----- Original Message ----- From: "KEITH GOODWAY" <keith.goodway@btinternet.com> Subject: [Ess] Re. Details on Certificates I can see the point in witholding death certificate details if someone living would be unduly upset, but I had the reverse situation in my family. Family whispers had it that a member had "had money and property, but drank it all away" - no name ever mentioned. I received a copy of his death certificate quite out of the blue from a contact and found that he had in fact been run over by a train. There was an inquest and accidental death was recorded. Having researched his life as far as possible for the preceeding ten or so years, and the actions of his brothers in the couple of years after his death my understanding of his death is quite different. Instead of the drunken loser he had been portrayed as, in fact he was a man who had endured a lot of personal tragedy in the five or so years prior to his death. I was upset, in fact I cried, when I saw his death certficate and put all of the pieces together, but I was also happy that I had been able to remove the wrong image given to him by family gossip. Barbara

Hi Barbara That is a good example of finding out the truth about these 'family stories' which seem to abound in every family. My rellies came to Australia in 1873-1887 and kept in touch with their English rellies. There are many family stories that I found to be greatly enlarged and the truth twisted around to look better than they actually were. I find the certificates fascinating and it just lends a more human touch to our research. Pam in Brisbane Australia ----- Original Message ----- From: "barbara scott" <ellescott77@ntlworld.com> To: "KEITH GOODWAY" <keith.goodway@btinternet.com>; <ESSEX-UK-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, August 02, 2008 11:14 PM Subject: Re: [Ess] Re. Details on Certificates I can see the point in witholding death certificate details if someone living would be unduly upset, but I had the reverse situation in my family. Family whispers had it that a member had "had money and property, but drank it all away" - no name ever mentioned. I received a copy of his death certificate quite out of the blue from a contact and found that he had in fact been run over by a train. There was an inquest and accidental death was recorded. Having researched his life as far as possible for the preceeding ten or so years, and the actions of his brothers in the couple of years after his death my understanding of his death is quite different. Instead of the drunken loser he had been portrayed as, in fact he was a man who had endured a lot of personal tragedy in the five or so years prior to his death. I was upset, in fact I cried, when I saw his death certficate and put all of the pieces together, but I was also happy that I had been able to remove the wrong image given to him by family gossip. Barbara