Death Certificate

[allotment]

I have an ancestor named Smith who drowned in Perth in 1918 whilst on a night out with some army pals. It was 27 days before his body was found. He was possibly born in Bristol but his wife and her family were both from, and living in Islington, London.

I have the death register entry from SP together with an RCE dated one month later confirming that the death had been found to be accidental. His wife's name appears on the death register entry but no parents names are listed.

My question is please....Is the death register entry from SP the actual death certificate having, as it does, details of the death of other people around the same time as my ancestor's entry. Or is a formal death certificate issued similar to those in England?

Many thanks for any responses.

[AndrewP]

Hi Allotment,



The certiicate and which I presume you have downloaded from ScotlandsPeople is the death certificate proper. It contains the information that was known to the person who registered the death. The RCE shows the outcome from the court system, and can sometimes add a few more nuggets of information, but often will confirm the cause of death given on the original certificate to be correct. Death certficates up to 1965 are three per page, so the downloaded document that has your ancestor will also have the information for two others in sequence of when registered who happen to share that page in the register.

There may be a court document available in the National Archives of Scotland (NAS); and there could be newspaper items to offer some more information.

All the best,

AndrewP

[allotment]

Thanks Andrew.