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Early grave stones & burial records - did only the

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Wildgoose

Wildgoose Report 21 Feb 2010 21:55

Gerry - most of the parish registers will be at the local county Records Office by now. If they have a website you may be able to check their holdings of these.

Birdi

Researching:
Northampton/Blisworth Northants/Hinderclay Suffolk

Gerry

Gerry Report 21 Feb 2010 21:20

Thank you. I've just always wondered why despite having looked round several churchyards, I've never seen any headstones from years before about 1790's.

I'll have to try getting in touch with the parish offices of some of the particular churches I've been searching.

Thank you :o)

regards
Gerry

Elisabeth

Elisabeth Report 21 Feb 2010 12:41

Gerry,

Many churches removed older gravestones and often used them, upside down, to repair paths. I know of one church where this happened, some even being crushed to use as hardcore under the paths. This was as recent as 1960s. Such a shame!

(In this case, someone did the sensible thing and recorded the stones which were readable. One was as 'young' as a 1930s burial.)

Elisabeth

Wildgoose

Wildgoose Report 21 Feb 2010 10:56

Parish registers will tell you who was buried but there but you'll need a grave plan to see the exact spot.

Poor people just didn't have headstones. A lot of the softer stone just disintegrated and disappeared!

Birdi

Researching:
Northampton/Blisworth Northants/Hinderclay Suffolk

Gerry

Gerry Report 21 Feb 2010 10:13

I'm curious to know why when we look around the majority of church yards, you rarely see any memorials prior to the 1700's and even then not many of those. Was it only the rich who could afford them? Did anyone from lower classes not have memorials or a note made of their final resting place? Were they made of wood and now vanished?

Does anyone know the answer? Finding all these ancestors from way back makes me wonder where their final resting places might be. Or do we assume they are in the grounds of the local church in the town where they expired with an unmarked and now possibly re-used grave space?

Thanks in advance for any help on this.
Gerry