Genealogy Chat

Forgot to say - I have added £1000 to my House Insurance to specifically cover my certs, costs me an extra £15 per year. I have a Fire proof safe box (don't use it though!) which states at least two hours protection from fire and smoke damage up to a temp of 500C. I keep it by the back door and believe me it will be the only thing I pick up if I get the chance. Olde Crone

Sadly, I don't think that a fireproof safe will protect certificates if it gets hot enough. In the same way that coal turns to coke and wood turns to charcoal in the presence of heat and absence of air, so paper will go black. Paper is, after all, finely chopped wood.

My block buster was ordering 19 certificates for one birth in a last and demented attempt to find out the name of my 2 x GGFs first wife. I did them 3 at a time and thanks to the helpful Local Registrars, didnt have to pay for any wrong ones (I specified father's name). I finished up paying for 6, which had the correct father's name. I managed to rule out three (obligingly still at home with mummy and daddy on census night, so not mine). But I am left with three who may or may not be 'mine'. Two of the mothers are called Mary and one is called Hester. I know this woman was dead by 1859, so I looked for deaths between 1855 and 1859 - hundreds and hundreds of them! But normally, I only send for max 3 a month, and lately, have been buying Wills instead - half the price and usually LOADS more useful information! Olde Crone

Merry I envy you my husband is completely not interested I wish he were sometimes when I get excited and theres nobody to get excited with, just the dog .I have to wait and share my news with our neighbour who is doing his Tree and I think is as excited for me as I am, mind you he could be just being kind. I have actually traced a couple of rellies who have left money intestate which I can still claim including a couple of Houses ,even that doesnt excite him, so I told him when and if I ever get it he is having none of it its all mine, so there ..

With out counting I have no idea how many certificates I have, but I work from digital copies so even if (heavan forbid) I lost all the paper ones in a fire I would still have them. I have a few originals and a few original copies (copies that the parents got for employment or education). I've never had a wrong certificate but have been lucky that I've had some unusual names or been able to cross referance with other sources. I have ordered 5 certs at a time twice but usually send for 3 as I save up for them and only get them when I can afford them. I can't wait to get 2 G-grandparents death certificates as from what has been said about them prior to death, I think thay both had cancer. I get the impression that my G-grandmother may have had cervixal cancer and my G-grandfather may have had lung cancer. Neither went to the doctor nor told anyone that they were ill, both must have been in alot of pain but never showed it until their last days. I'd also like to find a cousins birth and death but have no idea of her name or when her birth and death took place other that she died of burns/ scolds when she was about 6 and her death tore the family apart. Lunar xXx

Another reason for not getting death certs - they can really get to you. My gt grandfather's upset me for lots of reasons. He left my gt gran with 7 children, the youngest were twins not quite 6 years old. The kids were old enough to know what was happening. The cancer was the sort that he would have got from his job - a chemical works where they made aniline dyes & all sorts of nasty stuff. And I daren't think about the pain & suffering. No real treatment those days, surgery would have been out of the question for various reasons (1890). One of the other certs, for another death just a year later, made me smile though. Reason - Decay of Nature. Age at death - 60.

I've had a couple of death certs today. Both Jane Smith, both died in the same qtr and had the same page and vol. Mother and daughter. The mother was the informant on the death of her daughter of consumption and died 3 weeks later herself of pleurisy. Margaret

I could have had a real decent holiday with the lot I have. If only my hubby knew!! I have more death certs than the others because in a lot of cases their marriages etc were before 1837. Death certificates often have a great deal of info on them especially if the daughter is informant. Difficult sometimes to follow the ladies but her married name and often address on the cert sets you off all over again. What they died of too can be very informative-- senectus had me rushing for the dictionary the first time I came across it .. had to laugh tho....old age. Why not put that in the first place. Doctors liked to surround themselves with an aura of mystique , made them feel more important I suppose. I really feel sorry for those that died of cancer in the 1800, early 1900's tho'; the pain they must have endured beggars belief. Having their death certs reminds you how poor and vunerable they often were and they become 'real' people instead of just a name to add to the tree. Kat

Hi Aileen, Nope, not any more. I used to want to order 10-12 at a time, and couldn't allow myself to spend that much in one go in the name of family research. Just used to pick out 3-4 that I *really* had to have! Then when the GRO had that huge back log some time back and the certs were taking months to come, I couldn't be doing with ordering a few at a time, and waiting so long. So now I order the ones I want/need/have found after ages! and hang the consequences. My current order is for 8, my last one was for 13! Debbie

