RootsChat.Com

General => The Common Room => Topic started by: Paulo Leeds on Monday 05 February 18 19:41 GMT (UK)

Title: Funeral and Burial records? do they exist?
Post by: Paulo Leeds on Monday 05 February 18 19:41 GMT (UK)
if so, how hard are they to firstly trace, and secondly get hold of please?
Title: Re: Funeral and Burial records? do they exist?
Post by: panda40 on Monday 05 February 18 20:30 GMT (UK)
Hi Paulo
To help people out with your question what country/ county are you looking for information. What time frame are you looking for?
Regards panda
Title: Re: Funeral and Burial records? do they exist?
Post by: macwil on Monday 05 February 18 20:35 GMT (UK)
Burial records certainly do exist, in fact before 1837 in England & Wales, 1855 in Scotland and 1864 in Ireland, the Parish Burial Records were often the only noting of a person's demise.
How easy they are to trace and find is more problematic. It will depend upon when, where and who has them.
Gives us Names, Dates and possible Locations and we may be able to give you possible sources to pursue.
Funeral details will be much harder to find, it will depend on individual firms policies regarding their old records.
Title: Re: Funeral and Burial records? do they exist?
Post by: Paulo Leeds on Monday 05 February 18 22:11 GMT (UK)
Burial records certainly do exist, in fact before 1837 in England & Wales, 1855 in Scotland and 1864 in Ireland, the Parish Burial Records were often the only noting of a person's demise.
How easy they are to trace and find is more problematic. It will depend upon when, where and who has them.
Gives us Names, Dates and possible Locations and we may be able to give you possible sources to pursue.
Funeral details will be much harder to find, it will depend on individual firms policies regarding their old records.

ok thankyou.

well I wouldn't mind some help with the following:

Frances Gertrude Relton (1881-1932)

Frances A Relton (nee McNally) (1851-1926)

James Relton (1847-1891)

Polly Coleman (nee Roberts) (1878-1966)

William Fenton Beevers (1862-1904)

tia
Title: Re: Funeral and Burial records? do they exist?
Post by: macwil on Monday 05 February 18 22:38 GMT (UK)
All those people can be found on https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl

I can't find a Death for Polly Coleman, the others were all registered in Leeds.
I'm not familiar with Leeds' Parishes so someone more familiar with the area will have to supply further help.
Title: Re: Funeral and Burial records? do they exist?
Post by: Paulo Leeds on Monday 05 February 18 22:40 GMT (UK)
All those people can be found on https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl

I can't find a Death for Polly Coleman, the others were all registered in Leeds.
I'm not familiar with Leeds' Parishes so someone more familiar with the area will have to supply further help.

I was hoping for burial records though
Title: Re: Funeral and Burial records? do they exist?
Post by: KGarrad on Monday 05 February 18 22:44 GMT (UK)
Death registrations, from FreeBMD:

Relton, Frances  December qtr 1932    Leeds, North
Relton, Frances A  June qtr 1926    Leeds
Relton, James George   March qtr 1891    Leeds
Beevers, William Fenton    March qtr 1904     Leeds

There are 12 cemeteries listed on the GenUKI site for Leeds.
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/WRY/Leeds

Also listed on that web page are:
Burials for St Peter's Leeds
Burials for Hunslet
Burials for Headingley
Burials for St John's, Leeds
Burials for St Paul's, Leeds

Plus details of the whereabouts of other parish registers.
Title: Re: Funeral and Burial records? do they exist?
Post by: macwil on Monday 05 February 18 22:49 GMT (UK)
I realise that Paulo, but one needs to know which Parish they died/lived in to have some idea where they may be buried. Looking at the dates I suspect they were interred in the municipal cemetery. Those records are probably still with the council cemetery dept.

Ah I see KGARRAD has already answered.
Title: Re: Funeral and Burial records? do they exist?
Post by: KGarrad on Monday 05 February 18 22:57 GMT (UK)
There is information on Leeds City Council website:
https://www.leeds.gov.uk/residents/births-deaths-and-marriages/death/bereavement-services/find-cemeteries-and-crematoria

Where it says:
Searching for burial records

In order for us to check the records we will need the following:

    Name of the deceased
    Their date of death
    The cemetery or crematorium where the funeral took place

Please contact us to make your request. We will check the records and if the information is correct we will let you know the grave number and section or where in the grounds the cremated remains were strewn.

Please note there are no computerised records prior to June 1987 and many records are not indexed.
Title: Re: Funeral and Burial records? do they exist?
Post by: KGarrad on Monday 05 February 18 23:01 GMT (UK)
You might want to explore this site?
https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/Leeds%20General%20Cemetery%20Burial%20Registers%20Index

I found the 1926 and 1932 Frances ;D

Frances Relton widow d 13/04/1926 age 75
Parents: James & Mary McMalley
James was an Army Instructor

Frances Relton spinster d of heart failure 11/11/1932 age 51
Mother: Frances Relton

And James:

James  Relton Brushmaker d 24/03/1891 age 44

And William Beevers:

William Beevers Cloth Finisher d 13/01/1904 age 41 of Phthisis
Parents: William & Mary Beevers
William snr was also a Cloth Finisher
Title: Re: Funeral and Burial records? do they exist?
Post by: arthurk on Tuesday 06 February 18 11:43 GMT (UK)
well I wouldn't mind some help with the following:

Frances Gertrude Relton (1881-1932)

Frances A Relton (nee McNally) (1851-1926)

James Relton (1847-1891)

Polly Coleman (nee Roberts) (1878-1966)

William Fenton Beevers (1862-1904)

tia


I found all the above except Polly Coleman in a quick search in the transcripts on the Yorkshire Indexers website. (Polly might also be found with a bit more digging, though it's possibly after their cut-off date.)

