Arthur Ford

[lorraine bellami]

My grandfather, a potter's handler,  died in the Tunstall Workhouse in 1916, aged only 48.
I have a copy of the death certificate, but I have no idea how to find out where he was buried.
Did the workhouses have their own cemetaries, or were the inmates buried in some paupers unmarked grave somewhere?
His sister signed the death certificate, so there were family around at that time.
thanks.

[weste]

I think they probably had a relationship with a local cemetery. The hospital where I work used to be a workhouse and there is now a monument to the workhouse inmates who died in the local cemetery. They tended to be buried in an unmarked grave. I've got rels where there's bout 5 in. What I would do is contact the local archives to where they died and they should be able to tell you where the workhouse sent their deceased. There may be some whose family took them for burial. Also if you're lucky the admission and discharge  register may have survived. Sometimes people are in other workhouses which are far away from where they lived because it was cheaper but at least you've got the death certificate to know where to start. I've been transcribing some burial records of a Methodist church and some are well out of their catchment area.

[weste]

If it's the pottery area, try stoke on trent city archives as they have some workhouse stuff, other than that Staffordshire archives. As stoke on trent is the more local one try them first.