UK Citizen died in Geneva, Switzerland

[janbooth]

Now I am hopelessly out of my depth and hoping that someone on the Forum can help. Thanks to Fiona, via the Forum, I have finally discovered the death of my twig Gilbert Macpherson HIRON who according to "Clarke's Directory" died 18 October 1889, aged 26, at Geneva, Switzerland. Can anybody advise me as to the best way of obtaining his death certificate presumably from Switzerland as his death does not appear to have been registered in the UK. I am wondering if he perhaps contracted TB and was sent out to Geneva to recover.

Many thanks in advance

Janet

[pottoka]

I found an address for the Archives of Geneva on the Internet which looked useful and have just telephoned them for more information.

The person who answered couldn't have been nicer or more helpful (especially when I misheard something he said and made myself feel ridiculous by saying what I thought he'd said ): he explained that you will only be able to get the death certificate from Geneva if Gilbert really did die there and not in a little village nearby. (You can but try) The Archives don't have the records, which are kept at the Office Municipal de l'Etat Civil, and he gave me the address and the telephone number for them.

I rang them up, but they'd closed up shop for the day, and I got a disembodied voice telling me to press one if I wanted a, b or c, to press two if I wanted d, e or f - right up to seven, by which time I'd realised that I probably needed to press one, but I hadn't been expecting the recording and had missed what a, b and c were! Luckily, there was the possibility of pressing # to listen again.

Still according to the disembodied voice, you can get a certificate in person, by email, by fax or by letter. I have both their email address and their postal address, but, personally, I'd prefer to check with a real person how to go about it in case they want an sae (probably not if they accept email requests). So I'll ring them again tomorrow and see what's what, if you're happy with that?

[pottoka]

I've just finished talking to a real live person at the registry office in Geneva.

You can write, fax or email a request for the death certificate that you want, giving all the details. They will check that they have the certificate and contact you to tell you how much it will cost to copy and send.

It would be a photocopie of the original certificate and can be sent to wherever you live. It will be in French.

If you would like any help with preparing your request, if you want to do it in French and don't feel up to it (sorry if you're bilingual), I'll be happy to help.

[pottoka]

Sorry, I missed out the most important bit!

Their postal address is: Office Municipal de l'Etat Civil
37 rue de la Mairie
Case Postale 6327
1211 GENEVE 6
Switzerland

Their email address is: etat-civil (at) ville-ge.ch

[janbooth]

Brilliant - thank you so much. I searched around for quite a time but obviously not as well as yourself!! I will see if my O level French (far too many years ago!!) and that of my husband will suffice but if not I may get back to you.

Once again many thanks for all your efforts on my behalf - it is really appreciated.

Janet