I have just purchased my 2g grandmother's death certificate, which states that cause of death is "Unknown". She died in Berrow on 18th November 1877 and the informant was James Amesbury who was present at the death. Under "Occupation" it says "Wife of Charles Clapp, labourer"
In the 1871 census Mary Ann Clapp (Nee Coles) is shown as a widow and housekeeper to James Amesbury, a fisherman. This had misled me for a while into thinking that her husband, Charles Clapp, who had also been a fisherman, had died in 1866, but further evidence has since proved that he did not die until 1885.
I can't believe in a small place like Berrow she could have passed herself off as a widow, with her husband living in the same area, so I suppose it was just a mistake on the census. By 1871 Charles Clapp had ceased to be a fisherman and had become an agricultural labourer, and was living in lodgings, so perhaps they had just fallen on hard times and she had taken the housekeeping job for financial reasons. By then their son Albert had become a fisherman and he was the informant on his father's death certificate.
I have bought a few death certificates over the years, but this is the first one to say that cause of death is unknown. Is it worth looking for further information in the newspapers, or have I reached a dead end in my research?
| 
login
print
