Burial Records

[potter9597]

Can anyone help me please on behalf of an elderly friend? He is trying to find out where his father is buried. He died in the street in 1948 aged 54. My friend has no idea which parish etc but I have found his registered death on Ancestry. Any help would be greatly appreciated by him I know.

Thank you Alan P

[Pam Downes]

Hi Alan,

How much information about his/her father's death does your friend have? Town/village of death? Date? Do they know where he was living at the time?

If you can tell me such basic stuff (or at least the registration district in which he died) then I might be able to have an inspired guess.
Otherwise you might need to first obtain the death certificate to get a date of death and address where the deceased was living. Then you can either search church registers, ask personally at crematoriums (otherwise a query will cost an arm and a leg, though crematoriums in 1948 in Lincolnshire may well have been thin on the ground), or search local papers for an obituary/funeral report. If they have a date of death local libraries may be willing to search the papers for free.

Pam

[arthurk]

Pam's beaten me to it with this, but I think this expands a little on what she says:

In view of where you've posted this, I'm assuming he died somewhere in Lincolnshire. The Lincolnshire FHS have a few publications covering burials and MIs for the 20th century - details on their website. Looking at the pdf list, I've found some CDs on pages 5-6 and microfiches on page 27, but there might be others lurking in there.

You might also want to check websites such as Find a Grave, Deceased Online, and the Gravestone Photographic Resource. I also know that the town council where I live in Lincolnshire has put its cemetery burial registers online.

Another possible place to look for information would be old newspapers - a death in those circumstances is likely to have been reported, as would any subsequent inquest, and either report might include something about his family circumstances or whoever was taking responsibility for the funeral.

Have you also tried the national probate index (online at Ancestry) - if there was a will or administration, the entry will name the executor(s), which may be a clue to follow up.

After a death in such circumstances, I think there would almost certainly be an inquest, and a death certificate wouldn't be issued until the coroner had reached his verdict. I'm not too sure of the legalities, but I've a feeling that if the inquest was delayed for any reason, it would have been possible for the body to be released for burial/cremation some time before that. In other words, even though you have the date of registration, the actual death and burial could have been a few months previously, so bear that in mind when searching.

I hope those ideas help, but if you'd like any of us to do any actual searching, you'll have to tell us what you know about the man's name, and when and where he died.

Arthur

[Peter Goodey]

Obtaining the death certificate is essential.

[Pam Downes]

Further to my first reply and expanding a little on Arthur's -
There's also FreeREG which has quite a lot of 1900's burials, and Lincs to the Past has many burial registers viewable online though you will have to browse through the individual parishes.

Opening dates for some Lincs crematorium -
Boston 1966, prior to that I think people would have gone to Peterborough. (I know my uncle did.)
Lincoln - 1968
Grimsby 1954
Spalding - circa November 2013. Prior to that people had gone to Peterborough or Boston. A newspaper report about the opening also said Kings Lynn which I'm very surprised about as it's 6 miles further than Peterborough and along the A17 which is a dreadful road. Kings Lynn crematorium opened in 1980.
Peterborough, though not Lincs, going by dates in the Book of Remembrance, seems to have opened about 1958.

Pam

[potter9597]

Thanks to all for the replies.
Pam - William Bryan was born in 1894 at Stamford, Lincs and the death was registered at Stamford in the Q4 of 1948. His wife was Alice Kate Walker 1897-1959. He says that his father died in the street in Stamford but other than that he has no knowledge of where they were living etc as he was in the army overseas. His family were remiss in not telling him anything. He seems desperate to discover some information before he passes. I was aware of the need for a birth and death certificate and his is at the top of my lists of suggestions to him. I am purely an amateur with a little knowledge attempting to help a friend so don't be too harsh on me

Thanks again for the replies

Alan

[Pam Downes]

Won't be harsh on you at all Alan. We were all beginners with a little knowledge at one stage - and there are some of us (mentioning no names, but not too far away! ) who even after more than ten years at this lark are still lacking in a lot of knowledge.

Though of all the places to live and die Stamford is one of the worse because it's got five parishes plus another one over the border in Northamptonshire.
Stamford has a cemetery so chances are that if William lived in Stamford as opposed to one of the surrounding villages he's buried there.

Give me half an hour to see what I can find.

Pam

[Pam Downes]

I don't know whether it's my internet connection or whether the web sites just don't want to play ball tonight but I'm not having much luck.

I have found William living with his mum and dad (William and Annie) and siblings living in Stamford All Saints in 1901 and 1911.

There are some references to a William Bryan in the Stamford Mercury but it's difficult to tell if some of them refer to the senior or the junior. Or indeed to another William Bryan altogether. One that does refer to William senior is in the edition dated 19 September 1902, page 8, column 8, about half-way down, where the cottage that the family is living in in 1901 is up for sale. (They don't own it.)
The online Stamford Mercury (via British Newspaper Library/FMP) seems to stop in 1929.

No burial in FreeREG. Nor baptism, though Bertie, William junior's younger brother's is. I suspect that the other children may have been baptised in another parish which has yet to be transcribed.

Lincs to the Past refuses to show the links to the PRs.

So all in all, I ain't a 'appy bunny.

Therefore, plan B.

Your friend needs to send off for his dad's death certificate, either through the GRO or else through Lincolnshire Registration Service. https://www.
ukbmd.org.uk/genuki/reg/regoff.html#619
Might as well send for the birth certificate at the same time.

Give me a break It would seem that Stamford Library don't have newspapers for 1948. I have to say that I do find that a little incredulous, but that's what the Newsplan site says.
Stamford Library's contact details - https://www.
lincolnshire.gov.uk/VenueDetails.aspx?venuecode=20586
All you need ask them at the moment is if they have local newspapers for 1948/1949, and if they haven't do they know where they can be accessed.

I am now going to hunt for a very large bar of chocolate.

Pam