The Reltons you mention were in two separate graves, and both of these appear to have other family members buried there whom you haven't mentioned. As well as what KGarrad has provided, the transcripts typically give the deceased's address, and sometimes a birthplace - one of yours was far from Yorkshire....

The records at Yorkshire Indexers are available on payment of a small subscription, and if you have Leeds interests it's probably well worth considering. The home page is http://www.yorkshireindexers.info/forum/content.php?1-home&tabid=59
Title: Re: Funeral and Burial records? do they exist?
Post by: Paulo Leeds on Tuesday 06 February 18 13:03 GMT (UK)
thankyou guys

as you say, it seems 4 of them were buried in the Leeds General Cemetery in Woodhouse - a place where seemingly 93,569 interments took place. It was then landscaped in the late 60's but "no exhumations took place"  :o

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodhouse_Cemetery

so are we to assume we would be walking over nearly 100,000 coffins if we were to visit? not sure how they would all fit!!
Title: Re: Funeral and Burial records? do they exist?
Post by: KGarrad on Tuesday 06 February 18 14:36 GMT (UK)
It wasn't uncommon to find 4 coffins in a grave! ;D

My grandparents are both buried in the same grave as my grandmother's parents.

Common graves might hold many nore.
Title: Re: Funeral and Burial records? do they exist?
Post by: Paulo Leeds on Tuesday 06 February 18 14:47 GMT (UK)
It wasn't uncommon to find 4 coffins in a grave! ;D

My grandparents are both buried in the same grave as my grandmother's parents.

Common graves might hold many nore.

on that subject, it seems one grave plot contained 169!

https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/Leeds%20General%20Cemetery%20Burial%20Registers%20Index

how is that even possible!?
Title: Re: Funeral and Burial records? do they exist?
Post by: KGarrad on Tuesday 06 February 18 15:31 GMT (UK)
Mass graves ;D

My local churchyard has 2 such graves:
1. the result of a shipwreck.
2. Victims of a Cholera outbreak.
Title: Re: Funeral and Burial records? do they exist?
Post by: dawnsh on Tuesday 06 February 18 15:39 GMT (UK)
They will all be in a common grave with the same plot number, possibly 12 ft deep

Or in the case of Kensal Green, a plot is reputed to be on quicksand and never fills up.

Title: Re: Funeral and Burial records? do they exist?
Post by: Paulo Leeds on Tuesday 06 February 18 16:47 GMT (UK)
They will all be in a common grave with the same plot number, possibly 12 ft deep

Or in the case of Kensal Green, a plot is reputed to be on quicksand and never fills up.

you can fit 169 coffins in one grave plot!? even at 12 foot depth?

Another ancestor (Cornelia Garforth) is buried here:

https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/Leeds%20General%20Cemetery%20Burial%20Registers%20Index?archiveLocationOfOriginals=%2210358%22

it seems In the plot (10358) some were buried 1850 and 1887, more in 1915, and more in 1935 so not the results of a shipwreck or common disease.
Title: Re: Funeral and Burial records? do they exist?
Post by: dawnsh on Tuesday 06 February 18 17:42 GMT (UK)
At Wandsworth cemetery, they have what is known as the mound.

Basically, the cemetery ran out of space and just dumped a lot of earth on top of the common graves underneath to gives themselves more room.

If you have access to google maps have a look here

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Kensal+Green+Cemetery,+Harrow+Rd,+London+NW10+5NU/@51.5288434,-0.2302583,292m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x4876103c62e355d9:0x81d0932cf9c04422!8m2!3d51.5299835!4d-0.2280666?hl=en

There is a large section without headstones, most probably an area for "common graves". If you gently zoom in you can see the outlines of the graves, but it is most probably "one plot" or section.

The lack of headstones in this one area is quite noticeable.
Title: Re: Funeral and Burial records? do they exist?
Post by: Jon_ni on Wednesday 07 February 18 01:42 GMT (UK)
Paulio what makes you think that the 169 people were all contained in coffins? People buried in public ground may well have died in the Workhouse but one can certainly assume had little money.
Title: Re: Funeral and Burial records? do they exist?
Post by: Maiden Stone on Wednesday 07 February 18 19:59 GMT (UK)
Stillborn and new-born, unbaptised babies will be in some common graves. Some of these babies were placed in a coffin of another corpse, especially if parents were poor. A large proportion of burials in 19th century were of children, particularly in graveyards in industrial towns. There was a very high death rate among children under 5 resident in such places. A perilous time for a baby was when it was weaned. None of them would have taken up much space in the ground.