# UK Dopers : I need help in finding the Date of Death of a relative **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 10, 2003, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-i-need-help-in-finding-the-date-of-death-of-a-relative/154101 "2003-02-10T14:54:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Deptford](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Deptford](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deptford)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2003, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-i-need-help-in-finding-the-date-of-death-of-a-relative/154101/1 "2003-02-10T14:54:41Z")
Ok, i’ve just been assigned a mission by my mother .Any help in completing it would be gratefully appreciated. The problem is this. A cousin of my grandmother died fairly recently . We have reason to believe (long story) that she (my grandmother) is in the will. We’ve rung up the probate office. But they need his exact Date of Death which we don’t have. They referred us to a firm which will find that out for us , but the service costs 30 pounds. Now we do have his name , his home address , and parents names. Does anyone know of any on-line resource that we could use to trace his date of death using the above info . ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2003, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-i-need-help-in-finding-the-date-of-death-of-a-relative/154101/2 "2003-02-10T15:09:24Z")
I’d phone up the Town Hall, mumble something about ‘Births, deaths and marriages’ to the telephonist and they’re sure to put you through to someone who’ll know or will know where you should otherwise enquire - sorry it’s not concrete but it’s what I’d be inclined to do. I guess someone at the Town Hall is the best source of info for this kind of thing … ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2003, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-i-need-help-in-finding-the-date-of-death-of-a-relative/154101/3 "2003-02-10T16:15:34Z")
The town hall is unlikely to know. The registrar of births, deaths and marriages will know, but (a) it can take a while for the details of a death to turn up on the Central Register, and (b) as deaths are recorded in date order, they too will want to know the date of death in order to find the entry in the register. You could ring his family in England and ask when he died. They’d know. You could look (or get somebody to look) in the local papers for his death notice. ---
**Author:** ![ticker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@ticker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ticker)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2003, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/uk-dopers-i-need-help-in-finding-the-date-of-death-of-a-relative/154101/4 "2003-02-10T18:12:55Z")
You can get information on obtaining a death certificate [here](http://www.familyrecords.gov.uk/topics/bmd.htm)