But who owns the stones and memorials that the family of the dead person has purchased for his/her grave.
Could the councils who remove them be "stealing" them?
?
I'm not sure if this is universal, but I enquired about ownership of some of my ancestors' graves in Mitcham Road Cemetery, Croydon.
If the cemetery authorities find they cannot trace the owner of the plot, then they will consider recycling the plot. For example the owner of the plot which holds my great grandparents is my great grandmother (who was buried subsequently with my great grandfather). Similarly my grandparents' plot is owned by my grandfather - my grandmother predeceased him.
There's no way they could trace a living relative from the information held in either of these cases.
Anyone can apply to take ownership of a plot - but you would need to demonstrate that you have a legitimate claim and support from others who might have a similar claim. In the case of Croydon, it is £25 plus the cost of a solicitors' oath, per plot.
JULIAN
Mums just "taken over" the ownership of her parents grave when my Nana died (3 years ago tomorrow
)
We only asked in passing if it was possible while we were arranging some other stuff in the cemetery office, as we didnt know if they had an address since my nana died & she had bought the plot.
It was actually fairly wasy to do, I had the original paperwork for the plot in nanas papers stating she had bought the plot & when, and mum had her death cert as the reason we were in the office had to do with nanas death
The only problem we had was that she had to prove that she was her parents ONLY child & no one else had a claim on the grave .......... lol proving a negative wasnt easy to do, but thankfully I had a paper clipping from mum n dads wedding stating "only daughter of xx & xx" and thankfully they were happy to accept this due to the date on the clipping being "historic" i.e. not a recent clipping (it was from 1964)
They didnt charge for it, and updated the database info then & there while we were in the office - and I was glad they did, cos the address they had on the database was the address my grandad lived at when he died in 1977 - and nana moved 4 times after that!!!!!
It only took us 2 visits to the office to do it - one when we asked the question, n the other to take the paperwork.
I would suggest anyone wanting to "take over" ownership of a family grave asks the cemetery office if its possible & whats involved, you may be surprised how easy it is in some areas!
Gaille
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