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Finding your ancestors’ burial records is an important part of family history research - but sometimes it can be no easy task!
Finding the death record of an ancestor is a vital part of family history research. In 1837, civil registration in England and Wales was introduced, which created a national register of birth, marriage and death records at the General Register Office. Tracing ancestors before 1837 means you will need to find their burial record in a local cemetery or graveyard. Looking for cemetery records is not a time-wasting task, as you might find the memorial inscription includes additional information, like the names of bereaved family members.
What is available to find online varies from place to place. Graveyards, municipal cemeteries and crematoria look after their own records - there is no central registry. The gaps in finding cemetery records have started to be filled over time by community-generated and commercial hubs that specialise in memorial inscriptions and cemetery records. It is important to note, however that some people may have been buried a long way from where they were living when they died.
Here are some useful websites to visit if you are trying to find cemetery records:
Findmypast : Has significant collections of memorial inscriptions from England and Scotland
TheGenealogist: Runs a headstone photographic project via UKIndexer with thousands of images and records
Find a Grave: People-powered cemetery records website with a huge photographic database.
Deceased Online: Long running UK cemetery records site where you can access digitalised cremation or burial registers along with photographs of graves & memorials, and cemetery maps showing the grave’s exact location.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission: a database of burial records for 1.7 million Commonwealth men and women who died fighting in the First and Second World Wars.
Locating burial records and graves can be a very daunting task, but for an experienced Genealogist like myself this is second nature. I offer a warm, friendly, reliable and professional service working together with my clients to create and nurture positive relationships. As part of my services, I offer research anywhere in the UK, finding ancestors via online research and/or visiting records offices and libraries and report back with detailed research reports on your ancestry including recommendations on next steps and/or further research.
However, if you are determined to find out about your ancestors by yourself, I offer online tutorial sessions on how to use Ancestry, Findmypast etc, including guidance and advice on how to self-serve and investigate your family history while I look into the more challenging areas on your behalf. You can find out more about the services I offer here.
Sound like something you’d be interested in? Get in touch!
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