Berwick Civic Cemetery and Captain James Evans Watson

[Jo Beebee]

Hello
    this post is about Berwick Civic Cemetery and the Watson family of Berwick.

 I recently got my family burial details by email from Berwick Archives but the lovely lady there said the plot numbers were not on her map. I have been googling and this seems to be a pretty common thing in the area.

I had a volunteer from Findagrave have a look over the weekend and he couldn't find any sign of the family Plots.

SO my next move is trying to locate plot maps for the cemetery that maybe have more detail than the one in the Berwick Archives office? I can see the cemetery was owned by the Burial Board but I can't find any contact details for them.

I was told their plots are in the unconsecrated side of the cemetery but my mum said the sons were choir boys and she always thought they were church goers. Does anyone know the cemetery well and can tell me why they may have been buried in that section? The lady has written in the email this means they were not members of the Anglican Church.

I am far away in London and actually document and transcribe local cemeteries in my area and know that if graves are not unattended they can be reclaimed for renewal. I want to know if my relative's plots in Berwick are safe.. I would love to see them (or even photographs of them) but in this current climate that won't be possible in person for a long time.

Berwick archives have the plot receipt and burial records. How would I find out who owns the graves now? Would they have been bought with an exclusive right of burial indefinitely or leased for 50 years for example like we have in London? Are you allowed to copy documents from the archives? I would love an actual copy of the plot receipts and plot register.


This is part of the email from the Archivist.

James Evans Watson, late Captain of the Mercantile Marine, aged 51, of 40 Ravensdowne, Berwick-upon-Tweed. Buried 18 August 1927 in Plot BA 875 Unconsecrated.
 
I also checked the Plot register for the cemetery - indicates who was buried in each plot and found the following :
 
Plot BA 875 Unconsecrated. Purchased by Elizabeth Watson, widow
 
Sarah P Watson, aged 68, buried 25 April 1916
Joseph Watson, aged 69, buried 27 April 1916
James Evans Watson, aged 51 , buried 18 August 1927
 
The next plot BA 876 Unconsecrated was also purchased by Elizabeth Watson, widow and contained the following people:
 
Joseph Forrest Watson, aged 66, buried 6 March 1889
Elizabeth Watson, aged 71, buried 21 Jan. 1892
Rose Ann Maria Watson, aged 43, buried 29 Jan. 1907

"I have a plot map for part of the cemetery but can't find these numbers on it. However, I can confirm that the right hand section is unconsecrated and the plot may well be about half way up, nearer the roadside than the path". 


Any ideas or pointers on my next steps?  I have emailed all leads that I can think of, no reply. I need fresh eyes and local knowledge.


Captain James Evans Watson was my Mum's Grandad and lived a fascinating life for a family researcher. I am currently researching all this side of the family and so far have not found any living relatives of them, (even with DNA testing).

I have a tree with supporting documents on Ancestry, and basic trees on Findmypast and MyHeritage.


edit: I have just read the 63 pages on this forum in reverse order and on page 1 it says that Berwick cemetery was also known as Tweedmouth cemetery and now I am wondering if my volunteer checked the right cemetery. Does anyone have a map for Tweedmouth burial ground so I can see what the plot numbers look like? The Archivist said Berwick Civil Cemetery and I just emailed in the hope they can confirm which cemetery it is.

[Radcliff]

Berwick Civic cemetery , volume 2 un consecrated these are on family search
Rose Ann Maria
register of burial, no 539 , folio 54
register of grave,no BA 876 , folio 234
it appears to me there are some pages missing the last written entry in that section is David  Bremner section B Un consecrated number 690

[JenB]

The original of the record the archives sent you is actually freely available to view on Family Search.

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSJJ-WSYQ?i=461&cat=1886725

They are definitely in Berwick Civic Cemetery.

Consecrated and Unconsecrated sections were fairly standard. The ‘consecrated’ section being for Anglicans and the ‘unconsecrated ‘ for non- conformists and other faiths. You might find this useful
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=838512.msg7041089#msg7041089

When you say that the volunteer couldn’t find the family plots do you mean they couldn’t find any plot numbers or couldn’t find any gravestones?

Have you tried contactng any local history groups in Berwick to ask if they know of any more detailed plans?

[Jo Beebee]

Hello, thank you for your replies.

My volunteer went and looked for a couple of hours but found no headstones. I have read that the rows are not marked in that cemetery.  The lady from the archives has just sent me the only bit of the map they have but it cuts off before my numbers appear. She also confirms it is the right graveyard. She has a rough idea where it is and will help the person looking if they pop in on a day she is working. I feel a bit cheeky asking the same person to go and look again so I will maybe ask someone on the Berwick History Facebook group if I can give them an idea where to look.

The posts on the unconsecrated ground has made my mum much happier thank you.

All my memberships and I have never really used Familysearch to look for things like documents. I had no idea the information was there the whole time. Rookie mistakes. To be fair the Archives wasn't expensive.

I am sure she will not mind me showing you the map.  Its a bit overwhelming

[JenB]

You say the volunteer found no gravestones - this could mean that there aren't any 

It is free to sign on to Family Search, but you have to do a lot of mining to find the records - they don't come up on the standard search.

You must go to 'Catalog' then enter the name of the place in which you are interested.

So you get this for Berwick upon Tweed https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/results?count=20&placeId=19123&query=%2Bplace%3A%22England%2C%20Northumberland%2C%20Berwick-upon-Tweed%22

Then click on cemeteries and select Berwick upon Tweed Civic Cemetery.
You are in luck because if you are logged in you will see there is a camera icon without a key over it, denoting that you can look at the records. Now the fun part, you must go check the indexes, select the film you need and trawl from page to page to find the record you want.

There is a huge amount of information available like this, and very few people seem to know about it.

[Radcliff]

perhaps note down the names of the people buried around the plot you are looking for ,hopefully they have headstones, and you can get a better idea of where they may be buried, plot 874 is George and Eliza Young, he was a draper, and in 877  is Fredrick Thomas Garner aged 32 years and Louisa Garner aged 7 months, buried 1889 and 1890 .good luck

[Jo Beebee]

Jen
Thank you, I am looking at the search function now. I just assumed they had the same documents as all the other sites.  Wow there is quite a bit there.

The Watson family were not poor and I can't see them not having a memorial of some kind. From looking at the Findagrave website most of the monuments in Berwick Civic look in good shape and the cemetery is well cared for. If only I knew who was caring for it...

Radcliff
That is a very good idea. Findagrave has quite a few memorials online. With the description from the Archivist and the records I can now see from home, I should be able to narrow the search area down.

[Jo Beebee]

I now have another map of the cemetery and a contact phone number for their admin team. I will leave them with this post incase someone else is looking.

Berwick - North Road
Managed by NCC
Contact area admin team: 01670 620490

I am another step closer