Australian Certificate Query

[Phoenix]

I have just found a death in NSW in 1861.

Harriet was probably living with her son or nearby, so he ought to have known a few facts about her.

Am I likely at that early date to get masses of info, or is the certificate likely to be quite sparse?

[KiwiChris]

Have you checked what is available on line?
http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/familyHistory/searchHistoricalRecords.htm

The death records online often give parents names. I have never ordered an Australian certificate so am unsure what information they do have, it is a bit early for the Aussie crew to be up and about, but one of them will have the answer.

[Mary from Italy]

What you can expect to see on an AUS BDM certificate:

http://www.jaunay.com/bdm.html

[Durham Lady]

I have some transcriptions of death certificates from NSW although mine are from the 1960's.
I found a lovely lady who doesn't charge the earth for getting the transcriptions and e-mailing copies, only NSW certificates though. I found her very professional and helpful.

If you are interested in her help e-mail her.

I've removed the contact details as this board is open to non-members, search engines, etc - please send Daphne a PM if you want the contact information.

[Phoenix]

What you can expect to see on an AUS BDM certificate:

http://www.jaunay.com/bdm.html

Thanks for that link, Mary. I quote from it:
"There are many examples of early certificates where the item may be omitted despite provision in the certificate for that item of data"

Nobody really specifies what "early" means. As it took the better part of forty years to get certificates nailed down in England, I wondered whether the info was equally dodgy in Australia? I'm only talking 5 years after the introduction of the new system into NSW.

[marquette]

What information, and how accurate, will depend on who registered the death. I have one man who registered his fathers death, and recorded the ages of all the children wrong by two years - including himself. Mothers names and maiden names are not known a lot of times and "England" is a regular, but unhelpful place of birth. They are supposed include deceased children (eg, 1 male, 1 female deceased), but often those who died as infants are left off by children who never knew about long-departed siblings

Early in relation to certificates lacking detail is from introduction up to the 1890s, when details became compulsory. I have one marriage certificate which gives the names of the bride and groom, their occupations and "not stated" for everything else. I was lucky that the parish register did have some more details, they just were not sent onto the registrar by the minister.

Records called "Early Church Records" in NSW refer to the baptism, Marriage and burial records of the various churches, which our bureaucrats turned into BDM records after civil registration was introduced.


Di

[Phoenix]

Thank you, Di.

The death is probably registered by one of her younger children and she had been married twice, so there's lots of possibilities for errors and omissions.