Portsmouth Garrsion Hospital Records

[Merry]

1876 was the year that death registration, supported by a medical death certificate, became compulsory, in order to prevent fraudulent registrations of death (for insurance claims) or murder cover ups, so it is indeed a worry that the registration isn't apparent - but would an ordinary member of the public have known this?

If his death wasn't registered (I'm not saying it definitely wasn't!) then in this case the problem would be either that he wasn't dead but someone in his family thought he was or wanted him to appear so, or they have a body that shouldnt get a burial because there's no death cert.

Are you saying somone put a death notice in the paper in the hope this would be proof of his death?

[Phoenix]

Well I would be! However,William jnr has Emmanuel as a second name, and is baptised in Leckhampton, where Rose is buried.

ave you done a DNA test, Steve, to see whether you have Bridges matches?

[Merry]

Originally Posted by Phoenix

Well I would be! However, he has Emmanuel as a second name, and is baptised in Leckhampton, where Rose is buried.

I think I am of a suspicious nature! The fact that he is named for his father and grandfather just made me more suspicious.

[Steve Bridges]

Benjamin and Ann Bridges were the parents of Rose Grace and I've traced them to a different family line.

Also, intriguing though the desertion theory is, I'm not sure the wording of "much beloved and only son" suggests a 'reprobate'?


Thanks for all the suggestions; I'll try the Portsea Office on Tuesday.

[Steve Bridges]

No, Phoenix, I'm not keen on doing a DNA test due to the uncertainty around privacy of personal data...

[Phoenix]

Quite understandable, though you could get someone else to set it up and use a different email address & user name, so it doesn't link in any way to your identity. Where I've set it up for relations, it's not under their own names.

[Merry]

Originally Posted by Steve Bridges

.

Also, intriguing though the desertion theory is, I'm not sure the wording of "much beloved and only son" suggests a 'reprobate'?

Not in the opinion of whoever wrote it! Perhaps they felt Charlotte was not a deserving wife, so expressed the way his blood relatives felt about him.

I don't think any of us are saying anything definite about the relationship between Wm and Charlotte, just that at the moment things seem open to speculation because of the apparent lack of a burial as well as an apparent lack of a death registration.

[Olde Crone]

Merry

Lots of reasons someone would put a death notice in the paper, including by the man himself, lol, if he wanted to disappear - he wouldn't necessarily have thought he needed to register his death, especially as he wouldn't have known we'd come looking for him later.

However, my money is on the death not reaching the GRO - this has happened twice in my tree and the death is clearly in the local indexes.

OC

[kiterunner]

As for the hospital records, you could contact Portsmouth History Centre and ask whether they hold them, or if not, whether they know who does:

https://librariesandarchives.portsmo...istory-centre/

[Merry]

he wouldn't necessarily have thought he needed to register his death, especially as he wouldn't have known we'd come looking for him later.

lol I hadn't thought of him entering his own death notice! You must be even more suspicious than I!! (and I'm almost too young to remember John Stonehouse )

And he couldn't have registered his own death because he wouldn't have the medical death cert as you mentioned previously re the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1874.