From 1837 a death had to
be registered within 8 days; in 1875 this was reduced to 5 days. From
1866 onwards, death indexes give the age of the deceased at death
but too much reliance should not be placed on the age given on a death
certificate as the only person who could probably be relied upon to
know the true facts was not available to provide them! The accuracy
of the age given depended on the person giving the information and,
particularly in the early days when there was no birth certificate to
verify the statement, it may be a number of years out. Many people deliberately
lost several years from their age at some time in their lives and actually
came to believe in their 'new' age.
Present at the death
means what it says; In attendance means that the person registering
the death was not actually present but attended at the Register Office
to register it.
With very few exceptions,
a death cannot be registered until a positive identification of the
body has been made. This can cause considerable confusion to the family
historian. If there is no body, a death cannot be registered. If the
body is recovered (eg from a mining accident or shipwreck) several years
later and is identified, the death is registered as at the date of recovery
but the age given will be that which applied at the time of death.
Unless a body is legally
identified, it cannot be registered under a specific name - hence entries
in the indexes for, for example Old Joe aged about 65, for
an itinerant worker with no known surname, and the pages of entries
to be found at the end of each volume listing 'unknown' or 'unidentified'
bodies with estimated ages. If you have 'lost' a death, particularly
in the early days of civil registration, it would be worth checking
these lists to see if you can spot a likely entry in the correct Registration
District.
If an inquest was held, the
death would have been registered in the quarter when the inquest was
completed. This may be some time after the actual death, particularly
if there was an adjournment, and the entry may be in a later quarter
than you anticipate.