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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: joan on Thursday 02 March 23 11:10 GMT (UK)
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Can anyone help? I am trying to find out about the suicide of a man in 1943, are the inquests recorded anywhere and can you view them? Also does anyone know of a newspaper that would record things occuring in their neighbourhood, the district would be Poplar. London
Jpa D'Arcy
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I have seen newspaper reports inquests, including suicides. The ones that I have seen during my own research have been brief with little detail. I don't know how long a coroner's office would keep the paperwork for inquests but it could be beneficial for you to contact the coroner's office for the Poplar district.
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Many thanks, I will try that. Joan
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In my Experience
Inquests tend to have an brief Date Name Cause of Death of Death in a Log Entry which I copied.
I picked up My Three involvements were picked up from the Death Certificate which recorded The Informant was the Coroner and gave Date of Inquest and a Brief Description
That then allowed me to look in the Newspaper the following day after the Inquest
Which then gave a Reasonable Article of the Event which provided everything
I was told Inquest Papers were not Held very long after the event and log entry and Newspaper article.
My three cases were 1886 1897 and 1957
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I am trying to find out about the suicide of a man in 1943, are the inquests recorded anywhere and can you view them?
Only a 10% sample of Coroners’ inquests and depositions survive for 1943 in that part of London. They are held at London Metropolitan Archives.
If you email LMA, the staff will check the card index and tell you if yours is included in that 10%.
asklma@londonmetarchives.libanswers.com
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Thank you all, will definitely try these options out.
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When I went to LMA in search of the inquest on one of my ancestors they were very helpful ... but explained that whether anything survives, and the quality of what you get if it does survive, varies greatly. It's pot luck, really.
In my great great grandfather's case there was a surviving record, but it was exceedingly terse. However, we have a family tradition that he was a railway delivery driver (horse-drawn) and working excessively long hours, he fell asleep on the box seat and fell under the wheels of his own cart.
Knowing that background, I could make sense of the abbreviations and shorthand that had been used in the record, and it confirmed the family account in all material particulars (and the event occurred in June ... when the hours of daylight were at their longest).
So sometimes you get lucky. I certainly did.
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Thanks to all who replied I have now got the info I was looking for, Joan
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Can anyone help? I am trying to find out about the suicide of a man in 1943, are the inquests recorded anywhere and can you view them? Also does anyone know of a newspaper that would record things occuring in their neighbourhood, the district would be Poplar. London
Jpa D'Arcy
They were often reported in newspapers. Note many newspapers are still not on the British Newspaper Library (findmypast Newspapers), and the local studies or city or county archives may have other newspapers and name indexes in some cases.
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Also does anyone know of a newspaper that would record things occuring in their neighbourhood, the district would be Poplar. London
I’d suggest the East London Advertiser, which isn’t online for the date you need but is held at Tower Hamlets Local History Library.
If you have the death certificate showing the date of the inquest, they might do a lookup for you
Contact
localhistory@towerhamlets.gov.uk
Here’s a page with a link to download the full list of newspapers that they hold there ...
https://www.ideastore.co.uk/local-history/collections-and-digital-resources/user-guides/local-history-newspapers-magazines-and-newsletters