I also worked that we had collected a couple of thousand pounds worth of certs over a 20 year period. In case of a fire we would never get any insurance company to compensate. Well, they wouldn't believe you would they? We have bought a fireproof safe that is big enough to get 2 x A4 ring binders in for mine and hubbys side. Room for other essentials as well, deeds, jewellrey, passports etc. That was another £350!!! LOL Margaret

I *have* had a couple of death certs, and I can honestly say on the whole they have been a pretty boring bunch! The only 'new' info I've had on any is the actual cause of death - this is why I stopped sending for them. e.g. my gt grandfather - I sent for out of morbid curiousity as he was only 49 (cancer). Apart from which, I had a twinge when I realised he'd died on his daughter's 15th birthday, she was 'present at death' and registered it. I've had far more 'fun' out of the wills I've found. Buying certs is only the start!

18 birth, 37 marriage and 68 death...that's 123 in just under three years! Yes, I do try to limit them, but it's so difficult; nothing quite like the anticipation of the big white envelope. Still haven't certified all the direct line because I end up buying certs for far more distant rellies just because, like Merry, I'm nosy!

Yes, and how FAT would I be then???!! Mind you, if I have boght several certs then I need to buy a takeaway AS WELL, because there's no time to cook!!!!! And if we make an exciting discovery (to us, anyway!) then we have a takeaway to celebrate!!!! Merry

Merry, I look at it this way, a take-away would cost much more and although tasty, it pretty soon becomes history-if you get my meaning LOL. So a little indulgence like buying a certificate every once in a while is worth every pound! My husband on the other hand, would prefer the take-aways as he has no interest in unearthing his ancestors (not literally)LOL!...........did you realise that your hobby would have bought you £1750 worth of Lamb Baltis over the years? Aileenx

I think death certificates are far more interesting than the others.....B's and M's usually just confirm facts or answer a question for us (OK, sometimes they are better than that!!), but you never know what is going to be on a death cert!! Merry

Wrong certs? Only the one, but it turned out interesting. One birth certificate - I knew the father's name but forgot to ask for a check. The cert they sent was for an illegitimate birth, the mother turned out to be the sister of the man in question. So not entirely wasted. (A couple of interesting hours on Ancestry looking at census info to sort that one!) Luckily a small village where there was only the one family with that name. You can usually avoid wrong ones by asking for checks. You don't even have to pay most of the time if you go via the local register office not the GRO. (With GRO you forfeit some of the fee if its wrong) margaret - point taken about death certs: perhaps when I start to fill in a few more gaps with the sibs...

Merry, I don;t know how you have managed it with no wrong ones! Although saying that, I have my 'wrong' certs in a file and at least 2 of them have turned out to be relevant at a later date. Although they were not for the person I expected, they still belonged to a brother/sister/cousin of my direct ancestors. I'm saving all the rest...just in case! Sam x

Am I allowed to show off on this site???? Pity I cannot type in a tiny little font.........but.................... I have never bought a wrong certficate!! There. A Confession! Merry

Hubby and I are both addicted, so our certs are for both sides of the family.........I have just counted.........302 certs!! Ouch.....but, some we had already...maybe 25, and some are copies we have been sent by other researchers....maybe another 25, but that still adds up to a lot: say 250 at £7 (Ouch!)......... Still, over about 10 or 12 years that isn't so much is it?? and they used to be a lot less than £7!! I wanted to buy all the certs for my direct line, but have not even got that far yet, as I didn't consider how many people that might be when you include all the ones in the 1700's who lived past 1837!! Also rather a lot of second and third marriages which pushes up the cost. Otherwise, I only get a cert to solve a problem or to confirm something where there is no other way. Or if I'm really nosy about something!!!!!!!!!! It's still cheaper than a foottie season ticket! Merry

Dont assume that getting a death cert isnt important. I very nearly didnt buy the death cert of my 2x great grandmother as I had seen her gravestone with date of death on it. Then I thought it would spoil 'the set', so I sent for it. The informant was a brother in law I had never heard of and that lead me the a 3rd marriage for her husbands dad. I finally found 3x great grandad on the 1841 and 1851 census and his death cert after almost 20 years of searching for him. He had retired from the army in India and I hadnt got a clue where to start looking. Margaret