Just in case there is anyone out there who believes implicitly in the accuracy of death certificate information, beware! In the last couple of days I have been looking at death certificates pertaining to my family. First is one issued in Melbourne in 1939 which states that the deceased had spent 25 years in Victoria and 40 years in Western Australia. WRONG! Maybe four years in WA and longer than 25 in Vic. Second is one issued on the death of my father-in-law in Gosford in 1969, and which I did not sight for many years afterward. On this certificate it shows that he died at a certain nursing home in Gosford (it was at Wyoming); that he was cremated at Northern Suburbs Crematorium (it was Palmdale, Ourimbah), and that a minister with an unfamiliar name officiated. When my own mother died in October last year, I was horrified when the death certificate arrived as there were three glaring errors on it. I scooted into Sydney on the train, waited my turn at the BDM office, and in less than 15 minutes or so had had the mistakes corrected and a new death certificate issued - but wait, here's a mistake in the corrections! Oh, well, it is a very minor one .... Death certificates are only as reliable as (1) the informant's memory and knowledge of the deceased's background and/or (2) the accuracy of the person recording the information. Never believe ages given on old death certificates, that's my motto. In my experience they can prove to be anything up to 10 years in error. In one case I have encountered, a man shown to be 103 was actually 93. Perhaps he had enjoyed people complimenting him on his youthful looks! On occasions an old death certificate will be found to exclude all children of a first marriage, and even all mention of that event. A list of offspring will very often leave out one or more children who have been living elsewhere for so long they seemed to have escaped the combined memories of the family. I came across a 1924 death certificate in a local family not related to me, in which the deceased was given a strange set of parents, and one of the names listed as his offspring was actually a grandchild. Gwen Dundon East Gosford