor may have died in, unless the last census they are mentioned in is 1911 and then it could be any time after 1911.

Frederick Sutcliffe is listed in the 1911 census so could have died any time after 1911. We know he lived in Leeds at the time of the 1911 census and from talking to relatives we established that Frederick probably passed away in the 1930s and he was born in 1860.

1911 census return for Frederick Sutcliffe and his family

NB Since 1866 the age of the deceased individual is listed in the registration transcriptions, so it makes it much easier to find your ancestors death.

Using FreeBMD site you input the information you have and know and do a search:

Search details for Frederick Sutcliffe's death registration

The results listed a number of men who died in the Leeds area in this time period in the Leeds area:

• Frederick SUTCLIFFE, Sept 1912, Aged 66, Volume 9b, Page 446
• Frederick K SUTCLIFFE, June 1923, Aged 75, Volume 9b, Page 424
• Frederick W SUTCLIFFE, Dec 1932, Aged 73, Volume 9b, Page 377
• Frederick SUTCLIFFE, Mar 1938, Aged 78, Volume 9b, Page 389
• Fred SUTCLIFFE, Mar 1939, Aged 60, Volume 9b, Page 653
• Frederick SUTCLIFFE, Dec 1945, Aged 69, Volume 9b, Page 457

Matching the ages of these gentlemen with the age of our ancestor can only make one of the above our ancestor - the entry registered in March 1938.

Now we have this information we can order a copy of the death certificate at the General Register Office (GRO) website. They require you to register on their site and remember to have your credit card to hand to pay for the certificate, the cost is £9.25 for a standard delivery of a few weeks or £23.40 for a priority delivery of a few days. You will need the following details to order the certificate:

• Year of death 1938
• Surname of deceased  SUTCLIFFE
• Forename(s) of deceased Frederick
• Age of deceased 78
• Registration district Leeds North
• Quarter of registration March
• Volume of registration 9b
• Page number of registration 389

A few weeks later the copy of your ancestors death certificate will arrive through the post...

Death certificate for Frederick Sutcliffe

This certificate is particularly useful as my great grandfather was the next of kin and the informant to the authorities about the death. Interestingly, Frederick remained at the same address from 1911 to the time of this death twenty seven years later.

Problems you may have in finding your ancestors:

• name misspelt or variations of spellings
• transcription errors
• registered under a name which the person was not called regularly....nicknames or middle names were used as a first name
• mixed up first names and surnames or middle and first names/surnames
• the birth, marriage or death was not registered
• age of death is inaccurate

Useful websites: Ancestry - Birth, Death & Marriages, FindMyPast - Birth, Deaths & Marriages, The Genealogist, FreeBMD, GenesReunited - Birth, Marriage & Deaths...and many more.

Copyright © 2013 Ruth Hogan

Finding a marriage certificate for your ancestors (post-1837)...

In 1837, the National Registration of births, marriages and deaths was introduced to England and Wales so "technically" if your ancestor was born, married or died after 1837 there should be a record to find for your ancestors...although some ancestors will always remain elusive.

There are numerous ways of finding records for your ancestors but I will focus this blog entry on the resources I regularly use for finding a marriage certificate.

Finding a MARRIAGE certificate:

We will search for the marriage of my great, great, great grandparents Mary Jane Peacock and Charles Hair whose life is discussed on the Davidson page of this blog in Chapters 9 and 12.

The process is very similar as searching for a birth certificate (see previous blog post). You need to do some background research using the censuses or by talking to relatives to gain some information about the couple. 

1861 census return for the Hair family

From the above census page we know they were both born in the Hull area and are still living in the area after their marriage. Their eldest child was two years old so we can start by making a few assumptions - that they married in the Hull area and they married in approximately 1859 or before. If you search the 1851 census for Charles you will find he is living with his parents as single which tells us that they probably married between 1851 and 1859 and definitely between 1851 and 1861.

Again using the FreeBMD site you input the information you already know:

FreeBMD search for the marriage of Charles Hair and Mary Jane

NB You do not have to fill in all the details if you do not know them, eg her maiden name.

This search provides only one result:

• Charles HAIR, Sept 1856, Sculcoates, Volume 9d, Page 243

If you click on the page number you can see the other names listed on the same page. In this example the other names on the same page are:

• Robert George COOPER
• Charles HAIR
• Martha HAIR
• Mary Jane PEACOCK

As you will notice it appears someone else with the same surname is listed on the same page of the register, there could be a few reasons for this:

• co-incidence that someone with the same surname was the next to be married in the parish church
• it could be a relative and they shared a wedding day

Looking into this further, it appears that Charles had a sister called Martha so it could be that they either shared a wedding day or that they married within a few weeks or one another and no-one else was married in the parish between their marriages.

