The Diary of Nathaniel Bryceson Revisited

[Ruskie]

This is the email I received from the GRO:

Dear *******

Thank you for your enquiry.

If you are unsure which of the possible entries found in the indexes refer to the person you are looking for, you may wish to place a research order and we will carry out a three year search of the General Register Office Indexes for the entry you are seeking.

If the name appears frequently in the indexes you can  request we search a year or specific quarter of a year and we will check up to 6 possible entries in the name quoted.  You will need to make your application by phone or post however.

Additional information may be included on these orders which will help us identify an entry. You say you have a record of her being buried on 29 October 1847 which may indicate she died shortly prior to this.

We are only able to undertake searches where at the very least the year and place of the event together with the full name and surname of the person is provided.

If the search is unsuccessful we will contact you to advise no trace of an entry can be found in the details supplied and a full refund is issued .

Standard Service charge £9.25 -  15 working days
Priority Service charge £23.40 - Despatched the following working day.

For further information please refer to our website: www.gov.uk/order-copy-birth-death-marriage-certificate

Regards

********
First Point of Contact

Not sure why this is phone or post only - that's not very convenient. 

I'm not sure how this search works regarding payment - I assume you would pay, they would search, then if nothing is found? Refund?

I think I'd better read the small print on their website ....
Does anyone have any experience with this kind of GRO request and search?

[alpinecottage]

This is the email I received from the GRO:

.......
If the search is unsuccessful we will contact you to advise no trace of an entry can be found in the details supplied and a full refund is issued .....

Not sure why this is phone or post only - that's not very convenient. 

I'm not sure how this search works regarding payment - I assume you would pay, they would search, then if nothing is found? Refund?

Yes, they are saying you'd get a refund if they were unsuccessful.

And I agree, it seems inconvenient to have the option of phone or write, why not email too?  I suppose "rules is rules"!

They will check up to 6 records by this method, they say.  Just going back to check how many possible Mary Ward deaths you found.

Added; there are 4 Mary Ward deaths on Freebmd for 4th Q 1847, one each in St James, St Pancras, Holborn and Marylebone and Mary Esther in Islington and Mary Ann Elizabeth in Holborn - grand total of six.

Assuming her death was registered (most likely) and assuming it made it through the quarterly returns and onto the index (more scope for errors) then she should be one of these six.

[Ruskie]

"Our" Mary did not have a middle name so we can eliminate any which do. My only concern is that she may have died outside the (likely) area. I will recheck Freebmd for other Marys. 

[alpinecottage]

Those were the Middlesex Mary Wards, which includes London.  Putting London excludes the St James one.
I suspect she was referred to as plain Mary Ward in everything we have on her, but how do we know for sure she didn't have a middle name?  Anyway, all the other Mary Wards dying in that quarter are in Lancashire and Yorkshire ( long way from London) apart from a Mary Ward in Winchester (70 miles south west of London) and a Mary Ann Ward in St George, Southwark, Surrey ( just south of the Thames and non-Londoners like me would call it London)

[Ruskie]

Those were the Middlesex Mary Wards, which includes London.  Putting London excludes the St James one.
I suspect she was referred to as plain Mary Ward in everything we have on her, but how do we know for sure she didn't have a middle name?  Anyway, all the other Mary Wards dying in that quarter are in Lancashire and Yorkshire ( long way from London) apart from a Mary Ward in Winchester and a Mary Ann Ward in St George, Southwark, Surrey (fairly close to London)

Yes, I did include both London and Middlesex in the search. I think we are as sure as we can be that Mary did not have a middle name as we have this from the Parish records:
27 June 1797 
Mary Shepard born
chr 23 Jul 1797
Old Church St Pancras
father: John, mother: Mary

And from the diary confirming the date of birth:
Saturday 27th June 1846
Mother completes her 49th year ...

But, yes, there are not a huge number of Mary Ward deaths in the Dec 1/4 of 1847.

[alpinecottage]

I agree about her not having a middle name.

Was it Mary who had breast cancer?  If so, she is unlikely to have travelled 70 miles to Winchester when she was so ill, so our Mary must be one of the 4....assuming the index is complete.

[Ruskie]

Mary had some kind of tumor we think, but Nathaniel didn't exactly say where it was as far as I can remember. There was mention of her "side" at one point when she visited a doctor. I am sure that one of the others will be able to recall.  You are right when you say that it is very unlikely that she would have travelled far as she was so ill. Added to the fact that she was buried in Soho you would expect her to have died in the vicinity.

[alpinecottage]

Reading back, I see the St James Mary was eliminated because she died after "our" Mary was buried (reply no 95) - so that's only 3 possibles now....on the index!

[Ruskie]

Yes, thanks Alpine, that sounds about right.

My search terms, 'abode: Richmonds Buildings', for the first search, and 'wife of Matthew Ward' for the second, failed to find her, so, presumably now all that we have to search on is approximate date of death on, or a day or two before, 29th Oct 1847.