Burial Registration Dates on Stat. Certificates

[LordElpus]

Hello
In scotland's death certificates there is a date recorded for death and one for registration but not one for burial. So I wondered if it was standard practice to record deaths before or after burial, or if there was no set custom at all. Generally there is a gap between date of death and date of registration. I have two where both death and registration occur on the same day and wondered if there was a rush to bury them (one was a 8 day old baby, the other a 49 year old woman). These two were years apart, 1870 amd 1885.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Neil

Perth, Aus

[WilmaM]

In general there couldn't be a burial without a death certificate.

Another factor would be when did they die? a Friday afternoon death, would [and still does] mean Monday would be the earliest the registration could happen or a public holiday would push that to Tuesday.
If anyone dies on the 30th of Dec 2011 there is little chance of a registration before Wed 4th of Jan 2012, and the burial much later than that!

Distance from the registry office would be another delaying factor, when the informant could travel to the nearest town.

At one period the Stat records included the place of burial and undertakers' name, but the 'disposal' of the body isn't a required piece of information.

[AndrewP]

The exception to the information given above is from the years 1855 to 1860. During these years, the burial place was given on the death certificate. On that basis, it has to be assumed that the registration came after the burial for these years.

All the best,

AndrewP

[trish1]

I'm slightly amazed that there cannot be a burial without a death certificate - in my world it takes weeks to get a death certificate. The doctor/coroner or whoever issues a "cause of death" document which is given to the funeral director who (usually) helps the family complete the death certificate application form. The burial/cremation then takes place and weeks later the registry eventually manages to issue a death certificate.

Given the climate in our part of the world, burials pre refridgeration usually took place within 24-48 hours of death - definitely without a death certificate having been issued.

Trish

[Alan SHARP]

Greetings Trish.

Having arranged with doctors and undertakers for a number of, immediate family, funerals in New Zealand, I went looking for a good outline of New Zealand conditions, and this link spells out my experiences.

http://homepages.vodafone.co.nz/~clearw ... -GMCv2.pdf

A little easier to read, than the relevant acts governing same.

Alan SHARP.

[trish1]

Hi Alan

I guess it relates to the definition of a "death certificate". In my part of Oz the document completed by the doctor/coroner or whoever is not acceptable as the legal recognition of the death - only the registration death certificate is accepted by banks, insurance companies, probate court etc. The document from the doctor or coroner is however, authority for the burial/cremation to proceed - perhaps just terminology.

Trish

[WilmaM]

I have to say that the time-scales I mentioned earlier would be 'worst-case scenarios', unless there was suspicion surrounding the death.

Normally the death would be registered at the 1st possible opportunity.

I had a look at the DCs of 'my lot' and the longest gap is 4 days
1. a young man from a rural area died of smallpox [as did the death before his] on Friday afternoon.
2. old man in 1922 died 3 days before his wife and both were registered the day after her death
[family lore says Dr advised them not to make his funeral arrangements until she went too]

Current rules in Scotland:
http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/regscot/ ... death.html

Any death which occurs in Scotland must be registered within eight days .

You will wish to note that a burial can take place before the registration but that a cremation can only take place after the death has been registered.

In reality registering the death within 8 days is the easy bit, most funerals I've heard of recently are nearer a week after the death.

[Elwyn 1]

In the early days of death registration in Scotland it wasn’t necessary to have a medical certificate from a doctor. Indeed a lot of doctors refused to attend a death, on the basis that it was a waste of their time. Their time was better spent with their live patients, not the dead one, especially if a long journey would have been necessary and they might not get paid. So people went ahead and buried the dead person and registered the death later, whenever the opportunity arose.

There’s a bit of background about the Scottish approach to death on this link:

http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/scotti ... ath/death/

[Montrose Budie]

In the early days of death registration in Scotland it wasn’t necessary to have a medical certificate from a doctor. Indeed a lot of doctors refused to attend a death, on the basis that it was a waste of their time. Their time was better spent with their live patients, not the dead one, especially if a long journey would have been necessary and they might not get paid. So people went ahead and buried the dead person and registered the death later, whenever the opportunity arose.

There’s a bit of background about the Scottish approach to death on this link:

http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/scotti ... ath/death/

Fully agreed !!

mb

[Alan SHARP]

Greetings again.

Now days it's the Court acknowledgement of probate that takes the time. [We are advised, four to six weeks in NZ] Two essentials for that, of course, being the need for a registered death, and any will, to be placed, with the Court and probate to be granted, before the deceased estate can be tidied up. However the body is a different story.

In more recent years Forensic science advances, have seen the gazetting of requirements to be met, before cremation, and where the death may not have been a "natural" one.

In days gone by a box was made, or obtained from the local cabinet maker / furniture shop, and the body buried, with only the locals attending. Such was travel and work restraints. Now days bodies are able to be kept, for as long as it takes, for the mourners to assemble themselves, from around the world. Such now is the ease of travel.

In 2000 my late wife died at home, with me, mid-day on a Monday, the following day family viewed the open coffin. The local service was on the Saturday, and as the crematorium was not open that afternoon, I was able to make my final, open coffin farewell, on the Monday morning, before she left the funeral home. In those six days between viewings, the only noticeable differences was a slight darkening of her skin tone, and like wise where her glasses rested on her nose, one could then perceive the outline of the pads.

Alan SHARP.