** Regarding date, time and place of death, probably most people died at home, or at a relative's house. With few antiseptics, a broken leg or similar problem could be fatal through infection getting into an open wound.

Again, many older people died not from their initial medical
problem, but from pneumonia - which my doctor father-in-law called "the old man's friend", as it was a relatively painless death.

Dying in a hospital was not common - partly because in the 19th centurymost of the population regarded going into hospital as a death sentence!

The doctor was usually called during daytime, simply to certify death and thus allow a relative to go to the registrar. The doctor was probably not present at the death, but the death certificate informant probably was (and the certificate would say: (present))

Cause of death in the early years of registration was not structured by the registrar general, and so you find causes such as "infirmities of infancy", "Infirmities of old age" and similar bland wordings which do not state a real medical cause of death. By the early 20th century, the Registration system started demanding formal medical causes of death, and things improved.

Now online at a new PRO website http://www.ancestorsonboard.com/
is an index to passengers on long distance vessels sailing from the UK, from the file BT27:UK Outbound Passenger Lists. This is the first decade only, and more will become available as time goes on.

If you are a US citizen and you discuss genealogy with a Brit, be VERY careful how you use dates in describing ancestral data. If you say an event happened 12-6-1872, you will mean it happened on 6th December 1872, but the Brit will read it as having occurred on 12th June 1872! When I raised the point, I advised using three letters for the month to avoid confusion, preferably in the middle.

I raised it in one of the genealogy newsgroups, and it was well received, but brought up other points from colleagues. One is that Canada and South Africa, at a minimum, have adopted the SI standard of Year-Month-day for official usage, and in South Africa it is mandatory. The Mormons (the LDS), who through their pursuit of ancestors have established certain standards - such as Gedcom - which have been accepted by everyone else, seem to have settled on day of month in numerals/month in 3 letters/ year in numerals, and this is what I use in my own records and software. I am still not sure how this website will end up, as it is dependent on existing US software - Plone. We are looking at the situation.

The number of genealogy software programs have expanded amazingly in number, but all have incorporated in their programming the ability of the user to choose whatever style of date he/she wishes, so we all have the choice available to us. While I would appeal for everyone to use letters for the month, and place it in the middle; and the year in full (as we cover many centuries), you still have the choice of year last or first. Whichever you choose, the date should be clear to everyone and this will eliminate the present confusion that can occur. Have a happy time dating!

Searching for my next genealogical index, I reviewed the many works which need such an asset, and eventually decided that the two small volumes of the Burgh Court Book of Selkirk, covering the years 1503-1545, merited attention. As these had been published 40 years ago by the Scottish Record Society, I contacted the current Secretary of the society, to gain approval by the society for my proposed index. He was delighted and gave me much encouragement.

Now, it is always worthwhile to have a quick look through the volume you are about to index, and look for possible difficulties or oddities about the work. I discovered that in 1513 there was a list of 160 names constituting the community of Selkirk, and from various indicators (e.g. all males) I decided this was a list of householders in the burgh. There were other later lists (1521,523, 1526) which were clearly stent (local tax) rolls, with amounts attached to each name.
Such lists are among the earliest ever found in UK records, so worth noting. Once I have completed the indexing, I shall need to put together an article about these early lists. The names, for example, are clearly written as sounded by the person saying his name, so that forenames vary considerably - woll/wolle it seems are meant to be Will or Willie, the diminutive of William. Latin is used intermittently, and here can be found with Broad Scots all in one paragraph where the author suddenly switches from Latin to Scots and back again!

Occupations and relationships appear quite often in the text, so that it should be much easier to identify persons, but there is a tendency to fail to mrecord the female spouse's maiden surname ("John Smyth's spouse Bessie"), or even worse, "Bessie Smyth, spouse of John Smyth", as her maiden surname is probably not Smyth. Other instances make clear the maiden surnames of married women, but this inconsistency is annoying, and can be awkward to index effectively. Some names are still in the process of becoming surnames, such as "Stephen of Lawder" sometimes also called "Stephen Lawder". Many instances occur of names appearing in their Latin form, and in such cases I have decided that these should be indexed like seperate names, so that anyone interested in the development of names in Scotland can note such variations.

Other interesting points are the sasines which are recorded, giving details of local pieces of land changing hands. There are many of these, or court cases where there is dispute about land, crops, or possessions, usually with values attached. Inflation is a standard effect today, but back 500 years ago there was little change in prices and valuation of property. I now realise I am getting into what should properly be in an article for publication in a journal, so I shall leave off at this point. Look for the new index in a couple of months!