D is for...

D is for David, Doreen, Demarius, Dulce, Descendant, Death Certificates.

I have a few “D” Christian names in my tree. The most interesting is Demarius, though. The origin of this name is from the USA but I am confident that this Demarius came from England. She is on my husband’s side and I have not done a lot of research on this side yet, due to the bountiful ancestors in my own family. But my curiosity encouraged me to look up it’s meaning and I found that it meant “Warlike”. 

One of my favourite Certificates to purchase is a Death Certificate. There is usually so much information on them. 

In Australia we are given the following information, although sometimes it may not be correct, especially if the informant is not a close relative or the deceased was prone to porky pies! 

Decease’s Full Name
Date of Death
Address
Occupation
Sex
Age
Conjugal Status
Place of Birth
Time in Aust. colonies
Father
Father’s Occupation
Mother
Place of Marriage
Age at Marriage
Name of Spouse
Children of Marriage
Informant
Cause of Death
Length of Illness
Medical Attendant and last seen
Date and Place of Burial
Minister and Religion
Undertaker
Witness
Cremation Details
Registered Date
Notes 

You can glean so much information from these certificates and they often give you other areas or names to search, if the informant actually knew the correct details. 

Often the information on a Death Certificate was supplied by one of the children and their interpretation of events could be sketchy at the best of times. Many of our ancestors had little schooling and access to records, they relied on word of mouth and this could lead to interesting variations of spellings. 

I have a couple of Death certificates with unusual spellings.  For example one of my ancestor's Death certificate in 1883 lists his place of birth as Waber, Sweden.  I have yet to find a Waber in Sweden but I have an inkling that this may be Warberg, Sweden.  I also have his wife's Death certificate in 1915 listing her place of birth as Wessen, England.  Once again I have yet to find such a place!

As to ancestors being prone to "porky pies", I think I have the prime example with this same above couple.  On the 1883 Death certificate for the husband it lists the place of marriage as Launceston, Tasmania.  The age at marriage given would put the year as 1870.  

But here is the "porky pie", because the Marriage certificate for this couple clearly lists the year as 1883!  So this couple had been living as Mr and Mrs for thirteen years and had seven children. The wife was the informant, so she would have known precisely the year she had married and I don't think she could have made a mistake of thirteen years!  

What was she thinking, was she trying to save face?

Whatever her reasons, she took the secret to her grave as the informant her eldest son, also gave the same date of 1870 for her marriage on her Death certificate.

But even so, a Death certificate is still my favourite for gleaning tidbits of information. How about you?