England & Wales, Death Index, 1837-2005

87,011,461 records

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England & Wales, Death Index, 1837-2005

England & Wales, Death Index, 1837-2005

87,011,461 records

This collection is an index of civil death registrations for England and Wales from 1837 to 2005. The collection includes images of the index pages for 1837 to 1983. From 1984 and forward there are no index pages as the General Registration Office (GRO) adopted an electronic records system and made this more recent portion of the index available digitally. Indexes are organized by year and quarter of event, and thereunder alphabetically by surname. Civil registration — the government recording of births, marriages, and deaths — began in England and Wales on 1 July 1837. Local registration districts had jurisdiction for recording civil events, but were required to send copies of their records each quarter to the General Register Office (GRO) in London. The GRO created indexes to these records which are organized by event, year, and quarter, and thereunder alphabetically by surname. Information included in the index changed over the years. The index always provides the name of deceased, registration district, and reference information (volume and page numbers). From 1866 to March 1969, the index also includes age. Beginning in June 1969 the index includes the deceased’s birth date rather than age. Information provided in the index can be used to order a copy of the person’s death certificate for a fee from the GRO through their Certificate Ordering Service. Depending on the year, full death certificates may provide: name of deceased, death date, death place, age, sex, occupation, cause of death, name of parent if the deceased is a child, informant’s name, residence, and relationship to the deceased, and date of registration. Note: Information recorded on a death certificate is only as accurate as the knowledge of the person reporting it. It is important to pay attention to who the informant was and their relationship to the deceased. The closer the relationship, the more reliable the information likely is. For years where images of the index are available, be sure to consult the image to verify the information presented to you. Sometimes errors happen during the transcription process. For example, a “5” may have inadvertently been transcribed as a “3”. Since there is a fee for ordering certificate copies from the GRO, it is especially important to make sure all reference numbers are correct before placing an order. Search tip: If an individual had multiple given names, sometimes only one or two of these names was recorded in the index. In addition, some of the given names may have been recorded by initials only. If you’re having trouble locating someone in the index, try searching by any of the individual’s known given names, initials, or nicknames.

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Death, Burial, Cemetery & Obituaries

England

Wales

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Sample record

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll)Died: 1898 - Guildford, Surrey, England

English writer, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon, and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass