Key Hill Cemetary, Birmingham

[ColC]

My great x3 grandfather Thomas Clarke was I believe born in Birmingham in 1785, this was established after eliminating the other 11 born around that time.

The death has been another issue but if I could establish his age at burial it might help.

I think a likely burial might be at Key Hill in the 1840s, would the record include the age?

There are also a number of possible burials there for his wife Ann, maybe sometime later, would it follow that she would be buried in the same section in?

If I could resolve this brickwall I then have a clear line of Ancestry in Birmingham back to the 1500s.

Regards Colin

[jim1]

The closest burial I can see is Thomas Clarke 25/11/1848 aged 65 giving a birth year of 1783.
his address is given as the Workhouse.
Have you found him in the 1841 census ?

[ColC]

thanks for your reply Jim. I think that burial was at St Martin not Key Hill?
I have not found him on any census returns and I have eliminated the Thomas Clarke's that do appear.

Colin

[jim1]

By the 1840's St. Martin's was closed to new burials. This is just where the service took place. He would have been buried elsewhere.
Are you sure he was still alive in the 1840's ?
What's the last positive info you have on the family ?

[ColC]

Hi Jim,
So are you saying all of the post 1813 burials on Ancestry did not take place as noted on the records for each Birmingham Church, such as:

Thomas Clarke about 1783 - 25 Nov 1848 Birmingham, St Martin?

Thomas & Ann had 3 sons  Samuel 1812 – Joseph 1815 – Henry Thomas 1817 – Barr St.
(baptisms St Philip). I have all of their later information. Father noted as a Button Burnisher.

Samuel remarried in 1856 his record notes his father as a metal dealer but no indication of his status. So my guess is he had not been dead too long before that year but I could be wrong.

There are possible deaths pre 1837 such as Thomas Clarke born 1784 burial 9 Dec 1829, age 45
St Martin, abode Warwick St. Also Ann Clarke born 1794 5 Dec 1824, age 30   St Martin
abode Bradford St.

Colin

[jim1]

So are you saying all of the post 1813 burials on Ancestry did not take place as noted on the records for each Birmingham Church

Not all Churches. St. Martin's is the oldest Church in B'ham & had the most interments with the ground being raised several times to accommodate more. It was for this reason & the fact that other graveyards were filling up that Corporation Cemeteries were built.

[ColC]

Information elsewhere on the history of St Martins suggests that the graveyard was closed in 1848 when Park Street Burial Ground opened, except for burials in family graves, which continued until 1915.

However to return to my original question "do the burials at Key Hill record the age"?

Colin

[jim1]

Cemetery records only give plot no.
Monumental Inscriptions may exist & these would be at B'ham Library this is assuming he had a headstone.

[ColC]

Many thanks, Colin