Looking at our family tree, for those for whom I have birth and marriage certificates, I now need to source death certificates. As you can see below, I already have Albert (Bert) Marelli’s death certificate as he died only recently, so I am going to look for the death certificates initially for Albert Marelli and then Martino Marelli who both died during the 20th Century. For part of this exercise I am going to use findmypast.com to help source death certificates subsequent to the 1901 Census.

Step 1 – Sourcing Death Certificates

The first death certificate I am going to look for is that of Albert Marelli, father of Albert William and grandfather of Brian Marelli, my husband. As Albert William is no longer with us, I asked Brian if he could remember his grandfather. After giving the question some thought, he believed his grandfather was still living during the 1970s but couldn’t give an exact date.

My search years, to begin with, will be the decade of the 1970s and if I don’t find a record of his death during this decade, I will search five years prior to 1970 and five years subsequent to 1980, and keep following this process until I achieve a result.

Looking at the login page of findmypast.com, select Deaths 1837 to 1983.

As you can see above, I have typed in the criteria for my search: event, date range from/to, and the name of the person I am searching for. Then I clicked on ‘Search’.

The search results.

The above is a part-view of the result of my search. Each year is split into quarters, i.e. Jan-Feb-Mar (March Quarter), Apr-May-Jun (June Quarter) and so on. It also lists alphabetically, from and to, the pages that house your ancestor by surname spelling, i.e. the surname March to Marino for the January quarter of 1970.

We can now start viewing our search pages as we would if we were to visit the FRC. After a reasonably short time, I found the Civil Registration details of Albert Marelli who died in the third quarter of 1974. Below is a copy of the detail at the top of the page and the registration of death for Albert. In later registers you will find the date of birth, which, in this case, I know to be correct, giving me further confirmation that I now have the correct death certificate.

Detail of the registration of death for Albert Marelli.

If you now go back to Chapter 1, Step 4, you can order a copy of the certificate you have just sourced, if you want to, or leave it until placing a larger order.

My next search is for Martino. Brian has no recollection of his grandfather in living memory, so I can presume that he died prior to 1943, but I need a start date to commence my search. I know he was alive in 1901 but I do have a further clue. The marriage certificate of Albert to Lilian Chappell, dated July 1912, does not state that Martino is deceased (see Chapter 2, page 25).

So my search years for Martino were September 1912 until at least December 1943, but first I checked FreeBMD – unfortunately Martino was not as yet listed. Using findmypast.com I put in my search criteria and checked each quarter for each year since September 1912 and was very despondent when my search reached the beginning of the Second World War. He would be in his late eighties by then. Finally, in the March quarter of 1940,1 found the registration details for Martino’s death. If I had started at 1943 and worked backwards I could have reduced my search time. Never mind, these things happen all the time.

Details of the registration of death for Martino Marelli.

Again, you can now go back to Chapter 1, Step 4 and order a copy of the certificate you have just sourced.

I also sourced the death certificate for Amy Plummer who died in 1912 in Wandsworth and Frederick Stone Chappell, who died in Lyme Regis in 1924.I knew from the details of his daughter’s marriage to Albert Marelli in 1912 that he was still living at this time, so I took my search from there and found him in 1924. However for his wife, Susan Chappell, née Lugg, I broke the cardinal rule and went off at a tangent before sensibleness took over, eventually! I knew from the 1901 Census that Susan Chappell, née Lugg, was still living at this time. What I couldn’t fathom from Frederick’s death certificate was if she was still alive when he died in 1924. The reason for this being his daughter from Somerset was the informant on the death certificate, so there is no mention of his wife Susan.

I had no choice but to begin my search from 1901, as she could have died prior to her husband, but as I have no proof that she may have outlived her husband I would also have to search beyond 1924 if necessary.

I created a research form in Excel to keep track of everything I researched as I went, in order not to duplicate my search and waste time. It covers just the years from 1837, when Civil Registration started, and the quarters for each year. I added the names by hand. You could just as easily create such a form by hand and photocopy it, or create something similar in MS Word if you prefer. When I’m going to search specific years for an ancestor, 1 create a similar grid just for the specific years in which I expect to find an ancestor’s record, e.g. Mar, June, Sept, Dec 1860 to 1870. I write out the name, type certificate and spelling variations of the surname which helps to keep me focused on the job in hand. I have created a free, downloadable PDF of this form on my website, www.dianemarcelli.co.uk .

Research form.

You will see above, I spent a great deal of time on this. I was convinced 1 would find Susan easily enough but my search took me from 1901 to 1955 searching under the name Chappell and then Chapple, and to my horror I still couldn’t find her. Next I tried searching Chap (for Chapel, Chapell etc.) but by 1930 I was totally despondent. Something was very wrong. I had found a couple of suspects in other parts of Devon under the correct spelling of her surname, but maybe she went to live with her daughter in Somerset, who was the informant on Frederick’s death certificate. The thought of starting again looking in another area did not appeal. This is when I remembered rule number one – try talking to living relatives first, Vic and Bet Marelli.

Sure enough after a conversation with Brian’s older cousin, Vic Marelli, the mystery was solved. Apparently Susan Chappell went to live with relatives in the Torquay area of Devon. A quick check of the couple of register pages I had printed off, luckily, and there she was. Susan Chappell lived until she was 94 years of age.

Death certificate for Susan Chappell.