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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => London & Middlesex Lookup Requests => London and Middlesex => England => London & Middlesex Completed Lookup Requests => Topic started by: Gemerald on Wednesday 21 October 09 14:04 BST (UK)
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Hello,
I have been looking at the LMA Burial Index and have come across the following phrase:
"Buried from the dead house"
under the Abode column in the entry of a child buried at 2 months old.
Does anyone know what this could mean?
I thought it could mean Mortuary, but I'm not sure.
Thanks,
Gemma
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See this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_house
Pinot
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There's another reference here
http://www.workhouses.org.uk/index.html?StPancras/StPancras.shtml
just under the 2nd map
Dawn
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Thank you Pinot and Dawn.
It seems that it wasn't a phrase that was that widely used. All my internet searches were bringing up Horror films!
Gemma
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My husband's g-g-g-grandmother and two of her grandchildren were killed in a house fire in Lambeth in 1873. The (very graphic!) newspaper reports of the time mentioned that the bodies were taken to the "dead house" - there is even a picture on the front of the "Illustrated Police News" of their coffins sitting on trestles in the dead house, with various family members looking into them :o ;D
Not sure if it was just somewhere where bodies were kept while their inquest was processing, or whether there was a wider use for it.
Prue
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Thanks Prue,
Wow, that certainly does sound quite graphic. It seems they were a lot less restrained in the details reported in newspapers back then!
I think curiosity is going to lead me to getting the child's death certificate in this case. His birth and death are in the same quarter, so i think it's likely he was born and died in a Workhouse.
Gemma
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Dead House was an old term for a mortuary. See the Oxford English Dictionary.
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Hi Gemerald
Came across your posts as I am researching the name Champion from Kent and this name is listed as one you are interested in! Then I saw your post about the child being 'buried from the dead house'. I am also a member of our local cemetery conservation group and we have a dead house in our cemetery. It is a windowless stone built room adjacent to the cemetery lodge where the bodies were kept prior to burial. Don't know any more than that though...
I wonder if we share Champions from Kent?
Trunkybun
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Hi trunkybun
Gemerald hasn't been online here for quite a while. If she has switched off her notifications or changed email addresses she won't know that we have posted on this topic.
You could try sending her a personal message and include the topic's url to see if she replies.
Dawn