Genealogy Chat

Hi i wonder if anyone can tell me about public graves. for instance how much would it cost and how many people would be buried in it. i have found some of my rellies in public graves yet some in family plots. just wondered about the difference i presume it was money or that person had no rellies. i have found that 5 members of one family including 3 children aged 0-2 are in one family grave and yet a 1 day old is in a public grave ? any info would be great love linda x x

The ones I have in public graves were there because they died in the workhouse and were buried as a job lot so to speak. Workhouses were often used as sort of hospitals especially by unmarried mothers, so maybe if a baby died there, it would go into a public grave Linda

hi linda, thanks for that. the baby was born to the same family who owned the family plot. they were poor but not in the workhouse. it must have been an awful time for mothers. a lady has just emailed me and told me that sometimes a relative would just take the baby away when it died because it wasnt thought to be a good idea for the mother to dwell on it. so perhaps thats what happenned. the lady i spoke to at the cemetery told me that on the film it did state' no ceremony' so that means they would have just turned up at the cemetery with a coffin. in the grave with baby jane oneill are 14 other babies. how sad is that. love linda x

But some people just couldn't afford to buy a grave so they were buried with others, unrelated ,in public graves ,What used to called paupers graves. I found the grave of my paternal grt gran in our local council owned cemetery. she died in 1907 just three weeks before my dad was born. ,and is buried in a public unmarked grave with eight others.What is nice tho is that the cemetery records are still available &&& they did keep the these graves inline with the private ones so the row & grave no are still able to be found I was allowd to put some flowers on the spot from her sons family which must have been along time since she was acknowledged Shirley

it's quite likely there was no ceremony because the baby hadn't been baptised, being only 1 day old. If the family grave was in consecrated ground, burying an unbaptised baby in it wouldn't have been an option before the law was changed in 1880.

the family were very strong irish catholic and i suppose that if the baby hadnt been ill and had just died they might not have had her baptised. the year was 1912 . i feel so sad that she is not buried with the rest of her family. but being with 14 other babies is ome comfort at least she wasnt alone. love linda x