How do I find out whether someone is still living or has died?

[AFrustratingSituation]

What is the quickest, cheapest, easiest and most straightforward way of checking whether someone is still living or has died?

Thank you.

I’ve tried to do this,not proving easy. Life long friend of my mums, literally since about 4 , mum died 3 years ago and we know her friend was in a nursing home but don’t know which one,phone numbers mum had for her family don’t work, we just want to know if she is still alive.

Somerset House hasn’t held records for decades. It’s GRO now.

How has the UK not got an equivalent of rip.ie

Someone is missing a business trick surely? Or is it just an Irish thing to need to know about every person that has died recently in the county?

Oh, I think it's very much an Irish thing. The North of Ireland has the 'Funeral Times' website but it doesn't have the pages of commiserations from loads of people.

But it's the doctor who puts the name on the certificate, when they're recording cause of death - and they'll have that accurately from the medical records. The person registering the death just gives deceased's place of birth and their own name and their relationship to the deceased.

Not everyone is registered with the NHS and there are people who don't want to have their data on record...

I once knew someone who wanted to know if someone she hadn't seen in years was still alive - without knowing his DOB, names of relatives, whether he had a middle name etc - because she wanted to know if it was too late to report him for molesting her in childhood. We don't know what's going on here.

Yes they do, ancestry has an index of deaths up to 2025.

Ok thanks. Good to know!

Poke them with a stick