To now order the certificate we go the General Register Office (GRO) website. Again if you have not already registered with the site you must do this and have your card details to hand to pay for the certificate. It costs £9.25 for a standard search in which the certificate could take a few weeks to come through or £23.40 for priority which would only take a few days. You would need the following information from the FreeBMD search to order the certificate:

• Year of registration of marriage 1856
• Either the groom or bride's surname at the time of the marriage (or both) HAIR or PEACOCK
• Either the groom or bride's forename(s) (or both) Charles or Mary Jane
• Quarter registered Sept
• District name SCULCOATES
• Volume number 9d
• Page number 243

NB The surname has to be their surname at the time of their marriage which is not always their maiden name if she had previously been married and widowed.

A few weeks later your certificate arrives through the post...

Marriage certificate for Charles Hair and Mary Jane Peacock

This certificate tells us one of the witnesses was a Martha Hair, it would be interesting to order the other certificate listed on the same page one day to find out whether this is Charles' sister and whether they shared a wedding day. The certificate fills in a few more gaps in the information you may already have to aid your research back further into the past.

NB After 1912 the surname of the other party (bride or groom) is mentioned in the registration transcription of the marriage and makes finding your ancestors marriage a little easier.

Problems you may have in finding your ancestors:

• name misspelt or variations of spellings
• transcription errors
• registered under a name which the person was not called regularly....nicknames or middle names were used as a first name
• mixed up first names and surnames or middle and first names/surnames
• the birth, marriage or death was not registered

Useful websites: Ancestry - Birth, Death & Marriages, FindMyPast - Birth, Deaths & Marriages, The Genealogist, FreeBMD, GenesReunited - Birth, Marriage & Deaths...and many more.

Copyright © 2013 Ruth Hogan

Finding a birth certificate for your ancestor (post-1837)...

In 1837, the National Registration of births, marriages and deaths was introduced to England and Wales so "technically" if your ancestor was born, married or died after 1837 there should be a record to find for your ancestors...although some ancestors will always remain elusive.

There are numerous ways of finding records for your ancestors but I will focus this blog entry on the resources I regularly use for finding a birth certificate.

Finding a BIRTH certificate:
We are going to look for the birth entry of my great, great grandfather Frederick Sutcliffe.

Firstly we search for him in the censuses or talk to relatives to gain some basic information about his birth:

• born in the Barnsley area of West Yorkshire 
• aged 50 years old in 1911 (see below) so born approximately 1861

1911 census page of my great grandfather, Wilfred Sutcliffe with his parents and brother

Now we have gleamed these few vital facts we can go to the FreeBMD site and input this information to search a few years either side of the year of birth, using * as a wildcard just in case there are some spelling differences in the name.

FreeBMD site with the details of the search inserted

The results bring up many Fred or Frederick Sutcliffe or Sutcliff's births registered in the West Yorkshire area between the years of 1859 and 1863 but I am going to initially concentrate on those entries from the Barnsley district, which are:

• Frederick William SUTCLIFFE, Sept 1859, Volume 9c, Page 99
• Fred SUTCLIFFE, June 1860, Volume 9c, Page 121

Either of the above could be my ancestor, there are discrepancies with both names, one being Fred and the other being Frederick William. The latter entry is probably closest in age to the 1911 census form, but ages are often estimated on the censuses or were not accurately recorded.

The next step would be to order the certificates from the General Register Office (GRO) website, which cost £9.25 each and can take a few weeks to arrive through the post or you can pay £23.40 for PRIORITY in order to receive the certificate more quickly. (Due to the cost my preference would be to order one certificate at a time just in case the first one is the the one you want then you do not need to pay for two or do further research on the censuses to figure out which one is more likely to be your ancestor.)

To order a certificate you have to register with the site, have your credit card details to hand and would then need the following information from the FreeBMD search to order the certificate:

• Year birth registered 1860
• Surname at birth SUTCLIFFE
• Forename(s) Fred
• Quarter registered June
• District name BARNSLEY
• Volume number 9c
• Page number 121

A few weeks later a copy of the certificate will arrive through your door...

Official copy of the Birth Certificate of Fred Sutcliffe

Ordering the certificate tells you much more information about him and his parents. It gives the exact place of birth and his mother's maiden name, which can help your research go back much further.

NB It is unusual to find a person in the censuses listed as Frederick, registered at birth as just Fred. Usually it would be the other way around, they would be registered as Frederick but always known as Fred so listed as Fred on the censuses. This example just shows how names can vary in your searches and so to be open minded and knowledgable about nicknames and how names can be shortened.

