I was interested to see the replies about registrations for deaths at sea and the reference to applications for a death certificate. I understand that my grandmother's younger brother William Mark Green was "lost at sea off a boat when he was young". Nothing else seemed to be known about him. I have found William in the 1901 census, aged 16 lodging in Newhaven and working as a railway engine cleaner. As there were two seamen also in the household I suspect young William my have joined them perhaps working on boats out of Newhaven(possibly on the ferries?). If William was unmarried and his widowed mother out of the country after 1912 it is possible that no one in the family applied for a death certificate. Does this mean that William may not, in fact, be in official death records anywhere? Best wishes Jan Doe SFHS no. 10432 -----Original Message----- From: sfhg-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:sfhg-bounces@rootsweb.com]On Behalf Of Marion Woolgar Sent: 28 March 2008 10:07 To: Claire Wickens; sfhg Subject: Re: [SFHG] Titanic Assuming the passenger in question was a British Citizen, a Death Certificate would not normally be issued unless a body had been recovered and repatriated to England or Wales for burial. There would then need to be a Coroner's Inquest and the Coroner would issue a Death Certificate. If the body was never recovered, the person's widow or other interested person could apply to the courts for a Death Certificate after an interval. I *think* back then, the interval was seven years. It is also possible that the death registration may not be included in the usual "run" of GRO Death Indexes. There is another set of GRO Indexes reserved for Marine Deaths up to 1965 which might be worth checking. This usually contains the details of people buried at sea where a service has been held and the details have been recorded in the Captain's Log. However, when a person is presumed to be lost at sea and a Death Certificate is issued many years afterwards, I am not sure which set of indexes the registration may appear within, so it would be worth checking both. Best wishes Marion Woolgar Bognor Regis, West Sussex SFHG NO: 3323 ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to SFHG-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message