The civil registration of deaths in Scotland started in January 1855, with two registers kept: the first retained by local registrars, and the other by the central General Register Office in Edinburgh, now the National Records of Scotland. Historic records older than 50 years are available to view on the government website ScotlandsPeople, with each image costing six credits to view (currently £1.50); indexes for more recent events are available on the site, from which certified copies can be ordered, at £12 per certificate. All records to the present day, bar the most recent year, can be viewed at the ScotlandsPeople Centre in Edinburgh, and at local registrars’ centres across the country.
The 1854 Registration Act stipulated that the nearest relative to the deceased, along with the occupier of the property where the death took place, should report the event to a registrar within eight days; failure to do so incurred a 20s fine. If the occupier was the deceased, an inmate of the house was to assume the role. Deaths were to be recorded in the parish or registration district where the event happened, and not in the home parish of the deceased; if the death was not in the parish of residence then the “usual residence” was recorded in the register alongside the details of where it occurred. Should those tasked with registering the death fail to turn up, the registrar could compel them to appear within 14 days, upon pain of a 40s fine. However, in most cases, deaths were actually recorded within three days by the turn of the 20th century, mainly because a certificate was required to claim life-assurance policies, and to arrange a burial.
In cases of a suspicious death, or one with no apparent cause, the procurator fiscal (public prosecutor) was called in. Upon an investigation’s conclusion, the findings were to be reported to the registrar of the parish or district where the death occurred, and entered into the register – either by the fiscal directly, or by the original informant registering the result, with the fiscal’s conclusions then noted within the Register of Corrected Entries (RCE). Such registrations are noted in the left index of the death entry, and the accompanying RCE record is free to view on ScotlandsPeople, via a link at the top of the death record’s viewing page.
A doctor was required to provide a medical certificate to the registrar for every death, citing the causes and duration suffered. Initially they had 14 days to do so, upon a £2 fine, but this was relaxed from 1860, when they only became liable to prosecution if they failed to send a medical certificate upon request. The period to do this was also reduced from 14 days to seven. Medical certificates remained in the registrar’s custody for five years, after which they could be destroyed.
Once a death had been registered, the registrar was obliged to give a certificate to the informant, to be supplied to the undertaker, who in turn had to forward the document to the relevant burial or cremation authorities. Failure to do so incurred a £10 fine.
Death records include the name of the deceased; their occupation, age and sex; marital status; the date, time and place of death; the names of current and previous spouses; the names of the deceased’s parents, including the mother’s maiden name and any previous married names (and whether both were alive or deceased); the father’s occupation; the cause of death and length of illness, whether certified and by whom; the name of the informant (and whether present at the death); and the date and place of registration. If smallpox was the cause of death, the patient’s condition as to vaccination was included. In 1855 only, the registrar also noted the names of any children born to the deceased, their ages, and date of death if they were deceased before that year. Between 1855 and 1860 the place of the deceased’s burial was recorded too, along with the name of the undertaker; but from 1856 until 1860 the names of any spouses were not recorded. From 1967, the deceased’s date of birth has been recorded as well.
