RootsChat.Com
Beginners => Family History Beginners Board => Topic started by: monkers on Wednesday 06 March 13 22:28 GMT (UK)
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Hi there,
I am trying to trace my great grandfather and I have his death certificate. I was wondering how to go about finding where he is buried (were cremations common in the 1940s?)
Is it a case of wandering around church yards close to his last address, or is there a way of finding out this information online?
Thanks!
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Hi Monkers, if you can say where and when he died someone may be able to point you in the right direction.
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Hi
If you have the death certificate it gives you the date of death so I would look in the local papers for an obituary it usually gives the burial details. If you live away from the area try asking someone on this site to look for you or try contacting the local history library for the area they might also look it up for you.
John
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It might be worth trying this site if a UK death, but it only has partial coverage so you might not find anything
http://www.deceasedonline.com/
Wandering around local cemeteries might not be mush use, apart from the exercise ;D ! When my pa died a few years ago we had him cremated at the same crematorium where my mum was cremated 38 years earlier, and the same thing happened for my grandmother 50 years earlier.....In the latter case it was 20 miles away
It might be worth looking for a local family history society too, as many have transcribed monumental inscriptions where they exist
good luck
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were cremations common in the 1940s?
No, but they had been legal since the late 1800s (UK) - for example Manchester's first crematorium opened in 1892 & Liverpool's in 1896 though most are later.
UK death certificates do not give any information on burial or cremation. As John says - an announcement in a local paper (where the person lived or was from) may be the best source. Otherwise use the county resource boards on here to see what local records are online as well as GENUKI for the areas they lived or the family was from. By the 1940s many urban churchyards would have been full and burials would be more likely to have been in a local authority cemetery (or private ones in some areas). The current local council for the area will usually have on their website a list of those cemeteries they manage and how to access their records - some may be at a local studies library, some have websites, others charge for searches.
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I would contact the cemeteries department of the local council where he was last known to be living.
However, some councils do charge for look-ups so if you want to post his name, date of death and where he was living, someone here may be able to point you in a more specific direction.
Dawn
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Wow, thank you. Lots of information, I shall start on your suggestions this evening.
I am looking for An Alexander Harvey Lloyd. He was christened Alexander Lloyd, but added the Harvey himself which he used as a first name.
He died on the 28th August 1942 in Westminster hospital aged 56.
He lived on Cotsford Avenue, New Malden, Surrey with his wife Ellen/ Nellie and his death was registered in the city of Westminster.
If anyone knows how to search this area, I would be grateful as it is rather large!
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I Googled New Malden cemeteries and found a map with quite a few suggestions, Kingston is near according to my OH who is a London lad, so might be worth a try first off
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You can search for Kingston Upon Thames burials here but there doesn't seem to be an entry
http://www2.kingston.gov.uk/GraveRecords/
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Just a thought, but was his death associated with enemy action rather than illness? If the former burial might have been in same location as with other victims, but newspaper reports would probably have been censored