Missing death

[Pam Downes]

What is the evidence of the last date you have of him being alive? And where was this? Where else have you found him/wife/children living, and what sort of dates?

Exactly what datasets have you checked for his death? Though bearing in mind that he would be almost seventy before civil registration began on 1 July 1837, you're more likely looking for a date of burial, which would normally be a few days after the date of death.

If almost all his records relate to a certain place have you checked that the burial register for that place has been deposited in the local/county archive?

Pam

[Lesley Robertson]

Most of your problem arises from the fact that Civil Registration didn’t start in England & Wales until 1837, and in Scotland it was 1855. For earlier deaths, we have to rely on Church records, burial registrations and memorial stones. All of the above can have survival problems. Start with the last date at which you know he was alive - when did He father a child, for example. When his wife died, was she listed as wife or widow? Look for other places he might be mentioned - depending on where he lived and what he did, all sorts of things are possible - an advert in a paper (I asssume that you’ve checked for death announcements) for a business, perhaps. Or did he win best veg in the local fair? Witness a baptism? There’s all sorts of places he might be mentioned...
If he lived to old age, he might even turn up in the 1841 or 1851 census.

With luck, you may not be able to find the exact date, but you can gradually narrow the time.

[pwholt]

Consider non-conformist burials as well, even though you have baptisms in the parish church. My family in London baptised almost all of the children in a C of E church but I had trouble finding the burial of the mother when the father remarried. Eventually found in Sothwark Chapel, a large Methodist church along with his brother and an earlier child which died aged 6 months. This was on the cusp of civil registration so I couldn't be sure how reliable those records were. pwholt