Death Certificates

Submitted by seemex on Wed, 11/30/2016 - 14:46

I'm going to try to get a death certficate for my great grandmother and I'm wondering if anyone might have one from the late 1930s Hong Kong. I was thinking that maybe it might give information on her family...her parents...etc. It's a real long shot, but she did die in Hong Kong and is buried there so there must be a paper trail. I have the dates and details as her death was in the local newspaper there.

I'd just like to see what other information might be on the certificate. I'd really lik to find her parents names. If anyome has a certificate from around that time, I'd love to hear from you.

Thanks, Brian Beesley

Re: Death Certificate\registration

Hi There,

I think the first thing you should try is the Government.

If no new information then no

If no new information then no rush. Not all certificates have parents shown. That's why I'm looking for a sample.

Information given on death certificates

I think the information given on death certificates is much the same whatever the decade. Parents' names are only given on birth certificates. You will get the date of death; address of death; cause of death; and the signature of the person who registered the death (not necessarily a relative). There are at least a couple of images of death certificates from earlier decades on Gwulo. For parents' names your best bet is to apply to the Immigration Office for the relevant birth certificates. If you don't know the exact date of birth you can apply for a General Search, although that takes time. I've had success with a General Search as far back as 1880, without knowing the name of the mother of my relative, nor the date of birth, but I did at least know the father.

Jill

I thought maybe Hong Kong

I thought maybe Hong Kong being a British Colony would use similar to what I have for there relatives.I have British, Canadian, and US death certificates and all have a space for both the father's name and mother's maiden name. Are you sure Hong Kong does not use a similar format? My grandfather was born in Hong Kong in 1877 and had no birth certificate but the name of his father was on his marriage and the names of both parents was on his death certificate but he died in Canada. His father died in England and both parents names are on that death certificate. His mother died in Hong Kong and that's the one we have little info, other than her date birth 1854 and death 1937. If Hong Kong birth certificate for sure do not have parents names, then there is no need to look further. That is why I'd like to see a sample of one. There are no birth certificates, and in fact, we are not sure where she was born. She was Eurasian and had died and is buried with a British name, but went by a Chinese name on other documents such as land titles. I'll go back through Gwulo. I did a search under death certificates and didn't see any. Maybe I missed them.

Thanks for the tip

Images of death certificates on Gwulo

You'll find images of Hong Kong death certificates under the titles "Wanchai Road numbers 1" and "Wanchai Road numbers 2", posted by Sean. I'm not sure why the gwulo.com/node numbers aren't coming up so that I could give you the link for those. I think it would be worth putting in a "Particular Search" for your great-grandmother's birth certificate under her Chinese name, as you have a definite year of birth. You can always give her English name in the section for an "alias". A Particular Search is a lot less expensive than a General Search and you never know what may result. It doesn't matter that you don't know the place of birth. You can give the known details about her death in the section for additional information.

Jill