Hi Mike A tad confused by this reply as I don't see an original enquiry in the archives, so am unsure what the question was Whilst a few death registrations have been missed from the local offices to the GRO in their quarterly returns, I would say that virtually all were recorded at a local level with the vast majority of them reported to the GRO particularly by the 1870 to 1880's It is far more likely that the person you seek died outside of the area you think they did or lived later than you think Did they remarry perhaps? There is another possibility in that they were registered with a slightly different spelling to that you are expecting, clearly the person who knew best how it was spelled was not exactly in a position to correct the informant or clerk <g> I would suggest posting the persons name, birth place and year to see if we can help you Did they leave a will perhaps As age is recorded by this time and even if it is out by a few years it should help to identify some likely deaths I don't understand the last part of your post, what search are you speaking of? Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) On 13/02/2013 14:59, mike say wrote: > Charani > thanks for your most pleasant response. > In a nutshell I am trying to trace a death between 1871 and 1881 of my > paternal gggrandmother. Her last address was in the Lambeth area but I can > find no evidence of the death notice. I am aware that some local registers > "lost" or misplaced records which ensured that they did not become aggregted > at the next level and therefore do not appear in any National record. London > as you know is remarkably difficult to research in what today is North West > Kent and East Surrey. > Is it normal practice not to offer search prior to 1901 which would seem to > be irregular. Any thoughts appreciated. > Have been researching the SAY family for over 20 years. > Kind regards > Mike Say 130213