Another NB After 1911 the mother's maiden name is listed in the register so it is much easier to pinpoint the correct birth if there are a few to choose from and you know the mother's maiden name. You could do a search only using the father's and mother's surnames using the registration county or district you know they resided in to find all the children to a specific set of parents without using the child's name.

Problems you may have in finding your ancestors:

• name misspelt or variations of spellings
• transcription errors
• registered under a name which the person was not called regularly....nicknames or middle names were used as a first name
• mixed up first names and surnames or middle and first names/surnames
• the birth, marriage or death was not registered

Useful websites: Ancestry - Birth, Death & Marriages, FindMyPast - Birth, Deaths & Marriages, The Genealogist, FreeBMD, GenesReunited - Birth, Marriage & Deaths...and many more.

Copyright © 2013 Ruth Hogan

Visit graveyards in your ancestors locality...

Ripley village church nr Harrogate in North Yorkshire

I love church graveyards.

You may think me quite strange but they're often so beautiful and peaceful and are a great place to sit and meditate for ten minutes or a few hours.

Church graveyards are adorned with carved headstones, flowers and often have large yew trees casting shadows over the stones. The stone church buildings are also usually beautifully decorated with gargoyles and stained glass windows.

I like wandering through churchyards looking at the information of the people who lived there before us. Who they were, what they did, how old were they when they died, who did they leave behind them...?

A large Yew tree in Ripley Churchyard

You can often pick out the richer members of the community with their large carved headstones or monuments, unless of course they're buried in a tomb inside the building.

From wandering through the graveyards you can figure out the common surnames within the community, or the families that have remained in the same place for many generations. You can find out information about the locality, was it agricultural, or whether there was a certain industry that took prominence?

The gravestones can tell you a lot about the people buried beneath them, such as:

• how much money they had...is there a headstone? is it big or is it small?
• their dates of death or burial
• who they are buried with which can shed light on their closer family members
• their dates of birth
• how the individual died
• who they left behind
• how old they were when they died
• their occupation
• what sort of person they were

Old photo of my ancestors grave (circa 1897)

Finding the final resting place of your forebearers can give you a real tingle down your spine. I often stand and reflect for a few minutes, imagining the other family relatives stood around this grave side at the time of the burial and also later to lay flowers on significant anniversaries.

There are various ways of helping you find the graves of your family:

• Searching through old paperwork to find newspaper cuttings, burial records, photos etc
• Visiting the village graveyard
• Searching online for an image or inscription, DeceasedOnline is a good website for this
• The Church or authorities which run the Cemetery will have a map of all the grave plots if you want to find someone and there is no headstone

REMEMBER: Not all graves have a headstone.

One of the graves I have sought out was that of my great, great grandparents, John and Jane Davidson nee Redwood, who's story you can read about in Chapters 7 & 8 on the Davidson page of this blog.

Same grave as above approximately 110 years on (2011)

My father had come across the above old photo of a grave when searching through his grandfather's papers many years ago and after asking a few questions he established that it was at Hedon Road cemetery in Hull.

A few years ago my father and I returned to Hull for his aunt's funeral and decided to visit the cemetery to find this grave. Thankfully the original photo helped us search out the grave by its shape and size.

The trees surrounding it are now much larger and the stone a little greener than they were at the time of the original photo but the wording can still be read as clearly as 100 years ago. It is amazing how well it still stands especially as the cemetery took a direct hit in World War Two during the Hull Blitz.

Since I found this grave I have been able to take some other relatives to this site and show them the place where their ancestors also lie, one of the cousins wanted to clean up the stone work so perhaps next time I visit there will be another photo of a cleaned headstone.

We know that John's son, Edward was also buried at the same grave yard and we have the paperwork (see below) with the number of the burial plot on it but have never found a headstone for him. One day I intend on visiting the local burial board to see if they can help me find the location of his grave.

Document of the purchase of a burial plot at Hedon Rd Cemetery, Hull

To finish off I would like to leave you with this photo of a grave I saw at Ripley in North Yorkshire, as an example of how gravestones and their inscriptions do not always stand up to the elements for years to come...

A weathered gravestone

Have you any stories to share about graves you have found? Thanks for reading...

Copyright © 2013 Ruth Hogan

How are they related? Part 2

Ok the chart I posted in How Are They Related? was fairly confusing and possibly not even that helpful but I have since figured out a better way to explain how you are related to someone with the diagram below:

I hope that the diagram is self-explanatory but if you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear them.

Copyright © 2013 Ruth Hogan