How to go about finding death records in the UK?

Looking for a death record in the UK can be an easy or tough job. Before going for a search record of death, it will be suggested that you know the full name, an approximate date of death and the location where the death took place. Once you have this information, you can proceed with further tactics of finding death records in the UK.

One thing a death record seeker must know that if they are looking for a death record of a person occurred in England or Wales who died before July 1837, he may not succeed as no central record were kept at that time. For the best results of death records of that time, look at the local parish records, where the deceased person was buried. Information dated after July 1837 is registered on national basis.

There are two sets of Death Certificate, indexed in the UK. One of them is the original, which is handled by the local register office of the place where the death occurred, thus knowing the place of death can help you a lot on your search as there will be fewer cases of death to look through.

The other set for death certificates of people from England and Wales is kept at the GRO, meaning General Register Office. Every Death Certificate is given an Index Reference Number. Since the GRO contains tens and hundreds of death certificates, it can only be convenient for you to find a death certificate if you have its IRN.

Search death records can only be easy and convenient when you have the Index Reference Number, so to find the IRN for a death certificate, all you need is to go online. You can also get access to a full set of IRN at larger libraries.

However searching for death records in Northern Ireland or Scotland is a little different from England and Wales. Similar to the records of England and Wales, here also you can find death records by the knowledge of the name and the date of death of the deceased person, but knowing the religious denomination of the person can be helpful in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Also, the GRO for Northern Ireland have registered information of deaths occurred in their country after 1864 only, whereas the Scotland GRO has information of deaths since 1855 and any information before that, you should go on checking the records maintained by the local parish, if you have an idea of the location of death.