Genealogy Chat

Christa Yes, my friend pointed out to the Supervisor of the Home (after the nonsense at the Registrar's Office), who rang the GP who had signed the death certificate. He flatly refuses to alter it, says it does not matter, even though his baptismal name was Alfred, he was known in the Home as Bert, so that is what name his death must be registered as.(The Home was the only place that ever called him Bert, by the way, everyone else, including his wife called him Alf) There is no procedure, in the Doctor's opinion, for altering a signed certificate of death. I can sort of see the point of this, its open to abuse if you could allow people to alter the names on a death cert. But I am reminded (strangely) of the procedure we had where I worked - if you wrote out a cheque (years before computers, this) and it was wrong, you crossed it through, entered it in the Book of Errors and filed it along with the replacement, correct cheque and an explanation of what you had done. My friend doesnt quite know what to do, she has to return home the day after the funeral next monday. She thinks she will attempt to deal with this by post when she gets home. I personally think its unbelievable; as you say, you have to jump through hoops of fire to open a bank account/get a passport, but apparently your death can be registered under the wrong name and it doesnt matter! Marjorie

Marjorie, Did the doctor know he had made a mistake? Crista

I stumbled across a similar problem only the other day. According to the offical records, my mother did not marry my father but did marry a man with the completely wrong surname. The surname listed on the records differs a great deal from my fathers last name but it is the right person. I have written and tried to telephone but have been told the same thing - they cannot alter the records, even though the original marriage certificate has the correct spelling on it. I have warned my parents not to misplace the original certificate. There's no hope sometimes.............Janine

But as we all know, notes in margins don't get transcribed, just the original details.

There is a procedure, my father's death certificate is was also registered by the doctor and a mistake was made with his birth date with the wrong month being quoted. You need to contact the registrar with documentary proof of the error (in my case it was a copy of father's birth certificate) and a correction will be made in the margin to the effect. What the registrar can not do however, is change the details of the original notifiaction. Hope this helps Peter

Marjorie That's appalling. That's like giving a child a birth certificate in the wrong name and saying 'Well it doesn't matter cos you know its your child'. Your friend definitely needs to make a complaint, preferably to the Superintendent Registrar or to the Local Council Ombudsman Lou

I think she defineatley needs to COMPLAIN to a higher authority about this...............it's surely illegal. I can't believe with all the red tape these days.......Have you tried to open a bank account! all the proof of identiy needed etc. She needs legal assistance ...............or the ombudsman or the like, they cannot be allowed to get away with it.!

OMG - there's no hope for us! Anne

My friend's father died this week. He was very old and had Alzheimer's, so its a blessed release. My friend lives abroad and returned yesterday to arrange the funeral. Her first job was to register the death and when she got to the RO she was horrified to see that the Death Certificate, made out by the Doctor, had the wrong name on it! The Registrar said, however, that IT DID NOT MATTER (yes, I'm shouting), as long as my friend believed that this was the certificate for her father. Furthermore, there is no procedure for altering a Death Certificate once it has been written out (Shipman, Shipman). So my friend's father has now been registered with the wrong given name and as his surname is Smith.... Can you believe this?! Marjorie