Online Obituaries & Death Notices in the UK (2024)

FAQs

Can you find out how someone died in the UK? ›

How to find out how someone died for free. To learn about the cause of death for free, obtain a copy of the death certificate, an official public record. Applications for death certificates can be made on the GOV.UK website, with a cost of £11 and expedited options available.

Most commonly you can find death notices (or obituaries) in UK newspapers, both printed copies and online. Local newspapers will often contain notices for those who've passed away in the local area but national newspapers, such as The Times and The Telegraph, also run obituaries.

A death announcement (or death notice) will provide information such as when and where the person died and often also includes funeral details. Death announcements will commonly be posted: In a local newspaper (physical print)

The historical birth and death index - births over 100 years old and deaths up to 1957 (those records that have been digitised) are available to search free of charge on the GRO website. You can also visit FreeBMD which contains a transcription of the index from 1837 to 1983.

The General Register Office holds records of births, deaths, marriages, civil partnerships, stillbirths and adoptions in England and Wales.

Here are a few examples of an obituary introduction: o 'Dorothy Brown, 80, died peacefully at home on September 15th, surrounded by friends and family. She was born…' o 'It is with great sadness that the family of Dorothy Brown shares the news of her passing on September 15th, at the age of 80.

If the death was unexpected, you should dial 999 and ask for an ambulance and police immediately. You will be told what to do by the operator to establish whether you can try and resuscitate the person. The paramedics will carry out resuscitation or will confirm the death.

Deceased Online is the only national database dedicated to statutory burial and cremation records. Millions of burial and cremation records are available to search for free on www.deceasedonline.com, supplied directly from local authorities and private cemeteries and crematoria from all over the UK.

How long after death can you view a body in the UK? ›

Where a family has chosen to not embalm, any visits to see the deceased would usually take place within a few days. In this case the body is kept in a temperature-controlled environment to slow down the natural changes that happen after death takes place.

It is illegal to linger after a funeral – UK law states

Perhaps the harshest and saddest UK law that states you are not allowed to linger after a funeral. This comes after 2015 when a man stayed an extra 20 minutes at his wife's funeral and was charged a harsh £160 just so gravediggers could continue with their work.

Death records in the UK are public and you can generally find out the details of a deceased person's death and burial online, such as with GOV.UK, publicrecordsearch.co.uk or deceasedonline.com.

It's normal to see, hear or sense someone who has died. While this might be scary and unsettling, it doesn't mean there is anything wrong with you.

If the post-mortem was requested by the coroner, the coroner or coroner's officer will let you know the cause of death determined by the pathologist. If you want a full copy of the pathologist's report, you can request this from the coroner's office, but there may be a fee.

After registering the death, the informant (normally the next of kin) gets a certified copy of the register entry ('death certificate'), which includes an exact copy of the cause of death information that you give. This provides them with an explanation of how and why their patient died.

Under UK legislation, death certificates are designated as 'public records', and as such anyone can request a duplicate certificate to be produced.

If the post mortem shows an unnatural cause of death, or if the cause or death could not be found at this stage, the Coroner will open an investigation or an inquest. This is an inquiry which may be followed by a fact-finding court hearing about the circ*mstances of the death.