Viewing Death Certificate

[Lynx10]

Hi all,

How is the best way to view a Death Certificate to see cause of death? Ancestry want to charge me around £20!

[christanel]

Do not purchase certificates from a third party! As you have discovered they charge far above the price asked by the relevant country/county authorities.
If you are referring to UK certificates they are not online so the details can only be seen by purchasing the certificate from the GRO Here at a cost of 9 pound 25p.
Christina

[Pam Downes]

I would also add that third parties such as Ancestry have to order birth, marriage and certificates from the GRO the same as you do.

Pam

[Allan F Sparrow]

While I agree completely with Christina and Pam on this issue, there are two notes of caution which I want to make:-

1. On one occasion, several years ago now, I ordered a certificate from GRO, and received the reply that the entry could not be found, and therefore they would not charge me. Since I was sure that all the details I had provided were correct, I then ordered the certificate through Ancestry, using the exact same details – and received the certificate! GRO had found for Ancestry what they did not find for me. Of course this may have been a case of individual incompetence at GRO.

2. The searchable GRO index does NOT include all that it should, or at least the search engine does not find what should be there. Earlier this year I tried to find the birth of a distant relation, using details available at FreeBMD, Ancestry, and FindMyPast, for which I have seen the image of the register – and GRO search failed to find it. They provide a means of reporting problems, which I used, receiving the reply that it would be attended to, and that problems were usually sorted out within a month or so. Today I tried the search again – but still no joy.

No system is perfect, alas!

Allan

[Peter Goodey]

A common mistake is to enter too much information. GRO will not issue a certificate on the basis that most fields are right!

Reference data from the 'old' GRO index (FreeBMD etc) should be sufficient to successfully order a certificate. It should not be necessary to double check against the 'new' GRO index (on the GRO web site).

[Allan F Sparrow]

Points taken, Peter: but if one gives accurately the information they ask for, the result should be positive!
Also, if one is using the index not to get a certificate but to find out a particular point, such as mother's maiden name, or age at death – as many of us on this forum do, I believe – then GRO's failure to supply the goods is frustrating.

To elaborate a little on my second example, I did in fact try entering different amounts of information, on several different occasions, but the entry I was looking for never appeared.

[Guy Etchells]

Points taken, Peter: but if one gives accurately the information they ask for, the result should be positive!
Also, if one is using the index not to get a certificate but to find out a particular point, such as mother's maiden name, or age at death – as many of us on this forum do, I believe – then GRO's failure to supply the goods is frustrating.

To elaborate a little on my second example, I did in fact try entering different amounts of information, on several different occasions, but the entry I was looking for never appeared.

The point you seem to be missing is FreeBMD, Ancestry, and FindMyPast all use transcripts of the indexes which have been updated many times to produce the images they hold, the "new" GRO index is just that a new index complied from the registers not from the old indexes. The old indexes contain errors, omissions and inaccuracies as all transcripts do
If the is an incompatibility between the two the GRO will not find the record you seek.

For instance if you look for the following person with the following FreeBMD details
Guy, Phoebe E. 1938, Portsmouth, 2b, 877 Female, you will not find her.

If however you simply give the basic details
Guy, 1938 Female you will find her.

This is because the "new index" records the information shown on the register i.e. second forename Eliza (rather than the initial E or the full name Elizabeth).

Less is more always start with minimal information and increase the information if too many results are returned

Cheers
Guy

[Allan F Sparrow]

Thanks, Guy, for your attempt to enlighten and advise. However, I had already tried the minimalist approach, and have just now tried it again – no joy. I am not going to pursue the matter any further here. I say again, "no system is perfect, alas".