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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => London and Middlesex => Topic started by: mjk28 on Tuesday 11 October 11 22:58 BST (UK)
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I am trying to find out where my great grandfather FRANCIS HOWARD was buried. I have a copy of his death certificate, which shows that he drowned in the Surrey Canal Rotherhithe. He was found on 16/03/1868 and the inquest was three days later on 19/03/1868. He was 31 yrs old.
I would like to know whether he was buried in Surrey or if he was brought back to Suffolk.
Any help on how to find out where someone is buried would be appreciated. Thanks.
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Hi mjk28
Welcome to Rootschat ;D
Finding a place of burial in and around London can be a very time consuming exercise.
If you think he may have been buried around Rotherhite, you'll need to contact Southwark council. There are more details here
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,403485.msg3932074.html#msg3932074
Southwark's bereavement services charge for look-ups if yu are unable to get to Camberwell New Cemetery & Honor Oak.
http://www.southwark.gov.uk/info/200330/family_history_research/2074/family_history_resources
If you think he may have been buried in Suffolk, I would check the burial registers for the parish he should have been buried in.
You may want to have a look at our Suffolk pages or post a look-up request there
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/board,35.0.html
Dawn
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It is always worth searching in findagrave - http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi
Didn't find him though
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Hi
The links are given in the guide to London burials on the Rootschat board (link given by Dawn) links to Greater London entries from this website - 826 entries of churchyards and cemeteries though numbers of actual graves listed in any may be very small or more considerable though bear in mind many many thousands or more are buried in each of the many large London cemeteries - the link is given to the list on the website in the guide and below
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=csr&CScn=&CScntry=5&CSst=4220
and Surrey entries which would mostly be the modern day county of Surrey not those areas absorbed by London such as Southwark
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=csr&CScn=&CScntry=5&CSst=4243
242 entries
as well as links to Kent and Essex entries which might also covered some churchyards or cemeteries in areas of those counties now part of London.
Hopefully the guide does have all such possible links to the various websites but please point out any that may be missing so they can be added.
Regards
Valda
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Dear All,
Thank your for your help so far.
I'M searching this for my mum and he was her great grandfather. She decided to purchase the National Burial Index 3rd edition, which arrived today. I have done a search and nothing has come up for that date or around that date at all.
Can anyone explain why? or have any ideas what to do next?
Thank you,
Meryl
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Can anyone explain why?
The NBI has very patchy information within it. Some counties have lots of information, whilst others have very little.
I have the NBI Second Edition, and Suffolk has 836,000 entries, whilst Surrey has 370,000. Not exactly a huge percentage of the population, is it ? :)
Could be worse, though, Devon only has 4000 ! ::)
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Hi
Sorry to be repetitive but again the burial guide mentioned in the previous posts specifically states the NBI has relatively poor coverage of the London area and gives a link to the website which details how many thousands of burials each county has and then lists churchyards and numbers of burials in each that are covered by the NBI. It also lists the much much more limited coverage the NBI has of cemetery burials which again for the London area, considering there are roughly around 150 civic cemeteries probably constitutes a word like negible to describe the coverage. Put simply Family History Society members have largely been the volunteers for this indexing of burials and they started with church registers. The London area family history societies have huge numbers of parish registers with vast numbers of burials in and have collectively not made such a great impact or perhaps not been part of the NBI as for instance has not been the Devon FHS or the Hampshire FHS who have their own burial indexes hence why numbers are low on the NBI for those counties, though you can request searches of the Devon burial index and purchase the Hampshire burial index so there is much better (excellent in the case of Hampshire) coverage of these counties than just looking at NBI would lead you to believe.
Regards
Valda
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Hi
In answer to what to do next, follow the advice given in Dawn's posting. She has given you very good advice. If there was an easier way to do it, like purchasing the NBI that advice would have already been given to you. It just isn't that simple. Trust what Dawn has said and start by contacting Southwark cemetery office. They manage the nearest cemeteries. Expect a charge for them searching their cemetery registers.
Regards
Valda
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Yes trying to find a burial in London is very time consuming. I found out some when Ancestry released a lot of the LMA records but there are still many to be found.
The date of death is the best thing to go on first.
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Thank you for all of your comments and help so far.
I have contacted Southwark Cemetary and they charge £17 per request. Therefore, I think that is the next step. I have to put everything in writing and it can take approximately 4-6 weeks to get a response.
I'll post the outcome in due course.
Thanks again.
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I don't want to rain on your parade, but don't get your hopes up too high :)
Even if the records show that your ancestors were buried in a particular churchyard or cemetary, there's no guarantee that you'll find a marker for the grave.
There's lots of pitfalls.....
- Your ancestors might not have been able to afford a stone. Sometimes (especially in the country areas) people opted for simple wooden crosses with brass plaques, and these didn't survive much more than 70 years.
- Your ancestors may have had a gravestone, but stones over 100 years old may not be readable, especially in London, where pollution was a lot higher.
- Your ancestors may be buried in a communal grave, which may or may not contain the remains of other family members. You will at least know where their resting place is, even though there probably won't be a stone with their name on it.
But there can be positive things, too. Recently I was able to track down where by g.g. grandparents were buried, and the church archivist showed me the area where the gravestones were (the burials were in the 1860's). Unfortunately, the stones had been demolished in one of the storms that we had in the 1990's, when a tree fell on them. However, the archivist also told me that one of their grand-children was also buried in their grave at the age of 4 (although they never knew her), so at least we knew the resting place of the poor mite. The archivist also gave me details of who was buried in the same plot as some other of my ancestors, which has helped me piece together the relationships of other people in the area with the same surname.
I hope it all works out well for you :)
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You could also check out papers to see if it got a mention - or there maybe an obituary that mentions the funeral?