Genealogy Chat

I recently found out that an aunt died at the age of two after 'having accidentally fallen into a pool of water on waste ground at the rear of the house'. I have a copy of the death certificate but no sign of a birth certificate. Surely there must be a birth registration to be able to issue a death certificate? Any clues where I might find more information, I've done the rounds of FreeBMD, Ancestry, Family Relatives etc Thanks in advance Trevor

You don't say WHEN this girl would have been born. Ancestry gets most of its info pre-1910 from Freebmd, which is not yet complete. After 1910 but before 1984 there's a big gap, where you have to look in the GRO birth indexes. nell

The death was on 5 May 1913 and as her age is given as two then her birth year would have been late 1910 or early 1911 because she had not made her third birthday. The death certificate is registered in the sub-district of Bloxwich in Walsall and this is where the birth would have been registered. I believe this to be true because my uncle who was born in 1908 and my father in 1912 were both at the same address as the place of my aunt's drowning. Trevor

Have you looked in the GRO indexes?

Trevor a birth cert isn't needed for death registration. You will often find people on here with 1837 credits left. I have 9 left so if you give us the name we might be able to find her on 1837. However this is not complete and it might be that her registration exists only with the district registrar. There are many missing from GRO/1837. Bob

Her name was Annie Haden, no middle name given. I have tried Annie, Anne and Ann but no luck. Her parents were Luke Edward Haden and Mary Ann (nee Goodchild). I found the death certificate via Family Relatives website, even with this I struggled with the other websites. Actual address was 135 Green Lane. I've had some help from Valerie who found that there is an Annie Haden born Quarter December 1910 Prescot 8B 743 which sounds right except that the only Prescot I can find (courtesy Multimap) is in Merseyside not in the Midlands. I have tried an old maps website but that only gives Merseyside as well. At this rate I believe that my aunt's birth is one of these missing records. Trevor

These are the 3 Prescots that I could find - dont know if it helps Regards Sue Place County Reg District Prescot Lancashire Prescot Prescote Oxfordshire Banbury Prescott Gloucestershire Winchcomb

Yes, there are several places called Prescot, but Prescot Reg District is in Lancashire, as trevor said. Each reg district and sub district name is unique in the country.....Not as confusing as actual place names! Merry

Trevor If this were mine, I would go for the birth registered in Prescot. You cannot assume that she was born at the same address as her brothers - her mother may have been visiting relatives at the time of Annie's birth. If you order through the LancsBMD site and specify the parents names, they will almost certainly return your cheque if its the wrong cert, therefore costing you nothing! Olde Crone

No known relatives up t'north. What I have found is that thanks to Genuki I have found that there is a Bescot. Bescot, the most southerly hamlet of the Foreign of Walsall, is about two miles S by W of Walsall, and is mentioned in the Domesday Book as the property of the king. I'll see what I can find based on a mistranscription (is there such a word?) Trevor

As the Prescot ref was in the BMD indexes it can't be a mistranscription of Bescot which was only a hamlet and not a registration district. As stated above Prescot 8b reg district is in Lancashire.

Found her! Made an educated mad stabbing guess and ordered a certificate from GRO. Her first name wasn't Annie, her middle name was Annie. Her first name was Florence! The death certificate only said Annie. It's definitely the right one, her dad was Luke and her mum Mary, the address was the same as where she drowned. The date was 12 January 1911, even the registrar got confused and wrote down February to begin with and then crossed it out. One more mystery solved, now to move onto the next! Trevor

Trevor Well done! We usually get there in the end, though with all the name changes,mistranscriptions and false memories, it is often a miracle when we do! nell

Thanks for telling us the outcome, Trevor......People on this site are often left wondering!! Well done! Merry