Cemetery, Probate and Coroners Registers
We hold a wide range of cemetery registers for the City of Manchester on microfilm and some are available to search online. A guide to cemetery records is available and an index to most Manchester City Council burial records is available to search online. Free access to full burial details is available at Manchester Central Library.
We also hold a number of probate indexes.
Unfortunately, coroners' records frequently have been destroyed. This is certainly the case with the records of the coroner for the City of Manchester, where the only 19th century records to survive are witnesses' depositions for the dates 22 August 1851 - 24 December 1852 (ref GB127.M381/1/1/1-2). An index is available on the Manchester family history research site.
The Greater Manchester County Record Office also holds some 20th century coroners' records for Manchester, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Salford and Rochdale. Coroners' records are closed for 75 years, and permission to see records less than 75 years old would have to be obtained from the Coroner, and is only given in exceptional circumstances.
In the absence of coroners' records, a report of any inquest conducted by a Coroner might be found in local newspapers. The Manchester Guardian can be searched via the online reference library.
We do hold a scrapbook of newspaper cuttings for the period 1900-1938 (ref GB127.M381/2), mostly concerned with City of Manchester coroners' cases. It is not clear how complete the scrapbook is.