Death records refer to any documents which refer to a person's death.[1] Perhaps the best known are death certificates which have been issued in England and Wales from July 1837 onwards and in Scotland from 1855 onwards. Other death records from the United Kingdom include parish registers, cemetery registers and gravestones. In the case of parish registers usually only the date of burial is given rather than the date of death. You may discover the date of an ancestor's death from other sources including newspaper records (death notice or obituary), coroner's inquests, military records, probate records and manorial court records.
In England and Wales the format of a death certificate remained the same landscape format from its inception in July 1837 until 1969 when portrait style certificates began to be issued. For the 1837-1969 certificates the information supplied includes:
The 1967 death certificate of Annette Karen SavoryRegistration district and sub-district
County of registration
Date and place of death
Name of the deceased
Sex
Age
Occupation
Cause of death
The name of the informant, their address and their relation to the deceased (if any)
Date of registration
Signature of the registrar
In addition to the above some extra details may be given in rare cases, including a time of death. From 1969 the date and place of birth for the deceased is also given. The year that the certificate was issued may depend how much detail is supplied. Earlier examples often give a parish as the place of death rather than an exact address. The cause of death is often also vague in the early years, such as stating 'visitation of God' or natural causes.
In addition to the information above, Scottish death certificates also include the deceased's marital status, the name of their spouse, their mother and father's name, their mother's maiden name, their fathers occupation and if their parents are deceased. For 1855 only the certificate also stated the names and ages of their children, the date and place of birth of the deceased, how long they had lived within the district, the name of the undertaker and their place of burial.
The information given in a death certificate may not be completely accurate. The details were supplied by the informant who may not have been aware of the deceased's full name and age for example.
Death certificates for England and Wales can be ordered from the General Register Office. Death certificates for Scotland can be ordered from New Register House. Indexes for these can be viewed on various sites, including MyHeritage's England & Wales, Death Index, 1837-2005 collection.
Prior to the introduction of civil registration in England and Wales in July 1837 you can find an ancestor's death information within parish registers. These are registers created by the parish church containing information on baptisms, marriages and burials. The information found will vary according to the date. Prior to 1812 the details are usually very vague with simply the name of the deceased and their date of burial. If the deceased was an infant this is often stated. Occasionally extra information is given including the age of the deceased, a spouse's name and a cause of death, particularly if the cause was unusual. In Scotland burials were recorded in Old Parish Registers (OPRs).
After 1812 and the introduction of George Rose’s Act, burial registers were written into standardised forms. The information requested was:
Parish
Name of the deceased
Their residence
Date of burial
Their age
The name of the officiating minister
Their may again be extra information supplied including a date or cause of death.
Gravestones
The gravestone of Jessie N MacLachlan in Glasgow
You may find details of an ancestor's death etched into a gravestone. This is again not always reliable with dates of birth and death often given incorrectly. The information you may find on a gravestone may simply be their name and date of death or it may be more detailed. Information such as their date of birth, place of residence, name of spouse, occupation and names of children may be given if they are buried together. You may also find inscriptions of religious text and fitting quotes.
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