Family Historian User Group

I wonder if anyone can help, I have been trying to find the coroners report on an inquest carried out in 1909 on my g grandmother Elizabeth Wallin (nee Thompson) her death cert. states she was run over by a motor cart in Chigwell Row,Essex. but I don't know how to find the report. any help appreciated[wink]

ID:2560

I don't know where to get the report but it may have been in the local paper. They often quote entire paragraphs.

Irene B

I think coroner's reports would be most likely to be in the County Record Office or at the National Archives although I believe many have been destroyed over the years. There is a book 'Coroners' Records in England and Wales'. I have no idea how useful it would be but it is on Genfair for £1.00

The book that Nick refers to should list, nationally and county by county, what records survive (few do). However, I've just checked and it is out of stock at present.

Contemporary reports in local papers are probably your best bet.

Nick Walker said:
I think coroner's reports would be most likely to be in the County Record Office or at the National Archives although I believe many have been destroyed over the years. There is a book 'Coroners' Records in England and Wales'. I have no idea how useful it would be but it is on Genfair for £1.00

The book is one of the 'Gibson guides' published by the FFHS -- here's the full citation (found in the bibliography in Mark Herber's Ancestral Trails):

Gibson, J. and Rogers, C. Coroners' Records in England and Wales, FFHS, 2nd ed. amended reprint (2000)

FFHS = Federation of Family History Societies

Herber discusses the problem of records being destroyed, etc. He says (agreeing with Nick) that surviving records can be at TNA or CROs. Most of his (brief) discussion talks about records before the 20th century.

I may have read recently that the FFHS is getting out of the business of selling publications, but I don't remember if they are simply selling off their remaining stock or turning it over to someone else to liquidate.

As well as the usual genealogical vendors, try the ordinary book channels like Advanced Book Exchange (ABE) since general booksellers sometimes get genealogical materials as part of collections. Most buyers who are in the hobby will naturally turn to known vendors of genealogical materials first, thus depleting their stock -- and don't think to search the listing for less specialized dealers.

Edited to add: a good general book search engine (which includes listings from ABE) is http://www.bookfinder.com.

Jan

You may find many of these guides in larger local libraries too if they have a local history or family history area.

jmurphy said:

I may have read recently that the FFHS is getting out of the business of selling publications, but I don't remember if they are simply selling off their remaining stock or turning it over to someone else to liquidate.  

Here's the article I was thinking of -- I saw a notice on Dick Eastman's blog:

http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_ge ... scont.html

in part the FFHS announcement says:

We have therefore announced a major sale to the general public. Discounts of up to 75% off the recommended retail price can be found on the Federation stall on Genfair at http://www.genfair.com/shop/pages/fed/index.html. Some titles are already selling out, so visit the site as soon as possible.

So as Nick says, try the library!  That's why I posted the full citation from Herber, to make it easier to look up.

Good luck!

Jan

This book has now turned up as a new 'database' on the website World Vital Records, which has a relationship with Genealogical.com:

Coroners' Records in England and Wales: Second Edition. Jeremy Gibson and Colin Rogers. (1997)

Since 1194 it has been the duty of coroners to investigate the circumstances of unnatural, sudden, or suspicious deaths, and of deaths in prison. Their records are extensive, and, until now, notoriously difficult to track down. This little guidebook is actually the first effort ever made to itemize all coroners' records in England and Wales now in public repositories, and it has made a relatively impossible task relatively simple. Within each county, listed in order of their pre-1974 boundary changes, the records are arranged in three groups: Medieval (generally pre-sixteenth century), Sixteenth to Nineteenth Centuries, and Modern (generally twentieth century). Within these groups the records are listed by repository. All details were either supplied by archivists or extracted from various manuscript or published calendars. Also included in the work is a glossary of terms and a bibliography.

All the record sets at WVR are free for the first 10 days.

Search form is here:
http://www.worldvitalrecords.com/indexi ... 0806315628

Their list of 'databases' says it is free for 8 more days.

Jan

I needed to find a coroner's report for an accident in 1926. I phoned the records office in Carlisle, and they were very helpful. The coroner's report no longer existed, but the coroner's expenses book was deposited in the archives, and contained some details. However, the newspaper reports were absolutely fabulous. There were accounts of the accident with photos, and accounts of the inquest, which was held in two parts.

I would recommend that anyone searching for details of an accident or inquest considers going straight to the local records office to ask what they might hold about that particular incident.

Pauline