Not in the Burial Register...because?...

[emmteeyess]

I had a lead from an Index of Cemetery Burials that my person of interest was buried August 1899. Knowing she was only 2months old I wanted to see if the vicar had added any marginal notes in the Parish Burial register.

However there was no entry for August. (double checked - right church, right month, right year.???)

On looking at the actual entry in the Cemetery's Register of Burials that I had the index entry for, the entry noted 'No Service' in the 'By Whom Ceremony Performed' column. So no service, no entry in the Parish Register (?) (No service also applied to 6 of the 20 on the page.)

My only guess is that it must have cost money to have a service and the family couldn't afford it. In all other respects they seem to have been 'good Christian folks' - the child was baptised and in the Baptism Register.

So - it would seem that not every burial will be in the church's burial register, if that's where you're looking for dates etc. This could account for 'missing' burials.

Cheers, MTS

[Peter Goodey]

I'm not clear where the burial was - cemetery or churchyard. If the burial was in a cemetery, why would there be an entry in the church's burial register?

[emmteeyess]

The burial was in the cemetery 'in the Burial Ground of the Parish of Sunderland' it says.

Would this preclude an entry in the Parish Register, even if there was a ceremony performed by a clergyman?

14 of the 20 entries had a clergyman perform the ceremony, but I'm not up to cross checking the church registers for them - 'not my people'

Cheers, MTS

[Andrew Mead]

It looks like this would be a new(ish) burial ground, possibly municipal, created for the area of 'The Parish of Sunderland', i.e. the town, for all denominations. So it would not be the same as the burial ground of the Parish Church of Sunderland. If there was a funeral service in the Parish Church and the burial in the cemetery, then that would be in the Parish register.
That would be the same as now. If someone dies in my village, unless the funeral service is held in the village church, the burial will not go in the Parish Register.

[Peter Goodey]

If there was a funeral service in the Parish Church and the burial in the cemetery, then that would be in the Parish register.

I don't think it necessarily would. Strictly speaking the burial register should just contain burials. I have seen separate funeral registers which would cover the situation where the funeral was held in the parish church and the interment occurred elsewhere.

I don't know how widespread the use of funeral registers was but I suspect in any case that the survival rate of the registers was not good.

I think the Registration of Burials Act, 1864 may be relevant.

[Lesley Robertson]

In the target parish for my OPS (just over the Scottish Border) any mention of burials in the Church registers is more a record of payment to the grave diggers or rental of the parish coffin than a record of who was buried, to the point where it says "a woman from Ladykirk" or "John Herriot's child".

do you have the death certificate?

[emmteeyess]

I'm not clear where the burial was - cemetery or churchyard. If the burial was in a cemetery, why would there be an entry in the church's burial register?

Reading round on t'internet it would seem that
Until the 17th century people were usually buried in parish churchyards. After the 1689 Toleration Act Nonconformist and Jewish graveyards were opened and from 1800 separate Catholic graveyards were opened.
Public cemeteries became necessary as overcrowded churchyards were closed in the 1850s. Towns were empowered to set up Burial Boards to provide public burial grounds which were run by Local Authorities, and a Cemetery Register replaced the Church Register
Cemeteries usually consist of 2 sections - consecrated (for Anglican burials) and unconsecrated (for nonconformists and others).

So, yes it looks like no entry in the Parish (Church) Register if no burial in the Churchyard. I stand corrected.

Lesley - no, I don't have the death certificate. I'm not sure what that would add to the story, and the person is not that close a relative to warrant the expenditure.

Cheers, MTS

[emmteeyess]

I don't think it necessarily would. Strictly speaking the burial register should just contain burials. I have seen separate funeral registers which would cover the situation where the funeral was held in the parish church and the interment occurred elsewhere.

I don't know how widespread the use of funeral registers was but I suspect in any case that the survival rate of the registers was not good.

I think the Registration of Burials Act, 1864 may be relevant.

Now I've found two examples that have gone the other way - registered in the Parich church register and in the Cemetery Register. so recorded twice, but obviously only buried once. Presumably the entry at the church is for a burial service, although the register used is the 'Burials in the Parish of ....' register.

The Church is Holy Trinity, Sunderland and the Cemetery is Sunderland cemetery as detailed above. The entries are for -

Mary Stoker, of Burleigh St., age 26, buried Jan 5th 1865 - all details match in both registers
James Gettins, son of Thomas Gettins, of 9&1/2 Minorca, age 1week, buried Nov 25th 1890 - all details match in both registers (except church has Gettings not Gettins - but with age and unusual address he's deffo the same person.)

For each date the ceromonies for both places were performed the same day by the same clergyman.


Why have I got some members of the family appearing 'all over the place' and some hiding away completely???


Cheers, MTS

ps - Peter Goodey - what is the significance of the Registration of Burials Act, 1864 you mention?

[Lesley Robertson]

If it was easy, it wouldn't be so much fun!

[Peter Goodey]

Peter Goodey - what is the significance of the Registration of Burials Act, 1864 you mention?

The Registration of Burials Act 1864 requires all cemeteries not otherwise subject to a legal requirement to do so to keep a register of burials.