War Deaths: ARE THE CERTIFICATES WORTH THE EXPENSE?.....

[joette]

I am wondering if any body has bought from the minor records to view War Death Certificates. What I want to know is does it give any relevant info or is it just died where & when? I know the answer in both cases & wonder if it is a waste of money to buy certificates?

[joycehender]

I have looked at a couple of WW1 deaths when in Edinburgh. One gave only place and date, the other gave the additional information that he died of cholera.

I don't know if the entries I looked at are representative of all minor records but if you have a look on the SP site (the "What's in the database" section") there are some examples which look pretty similar.

On the basis of my limited experience, I would be prepared to pay the cost of a download (when they are available) as cause of death is worth having but I wouldn't pay the full fee for a copy.

Hope this helps

Joyce

[AndrewP]

War death minor records are not death certificates like the "normal" ones. They are usually a long list of names, with rank and number. In most cases there is a cause of death. That can include "missing in action".

One page of WWI records that I looked at had numbers 1, 2, 3 or 4 for the cause of death. The search room supervisor consulted a piece of paper in her desk drawer to decode these - I wished I had copied the whole thing. The causes were (in no known order) something like "missing in action", "killed in action", "died from illness" and some other fourth alternative (maybe "died later from battle injury").

As these are lists of the war dead and not death certificates, information about parents is not usually there, so these are not as easy to verify as being the person that you are searching for. However, if you have some other information from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission or the Scottish National War Memorial websites, then you may already have a date or service number to confirm this is the correct one that you are looking at.

All the best,

Andrew Paterson

[DavidWW]

In addition in a sustantial number of cases, between a thrid and a half, the CWGC site gives info on next of kin.

David