Genealogy Chat

Hi

could anyone help me with this please, apparently there was a still birth in our family somewhere between 1941 and 1958, it was a baby boy that was indeed buried in the church yard.

Although I dont know his name, I can find no likely birth or death record, other members of the family think this wasnt required at the time, but I think it was if he got a church burial, does anyone know if this is correct?

many thanks to all.

Still births were recorded in a separate register which is not available to the general public.

ok, I will tell them thankyou.

Stillborn babies were often buried in a grave with someone else who had died round about the same time, usually a stranger. This happened to a friend in 1975. She has always regretted the fact that she does not know where her baby boy was buried but there are no records kept to show this.

We had a stillborn son in 1975 and there is no record of his burial. We believe we know which cemetery from a receipt posted to us by the undertaker. The local authority did a search of the records for us in recent years, but it seems there was no record kept of stillbirths in their cemetery. (We were not given the option of attending a burial at the time, when I was still in hospital and my husband understandably in a state of shock. Very much a case of go away and forget it all.)

Hope you have some luck in finding the resting place.

Joan,

I think we have discussed this in previous years - It is one of those things we have to accept. The manager of the cemetery even rang me, after my letter to them, to apologise for the lack of records. I did try to contact the funeral director too, to see if he maybe had another burial on the same day, which could have been one of the solutions. Sadly, he was long since gone.

All this happened long ago, and hundreds of miles from where we now live. Someday, we might take a long weekend to visit the area again.

Apologies to Leesle - seem to have invaded your thread.

Joan,

I suppose that is one avenue of research. Funnily enough, when I was at the doctors surgery about three or four years ago, the doctor asked if I would like the pages from my surgery records relating to that time, as they were due to be binned before the records went to computer. I had always thought our whole history stayed together forever. I now have those pages stored away, though they say very little.

Elisabeth

youve all been very kind, but in this case no one even remembers a funeral, this may sound silly, its not possible for someone to place the baby in an existing family grave without going through the proper channels.

is it?

I forgot to add this was a home birth with only a family member present.

Can I add, Im sorry about the sad experiences families have shared on this link, and thankyou for talking about it. God bless.

Can I add, Im sorry about the sad experiences families have shared on this link, and thankyou for talking about it. God bless.

thanks Joan, but wouldnt the vicar or priest have to be informed?

I assume a funeral company would have done this and not just the relative who was present at the birth? sorry to ask so many questions

leesle
Have you looked at the burial reegisters for that church, which are probably now in a county record office or other archive? A burial service should be recorded there for this baby if you know that he / she was definitely buried there.
Somewhere too there should be a plan of burial plots within the church grounds, as they would need these to be able to place family members together, at times. Maybe the present day church secretary can advise you where this would be.

Stillborns burials are recorded often. I have records from Southampton for a particular surname and they show plot numbers from as early as 1879.

Gwyn

Gwyn