No matching death registration using maiden name.

Question

I would normally expect to find 2 death records for a married couple on Scotlandspeople, under her maiden name and under her married name, both would have the same info and reference number.

In the case of Ann GRAY [Gray-38279] I found two entries, both with mother's maiden name DUNCAN, one died 1899, the other in 1909.

When I then check for Ann LAWRENCE with the same parameters, including mother's maiden name DUNCAN, I find her death in 1922. This entry's matching reference if for an Ann GERRIE.

Any ideas on what may be going on?

Answer 1

Hi  I have used SP for a long time and have fine tuned my searches.  So when I find a woman,  I then remove the surname name but fill in everything else to see what other names were used at the time of the regestration.  Thus the 1899 Arbroath woman  was Gray and Sandeman  and the 1909 Thornton woman was Gray and Main.

 Ann Lawrence - was also Ann Gerrie as you say.

These are three different women.  It is also possible that the mothers ms was not entered or not indexed or entered incorrectly.  I hope this helps.

(edited to use surname rather than married name)

Comments

Thanks for your reply Liz.  The methodology you use is the same as mine.  So in this case, using her blanking maiden name revealed 2 hits and as both had identical mother's maiden name, I assumed she had married twice.  As neither were LAWRENCE, I thought then that she must have been married 3 times.  But where was the entry for LAWRENCE?  Then noticing that the 2 hits had different death dates, like you I concluded they must have been 2 different women.  So, that's when I put LAWRENCE in as surname rather than blank, suspecting that I would find an entry with a death date matching 1 of those 2 hits.  There is indeed an Ann LAWRENCE with mother's maiden name DUNCAN, but she died in 1922.  I have now concluded that the Ann GRAY I am looking for died in 1922.  That is, unless this Ann LAWRENCE is another person altogether and just coincidentally also had mother's maiden name DUNCAN, and the death of the Ann GRAY married to Charles LAWRENCE was never registered.

How did Scotlandspeople neglect to index her 1922 death under Ann GRAY.  Also what a coincidence having 3 different death registrations for an Ann GRAY and all showing mother's maiden name DUNCAN, particularly as all 3 deaths were prior to 1974.

I think I will write a note to Scotlandspeople reporting the index oversight re her missing maiden name entry.

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Hi Bob

I have seen and bought hundreds of entries (over the years)  and not all have the mothers maiden names indexed even though it is written and clear.  However as deaths are registered by others it depends on the informants knowledge. I have a fair number that are incorrect and equally seen those that have missing information. From my own tree grandchildren (etc) less likely to know their gr grandmothers maiden surname for example, or the next door neighbour knowing etc .   I have also seen incidences where names AND mothers maiden name  are what I am looking for but is still not the person I was looking for (usually involving Frasers in the Inverness area) . I discover the married name was the birth name or vice versa.. Good luck and let us know how you get on with SP.  I have been refunded credits when a mistake has been made.

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I have questioned Scotlandspeople today concerning this and if and when they reply, I will post it.