RootsChat.Com
Family History Documents and Artefacts => Graveyards and Gravestones => Topic started by: May2488 on Saturday 13 December 25 15:51 GMT (UK)
-
I recently bought grave details from Deceased Online and it says there was 17 other people buried in the same plot. They were all buried between April and August 1915, some buried on the same day. Is this a shared plot for paupers or just an error?
-
It does seem an awful lot - there are 'public graves' for paupers, but I have never known that many in one grave. I think the most I have seen is 6.
It's possible the grave number has been mis-transcribed - but I can't imagine that happening for SO many!
-
Do you have the names of the other occupants. If so you can presumably tell if they are related or not. Was your burial the earliest one in the time frame?
Some plots were bought for 'life' although actually there was a limitation on the number of years of exclusivity so it might simply be that the plot was not exclusive to anyone but the fact that there were 18 people in there in total leads one to assume it was a common grave.
Pheno
-
Do you have the names of the other occupants. If so you can presumably tell if they are related or not. Was your burial the earliest one in the time frame?
None of them have the same last name or seem to be related and the earliest burial was 22nd of April (1915), 'My' burial was buried on the 1st of July (1915) and was the 12th person to be buried in the plot.
-
The plot thickens...
Zaph
-
Also from Deceased Online: I have a record for one of mine - 14th burial of 18 in a plot in Islington Cemetery, Finchley, Middlesex, dating from 17 May 1884 to 22 June 1884. Most of them are children under the age of 5.
-
Hi
I have used Deceased Online a good many times over the years.
They have good coverage of the Greater London area and I have seen A LOT of grave plots with a lot of almost always unrelated people buried in them. In a populous area like London, I guess it's hardly surprising.
On the burial scans you can sometimes see the depth at which someone was buried annotated (in my cases) on the right hand side. So, if you check "others in grave" you might work out who went in first by the date and who's on top of who by the depth buried.
Of course, there were double plot or family graves which would have been purchased outright. Although, that didn't always work out the way planned...I've seen grandparents with grandchild, a husband and his neighbour and some plain odd combinations. Perhaps people forgot to tell their heirs where they had bought their space of eternal peace.....these days 25 years top whack!
On that note....Season's Greetings!
Rebel
-
Yes -- my main experience with Deceased On Line has been with average sized towns.
I can imagine that in London, a larger plot would be dug for pauper burials. Very interesting though.
Season's Greetings to you also, Rebel -- (just to lighten the tone of the subject of burials!)
-
Thank you all for your help! ;D I agree that it's some sort of pauper plot.
-
Do you have the names of the other occupants. If so you can presumably tell if they are related or not. Was your burial the earliest one in the time frame?
Some plots were bought for 'life' although actually there was a limitation on the number of years of exclusivity so it might simply be that the plot was not exclusive to anyone but the fact that there were 18 people in there in total leads one to assume it was a common grave.
Pheno
Here are the details for churchyards in our diocese at the moment:
The maximum period of reservation permitted by law is 100 years but it is the Chancellor`s usual policy to reserve for a much shorter period, generally 50 years, although this may be extended in appropriate circumstances if, by its expiry, the right has not been exercised.
-
Thank you all for your help! ;D I agree that it's some sort of pauper plot.
It is not a pauper plot as such although some of the occupants may have been paupers.
It is a common grave. Grave plots were expensive and only the fairly affluent could afford to purchase a private family grave. The rest were buried in common aka public graves.
Most of the people in common graves were ordinary working people who paid their own way and never asked for charity. Their family paid the burial and funeral costs, so they were not paupers.
I think of it like the difference between travelling by public transport and travelling in your own car. Not having a car doesn't mean you're a pauper and neither does being buried in a common grave.
I live near a large London cemetery where 18 people in a common grave is quite usual. I do wonder how they managed to dig them so deep.
-
In some cases the list of the departed can be quite distressing, local cemetery [now closed] in Leeds contains multiple remains of children, where the children were classed as born sleeping/deaths within days! All this near major hospital.RIP
Brian