Burial Plot Records - St Pauls Birmingham

[dawnsh]

If they survive, you should be looking for the 'day books' which the parish clerks kept for such things.

I've seen the ones at the London Metropoplitran Archives for St Marylebone church and I do believe some are online with Ancestry.

However, whilst the ones I've seen show how much was paid for the funeral, they don't always specify where in the churchyard someone was buried. There has been a church in the area for 1000 years and a lot of people have gone into the ground during that time. While the workhouse was in existance the churchyard was used for 'pauper', burials and they just went in one after another.

St Marylebone, at one time, had a huge churchyrad, now redeveloped into a garden and partially built upon by a girls school.

Sad indeed but a sign of the times when the church no longer feels it can keep up the maintenance and it gets built on.

I had a look at the archives web site and the catalogue for the church's holdings is here

http://calmview.birmingham.gov.uk/CalmView/docs/EP%2035.pdf

have a look down it to see if there are references to account books etc.

There is also a reference on the last page to 4 volumes of grave locations that starts in 1833. It says they are still at the church but may have been deposited later and the page not updated.

Contact the library again and ask them what the situation is with these records and ask the same question to the church. Maybe the current incumbent doesn't know of their existence.

Dawn

[Keitht]

Hi folks,

I am most interested in this thread because my 4 x great grandfather, Joseph Chatterley, was buried at St Pauls in 1791. If anyone does get to the bottom of this I'd appreciate being informed.

Regards,

Keith

[fayl]

Thank you Dawn for that information - I will contact the library and St Pauls again and also have a look at the link you supplied.

Keith have you contacted St Pauls about your ancestor - would be interested to see what they say to you.

Many thanks

Fay

[Keitht]

Fay,

No, to be honest I haven't, largely because from experience I have learned that the available information for all Birmingham churches is now held by the library. Like you, I only got the information about my ancestor from Birmingham PRs on Ancestry and haven't really had time to follow it up yet.

Although I've consulted some of the grave inscription books at the library I haven't yet seen the one for St Pauls but if it follows the format of those I have sen it will not contain details of burial plots, though it will indicate the names of those buried around your ancestor.

Regards,

Keith

[fayl]

Dawn i've had a link at the link gave can and see there are details of Account Books but for the period 1841 - so 4 years after my ancestor was buried there.

I did also see the details that you mentioned - "4 volumes of grave locations that start in 1833" so will contact St Pauls and the library again to query this.

Keith it would be worth you enquiring again at St Pauls and the library.

Fay

[Keitht]

Fay,

Although I don't hold out much hope I will contact the church. I have been avoiding going to the new library until it is no longer full of sightseers. From what I've heard it has been pretty chaotic ever since it opened,

Keith

[fayl]

Yes I can understand about not wishing to visit the library at the moment. 

I can only visit at weekends as I am at work Mon - Fri but have been delaying going on a Saturday until into next year.

Fay

[Keitht]

I'm retired, so could go at any time but those who have already visited tell me that there's little point in going to Archive and Heritage until things calm down somewhat. Like you, I'm not really planning to go until after Christmas and after so many months with no access I'm likely to be there for quite a while when I do go.

This problem of the city having taken over graveyards seems pretty common. Not long ago I was looking for an infant burial at St Peter and St Paul, Aston and came up against exactly the same thing. Peace gardens, etc. are all very well but not much use to researchers.

Keith

[weste]

I remember being at a county archives and someone asked for burial records of a particular church. The archives had no record of a burial ground there. Well mom used to live a few doors down and used sit on the gravestones so we knew there was a burial ground. Well its all grassed over and there are no surviving burial registers of it, I've seen an odd transcription or two a while back. I'm transcribing for freereg and the period is 1841-1861 and no records for 1860 either although they think there was about 134 burials. The records are being done from a transcription done from bishops transcripts.

Also I belong to a family history society and would you believe the non conformist  marriage records are missing I don't know what period for that particular area but you can pay your fee to the register office or the gro and get a copy so there were marriages there.  I also know that another area where the church records were missing but the archives had got a registrars copy of the marriages apparently.