NSW - St Mary's Cathedral 1855 ... or NOT!

[Lady Di]

I have a copy of a burial record (not a Death Cert) for 1855 at St Mary's Cathedral Sydney (Catholic).

I'm surprised at the Church and am wondering if I have the wrong record or is this record actually from a different church?
Burial for SURNAME: BUCKLEY Forename:Mary.... recorded twice on NSWBDM-
Reference Number or "V" number/s recorded as
1335/1855 V18551335 143
&
153/1855 V1855153 120

As far as I know the family was Protestant, not Catholic, & the burial says her abode was the Benevolent A[sylum]. Maybe that had something to do with the church used for the burial.
Unfortunately Benevolent Asylum records online start in 1856 (oh so close!)

Is there any way of ascertaining which church the burial occurred at (just in case the record was mistranscribed)

I know I'm clutching at straws but I live in hope 

Thanks
Di

[Lady Di]

Just an update for anyone interested 

Find My Past have a transcription of the above burial with the church listed as "St James" and the reference number: V18551335 143

I guess my original question still stands:

"Is there any way of ascertaining which church the burial occurred at?"

    

Edit to ADD the following:

St James church says they had 20 burial records in their registers from 1850 to 1856
FindMyPast says there were over 1,000 burials at St James in 1855 alone

Me thinks someone's telling porkies!!

[majm]

aghhh    

Both the C of E and the RC have inner Sydney parishes named 'St. James', plus NSW civil parishes include - yes - yes !  St James.   So there's at least three in the county of Cumberland ....  And of course St James railway station is named after ... which of those three ... well my oral history says the railway station is named after St James C of E, King St, Sydney cbd - which is named after the Apostle.       

JM

[majm]

It could be that the RC diocese called for all the parishes to check their own records and to transmit all the burials to Sydney prior to the commencement of civil registrations 1 March 1856.   1000 burials in 1855 for RC sounds a tad too many !   Devonshire Street Cemetery RC section - basically 3 burials a day !  ummm....  How many funeral directors in Sydney in 1855 -  Ummm....  I dunno ! My trusty reference book doesn't have 'everything' so sorry  Di. 

JM

[majm]

Re Volume 120 and Volume 143 

https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/archives/collections-and-research/guides-and-indexes/births-deaths-and-marriages-guide  (used to be their Short Guide # 2)

and

https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/archives/collections-and-research/guides-and-indexes/births-deaths-and-marriages-registers-1787-1856    (used to be their Short Guide # 4)

Also see :  https://gutenberg.net.au/devonshire-street/__devonshire-transfers.html

JM

[Lady Di]

Thanks for the reference to Volumes 120 & 143 majm.

I was hoping someone may have a copy of, or link to, the associated Reels. That's the only place I thought might give some idea of which church or minister performed the burial service.

My assumption was that the St James mentioned was in King Street & was interested to read the following from their web site:-

"For much of the 19th century, the burial service was usually read, in part, in the residence of the deceased, followed by the committal at the graveside. In the majority of cases there was not a funeral service in the church, as we know it today.
Government records show that the clergy in Sydney worked on a roster system for officiating at burials in the 1820s, 1830s and 1840s. As burials usually took place within a day or so of a death (and in some cases on the day of death) this was quite an onerous and time-consuming job, as the minister had to be on call at short notice to read the burial service.
Each minister would enter the burials that he had conducted during his rostered turn of duty in his church’s burial register. This means that the presence of a particular minister at a burial cannot be taken to imply that the deceased was one of his parishioners, or was even resident in his parish. The St James’ burial registers are continuous from February 1824 to December 1849. From 1850 to 1856 only twenty burials were recorded. The register ends on 9 August 1856. The civil registration of births, marriages and deaths began in 1856.
Place of burial is not recorded in the burial register. St James’ Church has never had a burial ground."

Looks like I need to check the Reels/Films of the V records to get a copy of the actual burial and see what it says.

Many thanks for your input. Appreciate your help 

DI