Searching cemeteries

[rogerb]

I have found a record which suggests that an ancestor of mine may have been buried at St Pancras Old Church in 1919.  I have never had a look around a cemetery with the intention of looking for anyone specifically, so I was wondering if churches have some sort of index or layout that would show where each person is  buried.

Roger

[Valda]

Hi Roger

Do you mean 1819 or 1919? Most central London churchyards were shut in the early 1850s, they had simply become overwhelmed by the number of burials taking place in them and had become a serious health hazard. In the following years churchyards have been encroached on by buildings and transport systems and many were turned into public gardens which few Victorians objectedto so much had the churchyards become places to fear in their unhealthy states.

Information on Pancras churchyard.

http://www.burial.magic-nation.co.uk/bgstpancrasnorth.htm

From the 1840s onwards large civic cemeteries were built to replace the churchyards. Do you mean St Pancras cemetery? St Pancras cemetery is one of the largest in London. To find any grave you would need a plot number and a map.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Pancras_and_Islington_Cemetery

St Pancras Old church ceased to be the parish church in 1822 when it was replaced by St Pancras new church. It was derelict by 1847 but then restored. Some further information about the churchyard

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Pancras_Old_Church
http://www.flickr.com/photos/50780708@N02/4863562344/

City churchyards where they survive are very different from their less urbanised sister churchyards. They will have experienced thousands of burials and often used charnel houses to make space. This contemporary (1839) description of St Giles in the Fields churchyard, close by to St Pancras gives an indication of what Central London churchyards were like at the time.

http://www.burial.magic-nation.co.uk/bgstgilesinfields.htm

Where churchyards in less urbanised areas have not come under this sort of population pressure and survive intact, usually local family history society's have mapped and indexed the surviving stones. Most of our ancestors could not afford a gravestone or one that has managed to survive over the years and is still legible after the effects of acid rain pollution, though a 1919 burial, if a gravestone was erected is more likely to still be legible.


Regards

Valda

[rogerb]

Thanks for the great reply.  The date is definitely 1919 (June 20th to be exact).  Its a document on ancestry which lists the burials in St Pancras Parish Chapel in 1919.  I have assumed that this is St Pancras Old Church.  The name is listed as G Littlefield, and I'm assuming that this is George Littlefield who died that year and lived nearby and worked at London Zoo as a gardener.  But I would like to see if there is a headstone and if there is any other information on it.

From one of the links that you suggested, it looks as if some or all of the St Pancras Old Church burials may have been re-buried at the St Pancras and Islington Cemtery. 

Has nayone else got any details about burials in these places around that time.

Roger

[Valda]

Hi

When working with Ancestry it is important to not go just with the heading they give records but also to check the 'Source citation'. This is the information given as you click the index, the next page before going to the image of the actual record.

The source citation for the record you are interested in reads

'London Metropolitan Archives, Saint Pancras Parish Church, Register of burials at Finchley Cemetery...'

This should be St Pancras Cemetery East Finchley (not the presently named East Finchley cemetery which until very recently was called Marylebone Cemetery) see previous link given to St Pancras and Islington cemeteries.

The guide to London burials at the top of the Rootschat London and Middlesex boards gives links to the whereabouts of London cemetery records - in this case the London borough of Camden.

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,403485.20.html

The link in the guide also takes you to the website 'Deceased online' as Camden have allowed their cemetery records to be indexed and placed online. In the past I  found some misindexing on this website and I cannot pick up a Littlefield entry in 1919.

St Pancras churchyard would have closed in the 1850s. Any subsequent removal and reburials from this churchyard (1866 and 2003) to St Pancras cemetery would have been of some of these burials pre the 1860s. Such reburials are in mass plots in cemeteries as they will contain human remains from several centuries.

http://homepages.gold.ac.uk/genuki/MDX/StPancras/index.html
http://snoozyq.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/mar_stpancras_2avd-1.pdf


Regards

Valda

[rogerb]

Thanks very much for the tip regarding the citation.  Its something I will take into account in future.  So it was probably the funeral service at the church in question, but the burial actually took place at the St Pancras cemetery.  I have checked Deceased on line, and although I have found two of his wives and four of his children buried at this cemetery both before and after his death, I can't find him!  However, I feel convinced that he is buried there and suspect that his name hasn't been transcribed or recorded for some reason.

But thanks for the help - I've learned a couple of things over the last couple of days!

Roger

[Valda]

Hi

I don't think that register denotes there was a service at St Pancras church. There very well might have been but I think that register is merely a list of burials at Finchley cemetery. If you look down the names on the pages the parishes listed that they are coming from is pretty varied. All these people would not ave had services at St Pancras. It would either have been at their own church or the cemetery chapel.
Ancestry indexes in the same way the register of burials from the workhouse to Finchley cemetery. Again they come under St Pancras Parish church.
Highgate cemetery in indexed under St Pancras St James.

I think George is probably misindexed or missed off Deceasedonline's index. If you are going to contact Camden then they seem for speed to be using Deceasedonline's index. You will have to tell them he is not found in that index but is found in a Finchley cemetery burial index held at the LMA, to make sure they check their original registers. They can also check whether these burials are in a purchased grave and who else might be buried in the same plot and whether a gravestone was purchased, though they won't know whether it still survives.


Regards

Valda

[rogerb]

Quite right - I did contact Camden explaining my situation, that I couldn't find George on deceased on line, and he kindly checked the records for the date in question.  George was on the burials list and for some reason was missed off the transcription.  He emailed me a copy of the list, and also sent me a copy of the cemetry layout showing where George was buried.  Although, being buried in a public grave, he said there was a possibility of finding a small headstone or vase, but it was unlikely.

So - all in all quite a successful search!

[Valda]

Hi


Thank you for the information. That's the second issue with the Deceased online indexes I've come across.


Regards

Valda