Roman Catholic Burials

[BeeE586]

My knowledge of Catholic burial practices is nil so I hope someone can explain. I have a burial of a man aged 36 in 1917 in a Catholic cemetery in Sheffield. Courtesy of the Sheffield Indexers' site I have discovered that three babies were buried in the same grave, in 1914, 1915 and 1924, all of the same name but of a name totally unconnected with the man or the family and not living in the same area. There is no headstone or memorial plaque.

Can anyone explain please how this would happen ?

Eileen

[josie7644]

My knowledge of Catholic burial practices is nil so I hope someone can explain. I have a burial of a man aged 36 in 1917 in a Catholic cemetery in Sheffield. Courtesy of the Sheffield Indexers' site I have discovered that three babies were buried in the same grave, in 1914, 1915 and 1924, all of the same name but of a name totally unconnected with the man or the family and not living in the same area. There is no headstone or memorial plaque.

Can anyone explain please how this would happen ?

Eileen

Hello Eileen,

Just a thought! The owners of the grave, (probably the parents/grandparents of the children) may have been very good friends or distant relatives of the deceased man. As he died in 1917, (during WW1) his family may not have been able to afford a new grave.

Josie

[Marie C..]

Eileen,
I don't think the fact that it was an RC burial has anything to do with this as I have heard of seeming strangers being buried in other graves(not RC).It may well be as Josie suggests that the man and the babies may have some link(friendship of parents or somehow related).
My aunt had her sister interred in a double grave ( in RC churchyard as it happens)The second part my aunt intended for herself when time came). When the time did come for Aunt to need it I was told it had been already used by someone else? I guess these things happen.Marie

[pottoka]

Could it have something to do with whether or not the plot had been bought by the family of the man?

I enquired about my great-grandparents' grave in Ripley cemetery and was told that they may or may not have bought the plot for their grave and that, if they hadn't, the family could not put up a gravestone - presumably because the land remained the property of the town.

As you say that there is no headstone or memorial plaque, perhaps the family didn't buy the plot, and so the town authorities were able to put whom they liked into the same grave?