# How do police know who to notify when someone dies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 23, 2009, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-police-know-who-to-notify-when-someone-dies/482618 "2009-01-23T10:31:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-police-know-who-to-notify-when-someone-dies/482618/21 "2009-01-24T04:27:36Z")
> [@Lo-Slung\_Denim](#): > > I would assume it’s fairly easy from your ID - your national insurance number is given when you join a GP surgery, and your GP surgery keeps records of your next of kin. > > As above, so do most workplaces, who would also be fairly easy to contact through NI number. No. Your National Health Insurance number (NHI number) is given when you join a GP, or, more often, they find it by contacting your previous GP when you’ve moved house. That’s completely seperate to your National Insurance number, which relates to tax. My daughter is ten. She has a National Health Insurance number. She doesn’t have an National Insurance number. I doubt many people in the UK carry their National Insurance card with them or carry anything with that number on unless they happened to have been reading their payslip on the way to work. These days, in the UK, the Police and medical personnel (etc) look at your mobile and check for ICE, Mum, Dad, and the last calls you placed - but that’s partly to do with getting important people around and finding out what’s going on, not just notifying next of kin. Failing that, they will look at the other stuff you have in your bag - very few people fail to carry _something_ which doesn’t identify them by name and general location. Once they have your name, your birthdate and location (or even an approximation of them), a simple search of the General Register Office will then reveal whether you’re married or civilly partnered and who your parents and/or children are. It’s then also easy to find your siblings. They are your ‘next of kin.’ They’re not necessarily the _only_ people that the police would notify when someone dies, though. I presume the US has something similar to the General Register Office for births, marriages and deaths, even if on a state-by-state basis. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-police-know-who-to-notify-when-someone-dies/482618/22 "2009-01-24T12:07:20Z")
> [@scifisam2009](#): > > I presume the US has something similar to the General Register Office for births, marriages and deaths, even if on a state-by-state basis. No, we don’t. We register births, marriages, deaths, and so forth but there isn’t a place where you could go, submit my name, and get a list of my parents, siblings, and children. Every so often you’ll something on the news saying “this and such a person died and we haven’t been able to locate any next of kin - does anyone out there have a clue who this person is related to?” You get that sometimes for people who have been severely injured they can’t identify, either - there are a still a lot of people in the US who have never been fingerprinted so if you show up in the hospital with no ID of any sort and can’t communicate finding out who you are can be difficult. ---
**Author:** ![kjckjc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e36b37/32.png) [@kjckjc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kjckjc)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-police-know-who-to-notify-when-someone-dies/482618/23 "2009-01-24T12:57:43Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > I don’t have a next of kin, so if I die it doesn’t matter. And for work, I always just make up a name and throw it on the form. Just put as your next of kin: First Name: MPSIMS Last Name: New Thread Address: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?f=4](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?f=4) Phone: 209.104.5.198 Then at least we would know. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Cymbeline](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_cymbeline/32/9244_2.png) [@Green\_Cymbeline](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Cymbeline)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2009, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-police-know-who-to-notify-when-someone-dies/482618/24 "2009-01-24T22:58:10Z")
I’m thinking I might make up a card to put in my wallet that says: IN CASE OF EMERGENCY, CONTACT: Names & numbers of next of kin… I think I will make one up for my SO and parents too. I have always been paranoid about this kind of thing!! You know, that one day my mom or boyfriend will just not come home, because they were in an accident and the cops don’t know who to contact… ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2009, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-police-know-who-to-notify-when-someone-dies/482618/25 "2009-01-25T00:44:40Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > No, we don’t. > > We register births, marriages, deaths, and so forth but there isn’t a place where you could go, submit my name, and get a list of my parents, siblings, and children. > > Every so often you’ll something on the news saying “this and such a person died and we haven’t been able to locate any next of kin - does anyone out there have a clue who this person is related to?” You get that sometimes for people who have been severely injured they can’t identify, either - there are a still a lot of people in the US who have never been fingerprinted so if you show up in the hospital with no ID of any sort and can’t communicate finding out who you are can be difficult. Interesting. So I guess I’ve answered the question for the OP WRT the UK, but not the US, where it’s less straightfoward. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2009, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-police-know-who-to-notify-when-someone-dies/482618/26 "2009-01-25T00:47:42Z")
> [@scifisam2009](#): > > Interesting. So I guess I’ve answered the question for the OP WRT the UK, but not the US, where it’s less straightfoward. Yep. Americans _really_ don’t like the government to know too much about them, we’re crazy-nuts about our privacy even from the government, and unless you know where certain life events like births, marriages and deaths occurred you won’t even know which municipality to go to in order to find the documentation. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-police-know-who-to-notify-when-someone-dies/482618.md?page=1)