death certificates

Wake
May 10. 2007

The spring has been wet and stormy so unfortunately we are not doing as much boating. I had high hopes this week but each day the humidity built leading to unsettled weather in the late afternoon and evenings. Today was no different and even though it hasn't stormed yet it likely will. The air cooled a bit so we cleaned up one of the garden beds. The wet between high humidity and bugs has really put a damper on garden work as well slowing the refinishing of the kitchen cabinet doors. We are hoping to get a bit of work done this weekend since it is our holiday weekend.

All but one of the death certificates I ordered a couple of weeks ago have arrived. Now folks do a lot of complaining about government services but I have to tell you the Office of the Registrar General for Ontario is very nice to deal with and their service is usually well under the two week mark. I go fill out their forms online here, make the payment then wait for the certificates to arrive. The only thing I really don't like is ordering a birth certificate for someone like my great grandmother requires I prove they are deceased meaning I need their death certificate. By default I have to order the death certificate first, photocopy that and send the photocopy back to them as a second step when ordering the birth certificate. Essentially what this forces you to do is order both the death and birth certificates even if you have other proof of the death. A search before ordering a certificate is $15 within 5 years but in most cases if you are fairly certain this really isn't necessary. So each person without a search ends up costing at least $22 for the death certificate, $45 for the birth certificate and $22 for the marriage certificate. These are documents you definitely want for your parents, grandparents and greatgrandparents. Earlier than 1869 you have to go to church records and between 1869 and about 1875 some records might not be available. They are primary sources created at the time of the event so these are must have pieces of documentations for your direct lines.

There is a lot of information on these documents some of which you have to read between the lines as in addresses. At the time the document was made that was the address which may or may not agree with other records. Each piece of information on the document gives a clue. Birth dates and dates of death are confirmed with these documents but even then there can be errors on the documents. Little tid bits that by them selves mean little but end up being one more stepping stone to finding more information. Sometimes as with these certificates the cause of death is not notes. I really would have liked to know that. But now more questions are apparent and that is what each of these documents will do, some more than others.

I'm off searching while I wait for the next set of documents to arrive...

Garden Gnome
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