Where can I find a missing Welsh death certificate?
QI am searching for the death certificate of my great great grandmother Mary Davies ( born 1815). She was buried with her husband at St Mary’s, Aberavon, Port Talbot. The date on the headstone is 24 December 1887 and her age is shown as 71 years. The burial records show entries for both. I’ve checked the General Register Office records, local register office and those within a 50- mile radius without luck. Pamela Jones, by email
AA death must be registered in the district in which it occurs. At that time, most people would be expected to die at, or near to, home, so it’s important to establish exactly where Mary was living. Assuming she was in Aberavon, then Neath is the relevant registration district and checking the GRO indexes there is a death of a Mary Davies, aged 71, registered there in the December Quarter of 1887 (volume 11a p354), but I assume from your list of research that you have obtained a copy of that certificate and ruled it out.
The usual reasons for not finding a death registration where it is expected is that the person died in a different area, was registered under an unexpected name, or that the informant gave inaccurate information. With a name such as Mary Davies, even with an age to check against, finding the right entry could be a difficult and expensive process, but you seem to have covered most of these possibilities.
So, could the death be unregistered? It is a common misconception that a death must be registered before a burial can take place. The Registration of Births and Death Act 1874 describes how a coroner or registrar could give the necessary authority for a funeral in advance of registration, and this is essentially still the case today.
In such cases, a qualified informant is still required to attend and formally register the death, but it is easy to imagine why the family may have felt this unnecessary once the funeral had taken place, if there was no will or property to deal with. It would then depend on the diligence and persistence of the local registrar to ensure the details were properly recorded.