By Bill Heaney
Putting together a family tree and tracing your ancestors are popular pastimes and television programmes such as Who Do You Think You are? attract millions of viewers.
Labour MSP Pauline McNeill asked the Scottish Government this week what its position is on whether the current options available to record the relationship status of a deceased person are sufficient for the purposes of this information being accurately represented on death certificates.
The Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs Angela Constance, she of last night’s Question Time on BBC, told her: “The information that is recorded in an entry in the register of deaths is intended to form an accurate and permanent legal record.
Cabinet Secretary for Justice Angela Constance and Pauline McNeill MSP.
“The high-quality records that are produced by registrars form important sources of historical information and allow people who are researching their family past to make clear and accurate links to their ancestors.
“The information that is required is set out in a Scottish statutory instrument that was made by the registrar general and approved by the Scottish ministers. The required relationship information is ‘Marital or civil partnership status’.”
Pauline McNeill, who is herself a lawyer, said this is a complex business.
She added: “Only the wife, husband or relative of a recently deceased person has the legal right to register their death. Partners who are cohabitants, regardless of for how many years, do not have that right.
“They must either own property with the loved one who has died or be present at their death. Cohabiting partners are also not allowed to be recognised on the death certificate.
“However, apparently some registry offices can record the deceased as being survived by their former partner whom they divorced many years ago.
“That is the key point. Does the Scottish Government consider that to be right in such cases or, in fact, accurate, if they have been long divorced?
“Could that happen where there has been an abusive spouse? I just raise that question.
“If the deceased’s status was divorced and they have a surviving partner, perhaps there is no need to record the former relationship. I wonder whether the Scottish Government could raise awareness among cohabiting partners and awareness that registrars should be sensitive to such cases.”
Angela Constance replied: “This is indeed a somewhat complex matter. The Scottish Government has given some consideration to it, because we have had correspondence about it.
“We recognise that many couples today live together in enduring relationships and that that is becoming more common.
“However, there are some complications around allowing a cohabitee or cohabitant to be included in the entry on the death register.
“One example of a complication would be if the registrar was faced with a situation in which the deceased remained legally married or in a civil partnership but was also cohabiting at the time of death: it would not be clear whether the person should be recorded as cohabiting or married.”
So, if you have been invited to take part in Who Do You Think You Are? or you know fine well well who you are and are trying to sort out how you stand legally should your bidey-in pass away then your best bet is unquestionably to consult a good lawyer.
Registrar’s Office is housed within the Municipal Buildings in Dumbarton.