Finding our ancestors' death records

An obituary is the notification of a person’s death with their brief life story. The length of an obituary varies from a few lines of summary to several hundred words, and obituaries can contain fanta

Before the introduction of civil registration of births, marriages and deaths in England and Wales in 1837, it is the parochial registers recording the baptisms, marriages and burials of our ancestors

As a professional genealogist I’m sometimes asked to carry out research into a particular individual – to, in effect, compile a biography. These requests most frequently come from one of my oldest and

QMargaret Woodhall (née Smithson), born c1827 Liverpool (according to the 1851 census), was the sister of my great grandfather, James Murray Smithson, born c1835 in Edinburgh. Their father was William

Different ways of dying across the British Isles

A coroner’s view of Tudor ends