Genealogy Chat

Can anyone advise me on how to discover where someone was buried? Have certificate of infants death but she was put into an adults coffin with another person unknown. Is there a way of discovering her grave please? Would be grateful for any help.

Welcome to the boards Angela.

When did this happen please? Was the infant a still birth or neo-natal death? Edit - sorry, you did say you have the DC so the infant was born alive.

To start with, you'd need to work out which cemetery was closest to the place of birth or the parents home. Look for burial records and hope that there is a record for the infant, then search for other burials on the same day.
If a hospital had taken care of the burial, the remains might have been placed in mass grave at the publics expense.

Municipal cemetery records will often say 'from the Parish of....'. It's possible that the infant was buried with an adult also from that parish.

Still births weren't recognised as having existed. As such a paper trail, if there was one, is very hard to find. Older parish records would just say 'an infant, unknown' as they won't have been baptised. Edit - as the infant was born alive, the PR might say son/daughter of (father)

It would help if you told us a year, presumably in the UK. Other countries may have had other arrangements

Thanks for your reply. She was born in 1942 and died in 1944, aged 14 months. Her mother (my aunt) was never told where her little daughter was buried, just that she had been put into the coffin of an unknown person.

You have given me loads of food for thought and I will follow up the trails you have suggested.

My husband's baby brother died in 1946 at just 12 hours old. We checked for a burial record with the Durham County Records Office who found the burial record for us. It was at a churchyard which is close to us but the church has been demolished and the churchyard no longer in use. The record office told us which local church now had the churchyard records and when we checked with them we were given the plot number and told that he was also put into a coffin with a 2 year old girl who was being buried on the same day. (Apparently this was quite a common practice in those days).

The county records office for the area you are looking at may be able to help you in the same way. Because you have the certificate with the exact date of death it shouldn't take them long to search.

Kath. x

Thanks to both Joan and Kath for their input. My Auntie told me about my little cousin who was taken away from her after death. She was only told that the baby had been buried along with A.N.Other so she couldn't even take flowers to her baby's grave. Auntie is 96 now and I am trying to see if I can discover anything for her, without telling her first in case I fail. It all seems very strange in these enlightened(?) times but it would be wonderful if I could find a site for her. I'll be in contact over burial records next week. Thanks again.

Angela