Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk) has a useful collection on its site called the Scotland and Northern Ireland, Death Index, 1989-2021 (https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/60631/), which can help with recent deaths in both countries, carrying basic information on about half of all deaths in this period (I believe drawn from insurance claims data).
However, this week I noticed a problem with this collection. I searched for my father's death entry in 2021, and this was what I was presented with:
According to Ancestry's database, my father was born on 10 May 1945, and died 2 Jun 2021. In fact, he was born on 5 Oct 1945 and died 6 Feb 2021.
So what has happened? Ancestry has made a fairly ridiculous rookie mistake here with UK dates, which differ from how US dates are recorded. My father was born on 5/10/1945, not 10/5/1945 - and died on 6/2/2021 not 2/6/2021.
If you have used this databse, best to check that the same has not happened at your end - and if you have previously looked for someone and found a person with the same name but the wrong date, perhaps try again.
As with any data source, remember that just because something is in print does not necessarily make it accurate!
Chris
Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For the USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.
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