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Position:Home>Genealogy> If on a death certificate it says 'of no fixed place of abode' does this


Question:As in on the streets?
Or could it mean that he just lodged with people?
What is more likely for a 70 year old working class Labourer in 1943 in Leeds, W. Yorkshire with no wife or children? I think he had 2 or 3 younger sisters in the city unless they had died.
Am I likely to find any records of him (hostel records or police records etc.) ?


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: As in on the streets?
Or could it mean that he just lodged with people?
What is more likely for a 70 year old working class Labourer in 1943 in Leeds, W. Yorkshire with no wife or children? I think he had 2 or 3 younger sisters in the city unless they had died.
Am I likely to find any records of him (hostel records or police records etc.) ?

Having "no fixed abode" means that he was probably living rough or sleeping in a "night shelter" for men, even if he was only lodging with someone that would be classed as a regular address.
Are you sure beyond all doubt that you have the right person, I have just gone through the indice for deaths in 1943 in the UK and I found TWO, John Callaghan as having died in Leeds, one was 70 yrs old the other 73yrs old so they weren't that far apart in age.
The only way you can check whether he was registered as living in an hostel is if you go to the archives library and check the electoral registers there, but you would need to know the district he lived in for the year you want to look up.
You say he was buried in a communal grave, do you mean a "common" grave. This was in effect a paupers grave, it meant that the relatives or friends that made the funeral arrangement couldn't afford to buy the plot from the council. They were normally buried four to a grave, and it meant that you can never put any sort of memorial or marker on the grave. These graves were by no means an indication that the person was homeless, I know this for certain as two of my gr/gr/gr grandparents, are buried in these kind of graves. My gran who is buried in one of these graves lived at her last address for 32 years, she just didn't have any money to pay for her own funeral. My grandad also lived at his address for 11 years, so these graves do not mean they are homeless. With my grandad he had become estranged from the family and no one wanted the responsibility of arranging his funeral.
If you need any help looking stuff up I am quite happy to help you out. I don't know if you have access to ancestry.co.uk and are able to look the details up for the other John Callaghan, but if you need any help at all there are some excellent researchers who frequent this forum.

Do you mean your uncle had a "Post mortem" examination, if it took place two days after he died then the chances are you mean a PM or an autopsy as its sometimes called. This type of examination takes place in the case of a "sudden" death if he fell in the street then that would almost certainly be classed as a sudden death. If this is the case where a post mortem was performed, then those details will be included on the death certificate.
postmortem examination / autopsy
A surgical procedure, postmortem, which involves the examination of body tissues, often to determine cause of death.
This used to be performed when the person hasn't been seen by a Doctor in the 14 days prior to their death, and is performed very soon after death, and the results made known for the issuing of the death certificate and to find out if there will need to be an inquest.
if this is the procedure that was followed for your uncle, this would follow a Post Mortem examination, then after looking at all the facts, whether there were police involved whether, foul play was maybe a factor in the death, or an accident, there are lots of reasons why there would be an inquest, but there would be a couple of months lapsed in order to gather the facts and to notify witness'. This has ALWAYS been held in a court room. If there was an inquest the death would not have been entered in the J/F/M quarter. The death is actually registered by the Coroner's office, so if the inquest was say on 27th August then that is when it will appear in the index.
Inquest.
An official investigation or inquiry into the cause of a death, and usually held before a jury.

Homeless

It could mean he died alone without anyone knowing where he was from.

Homeless or he was staying in a hostel of some sort.

It could mean he travelled long distances and didnt reallly live in one place 4 too long

It can as easily mean that he lived with different people. It sounds like a general term. It could also mean that he stayed in inns.

could have been staying with someone, a friend maybe.

You may find records on this person-but no fixed place of abode is the polite way of saying without a known home=HOMELESS. I imagine this is what my brothers Obit will look like, too.

Check out Vital Statistics on the web, maybe it just means he wasn't living in any particular place at the time of his death. Kinda weird that it would say that though.Have you contacted the family?

Could mean he was homeless or that he moved around and perhaps lodged where the work was. Theres an advert in this weeks sat express tv mag for a free 14 day trial of ancestry.co.uk you might find useful. Ring 08003457910 and you'll get an access code and login details.

No it could mean he had a long stay in hospital and his house was given up, or due to an infirmity like dementia he could not return to his home etc etc.
1943 records can be difficult to get hold of.
If you give me the name and date of birth I will have a dig for you

it just means that maybe they wern't sure where they lived, or the man could have stated that thats what he wanted!!!!!!!! It might apply to people in nursing homes or people that died in the hospital and no one knew where they were from?????

Homeless

Homless, no fixed abode, as in he slept on people sofa`s, lodging houses and so forth

An "abode" legally indicates where one regularly sleeps at night. If the individual was a lodger, that address would be given on his death certificate. If he had lived with one of his sisters, that address would also be listed instead of "no fixed place of abode". Accordingly, you might also check to see if he was buried in a pauper's cemetery (which is usually maintained by a county or city for those who can't afford to pay for their own burial).

Have you checked the local Newspaper archives for the Inquest report? Probably have them at Leeds library - should you not live in the area, I've found that the Reference Librarians all over the Country are absolute "gems".
There may be more information on there.
I found out a lot about one of my Gt. grandfathers - "he had the appearance of a man who had accustomed himself to alcohol" (!!!) for one, from the newspaper report.
I discovered the address of his brother in law from Devon, and that his wife was a hospital nurse, plus the name of the pub where Gt. Gramps was the Licensee.

You have a number of facts here... his advanced age suggests that he would no longer be working. He was buried in a pauper/ communal grave, meaning he (or family) had no funds to pay for a grave. I would put those together with the "no fixed place of abode" to support that he had no home. If he was a lodger with someone, that would be a regular address, even if he did not own the home.
Inquest records may very well exist. My grandfather died in 1910, and I see his inquest still indexed online.. so those are out there. Justme might be able to identify the local name for the right agency to have those records.

A Wandering Minstrel, A Gypsy, A travel addict, A Nomad.
could even have been an Adventurer. A Circus Performer.