Genealogy Chat

see below:

I have just spent a very productive afternoon in my local Archives. It's the first time I've ever ventured there and it was so good I've made a booking to go back again on Tuesday. I was searching the burial registers - mainly because I needed the plot numbers for a couple of people and my local cemeteries office were a waste of time. I found the people whose date of death I knew and then spent the rest of the time scrolling through for instances of my family surnames. I found 6 rellies (would have been more but ran out of time) and the register gives name, occupation, age at death, place of death, where they lived if they didn't die at home, date of death, date of burial and plot/grave number. All that is missing is the cause of death! I even found one person who I have spent about £10 looking for on 1837online and never found and I know they are the right peeps by the occupaions and addresses. So I highly recommend it as a very good way to get death information without forking out £7 for a certificate that may not even be the right one. At least I can be sure now when my folk died instead of guessing. Sam

Now you can understand the the satisfaction and enjoyment my husband has from being an online parish clerk, having transcribed, and is still transcribing from fiches. :-) Joy

Hi Sam, I made my first trip to Stafford Records Office last Saturday and I loved it! I was mainly concentrating on baptism records and I didn't know that a burial record gave so much information. Do you know if all burial records give the grave number? Many Thanks Helen

Cool, I'm happy for you. I recently went to the cemetary and its a private cemetary, they charge to find graves. I'm just wondering for my city they have burial registers.

Hi Helen, I went to Stoke on Trent Archives and looked at the registers for Burslem cemetery and Hanley cemetery. Of the 6 I found which range from 1895 to 1959, all 6 have a plot number of some description on them. I was amazed at the amount of info on them, I'm not going to bother with the death certificates now except for grandparents etc where I am interested in the cause of death. I'm not sure now how I find where about in the cemetery a particular plot is yet but at least I'm halfway there! Sam

Joy, Whos he the OPC for?

Sam you would go to the cemetary itself and inside some they should have a Index or a map with the plot numbers on. my cemetary here had it in the local cemetary office

Cheers Steve, Guess where I'll be this weekend!! Sam

Sam, My local cemetery is council owned and really excellent. A chap from the council actually met me there to show me the graves of two ancestors. As for church graveyards, I think most churches have a map of some sort. All the best Helen x

hi sam just started on the deaths in my family, i was also amazed at what is on the index, i telephoned the cemetry and gave the number of grave space they returned the call with block,row number and the number of the grave. regards jackie.

St.Marys Cemetery in Portsmouth are very helpful. They have a log book of all the deaths and can give you the name, date of burial, place of death and plot number and what is very important is who else is in the grave. I found the death of a great grandfather and went to the Cemetery Office to check out the grave and they told me where he was buried and that he was buried with his wife and daughter. I knew about the wife but had no knowledge of the daughter, so that was a bonus and they don't charge to look up. So the moral of the story is, always ask who is buried in the plot!!

It depends whether its privately owned or not, if its the council lookups will be free.

He is online parish clerk for Trewen in Cornwall, Steve. Joy

Cool, do you have an relatives on this site at all? I mean who are on this site searching for people etc posting messages kind

Steve, he has a couple of 'distant' cousins on here whom he has been able to help but not with that particular parish. He has some ancestors from Trewen so is interested in it anyway. Off he goes to the library most days to use the fiche reader to do his transcribing! :-) Joy