Death certificate for death at sea?

[pinksunbird]

Hi there

I was told that if a person died at sea, there wouldn't be a death certificate for them. Does anyone know if this is true?

I have recently found that my father's uncle was a steward on the Titanic, and his body, if recovered, was not identified after the Titanic sank. I have got his marriage certificate, and wondered how I could get his death certificate. His widow made a claim on the Titanic Relief fund, so they must have been pretty sure he didn't survive the sinking.

His name was George Richard Evans.

Any help would be appreciated.

Anne

[suedent]

There is a seperate index for Deaths at Sea. Some larger libraries hold it on fiche and it can be searched online at findmypast. Several of my relatives (fishermen) are listed, however I'm not sure if this index covers anything more than deaths in British coastal waters.

[Peter Goodey]

There wouldn't normally be a death certificate without a body. There would have to be a court order for a legal presumption of death. There are ways the government can speed things up if they want to eg for British victims of the Asian tsunami. The relief fund would have its own rules.

[pinksunbird]

I can see now that looking for a death certificate for George will probably end in frustration. At least I know that I have identified him, which is more than I knew before.

Thanks for the information.
Anne

[HelenVSmith]

Hi

It also depends on whether anyone was able to report the death.

Deaths on board ship are listed in Captain's logs but I don't know whether anyone would have filled in what happened after the Titanic sank or even if the logs survived.

As the Titanic had such media attention and Government enquiries I would suspect you would get equivalent information even without teh death certificate but I would defintely look at teh Deaths at Sea Index.

Also it would be worth looking at the death indexes at the port of call for the survivors which was somewhere in Canada as I have one of mine listed in the death indexes in Queeensland when he died at sea? Admittedly this was not in a shipwreck and theey buried him at sea. Nicely enough he was listed in both the Queensland Indexes and the English deaths at sea indexes.

Regards
Helen

[bwarnerok]

http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/biography/1857/ says:
Mr George Evans, 32, was born in Liverpool.

He initially signed-on to the Titanic in Belfast for her delivery trip to Southampton. When he signed-on again, in Southampton, on 4 April 1912, he gave his address as 36 Richmond Road, (Southampton). As a first class steward he received monthly wages of £3 15s. His last ship had been the Olympic.

Evans died in the disaster. His body, if recovered, was never identified.



References and Sources
Agreement and Account of Crew (PRO London, BT100/259)
Particulars of Engagement (Belfast), Ulster Folk and Transport Museum (TRANS 2A/45 381)

here is a list of who's buried in Halifax, Nova Scotia:
http://museum.gov.ns.ca/mma/titanic/victims.htm

and graves in southhampton:
http://www.titanic-titanic.com/south...c_graves.shtml

and then I found this:
Relatives of crew members lost at sea, however, could apply for a 'Certified Extract Relating to the Supposed Death of a Seaman', an official document which basically stated that the person in question was 'missing, believed dead.' You can see one of these here:

http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/item/2261/

Any surviving records of this kind would be held at the National Archives (Registrar-General of Shipping and Seamen)"

the last came off a titanic message board where many have the same question as you. Worth a looksee.
http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org...5667/5804.html

best of luck
betsy

[bwarnerok]

Also, this is interesting. It's a list of the unidentified with descriptions. Perhaps you might recognize him from the descriptions they give:
http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/cap/titan...r=Unidentified