Author Topic: Inquests - Are they available?  (Read 663 times)

Offline Fuchsiagirl

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Inquests - Are they available?
« on: Saturday 08 October 11 01:34 BST (UK) »
Yesterday I received the death certificate of my 3xgreat grandmother Elizabeth Bevan who died in Stepney on 9th April 1868.
The certificate states "Found dead 15 Thomas Street" and that an inquest was held by the Coroner for Middlesex on 14th April, 1868.  Can somebody please tell me how I could find online details of this inquest?  I checked the Documents Online website but they are not available there. 

I live in Australia so cannot go visit anywhere.  I have just signed up and this is my first post so hope I did it right  :)

Fuchsiagirl

Offline PrueM

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Re: Inquests - Are they available?
« Reply #1 on: Saturday 08 October 11 03:07 BST (UK) »
Hi Fuschiagirl :)  and welcome to Rootschat  :D

The survival of inquest records is very hit and miss, as they were considered the personal property of the coroner concerned, and were not required to be kept until (I believe) some time in the 1920s.  If you have a look through Valda's very useful help topic here, you should find out where to enquire about existing records:

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,403306.0.html

The other place that can be useful to look at is the newspapers of the day, particularly local ones, as they can sometimes have reports of inquests in them.

Hope that helps :)

Cheers
Prue

Offline Fuchsiagirl

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Re: Inquests - Are they available?
« Reply #2 on: Saturday 08 October 11 03:32 BST (UK) »
Thank you Prue for this information and your very prompt reply.  I'm very new at this but can search English newspapers now I have the date of the inquest. 

Fuchsiagirl