Genealogy Chat

I just came across this site while looking for details on Old Camberwell Cemetery. which could be useful. http://www.upmystreet.*com/UK/findmynearest/community/cemeteries-and-crematoria/results/in/London.html As usual, remove the *

The indexes for Camberwell Old (and Nunhead) are held at Camberwell New Cemetery, Honor Oak. Janice

I am planning to spend some time in the summer going to the Camberwell New Cemetery to begin working my way through the graveyard, noting down all the memorial inscriptions and photos of the graves and either put them on a website or disk. Not sure yet. But it will take quite a while to compose since it's quite a large and very cramped graveyard! Will definitely let people on here know once I've completed it though. It'll be useful for so many researchers who had ancestors living in South London since it was one of the most widely used graveyards (along with the old Camberwell cemetary which is just down the road from it).

Another good one is, http://www.londoncemeteries(.)co(.)uk/index.php Karen.

Are you able to look at the indexes yourself or to you have to pay for someone else to look at them? I have a few grave numbers I would like to look up. Would they tell me if someone else was in the grave (my great grandparents)? Also if I didn't know the grave number but just the year of death would there be anyway of finding the grave number. Are they alpabetical? Thanks. Louise

It depends on which cemetery you are thinking of visiting. I know that from personal experience that the Camberwell cemetery has an office that you can visit in person for free and spend as long as you want there (during opening times of course!) searching manually through all their old index books. They are huge things, very musty/dusty/heavy and there aren't any tables to rest the things on!! (Best to take someone with you to help pass the books down to as some are on top shelf and you need to go up a mini-step ladder thing). So, with no tables, it's a balancing act on your knees which I found gave me a neck and backache after a few hours. Take a drink, pad and pen and a packet of handy wipes (your hands do get quite dirty). Yes, you can usually locate a burial on the indexes just by knowing the person's surname and which year they died (even better if you know which cemetery they are buried in - old or new Camberwell). It'll be a long slog searching (have done it myself) but can be done - I found my grt grt grandad and all I had was his name and the fact he'd died in a bombing during WW1 - so it meant searching from 1914 onwards for both the old and new cemetary records!!!) But, if you already know the grave numbers it should be much simpler. I had one grave number that I knew of (from grt grandfather's burial card) and I gave it to a staff member there and he quickly looked up where it was for me and gave me a print out of the cemetary map and marked down exactly where the grave was. When I found it I discovered that my grt grandmother was also buried there with him!!

Thank you very much for your help. I have a couple in Camberwell Old and New cemeteries as well as in Nunhead Cemetry as well as other family members who I only know the year of death for. I love looking at the old books so sounds like fun. Cheers, Louise

You're welcome. It helps to know what to expect when you get there. (ps - updated my message a few times because I kept remembering things to tell you LOL)

Thank you, I have copied and pasted it to my documents now as I am sure it will be a great help. Louise :-))

Nudging... I only have the manes and dates of a couple of relatives, but I have written to the Superintendent of Old Camberwell Cemetery to see if he can give me a few pointers. Apparently there is nothing he doesn't know about the cemetery, so at the very least he should be able to tell me where to get the information I need. Athena, I notice you have already come up with that much LOL Thanks, thats really useful too. I just thought the most useful thing about this particular site was it's references to address, contact details and maps. T x

Hi Teresa Hope you don't mind me jumping in on your thread? The adress for Camberwell New Cemetery Brenchley Gardens Forest Hill London SE233RD Tel: 020 7639 3121 Fax: 020 7732 2557 There is a e-mail adress but i can't seem to put it on here, anyone one want it PM me. I visted last year and the staff could not have been more helpful. Ann

Ann, not at all. It's all useful. By the way, the cemetery superintendent is on Terry Connor. I don't know if I can put his email on here, even though it's published for the world to see on the site http://www.southwark.gov.uk/YourServices/BirthsDeathsMarriages/cemeteries/CamberwellNewCemetery.html Waiting for his reply. T x

Hi Teresa Yes it was Terry's e-mail i was trying to put on my post. As i said i went there last year looking for where my father was buried. They not only found him but also my grandparents as well. i can't praise them enough Ann

Fantastic Ann, I thought he would be the best person, just by what was written about him. I wonder if there are more than jsut the burial records. I have a family mystery, as my GGG Uncle, who died in Cornwall, possibly in a county asylum, waiting for cert, was buried there immediately, five days later, re-buried with/near his family in Hampshire, then 4 years later, after his wife died, was buried with her in Camberwell!!! This by the way, if anyone remembers my previous thread 'death in asylum' was the one we first thought had died in Cumberland. Oops, don't forget to double check everything. T x

Teresa Yes they even have the record of the old Cemetery, which would i think be Forest Hill My Father worked there as the gate Keeper. If they don't have whwt you are looking for they will try and point you in the right diection Ann

Athena, I for one cant wait for this, and well done to you for attempting such a mammoth task.. My Grandfathers brother and his 3 sisters all died in Camberwell workhouse in 1891 so I presume they might be buried there. Never found out what happened to their Father, but Mother died in Hampshire in 1943, at the great age of 87.. Good luck, Dorothy.