Cambusnethan Cemetery Grave Search - Part 1

[Lodger]

Hi Louise,

You will have to contact North Lanarkshire Council cemeteries office at Bellshill, giving them the date of death of the last person to be interned in that lair (if known).

Or, it may be possible to check at the small office at the cemetery gates but it isn't always easy to catch the supervisor there, he may be out in the cemetery somewhere and it's a big place!

Lodger

[sage]

Hi Lodger,

I've gone off on yet another tangent!  Would you please have a look for a Samuel Murray who died 28 Dec 1881 in a pit accident.  His parents were James Murray & Ann Stillen.

Samuel's wife was Ann Lilly (spelt in various ways) but I don't know when she died.  Also be very interested if any family members were buried with them.

With thanks,
Heather.

[grandma]

Hi Lodger.

What is the difference between a paupers burial and a burial in common ground?
Have just discovered my gr. grandmother Mary Fulton was buried in common ground at Bent Cemetery.

Mary

[Lodger]

Hi Mary,
They mean more or less the same thing.  Although sometimes the pauper in question may have been interred in a family plot, if one existed, at the expense of the parochial board. This of course would save space in the common ground. There is much evidence in the Cambusnethan records that this did happen. It just meant that the parish paid for the coffin, transport to the place of burial and for the opening of the ground.
The parochial board always had several areas throughout the burial ground that were set apart for paupers. Usually but not in every case, they were areas that due to bad drainage, solid rock - whinstone etc; parishioners didn't want.  (The parochial board had a duty towards all the poor of the parish, not just those who worshiped in the parish church but to all denominations).
It will probably be impossible to pinpoint a grave in any surviving piece of common ground into which a particular pauper has been interred. No grave markings of any kind plus the planting of trees and flowerbeds over the years would make the area unrecognisable now.

Lodger.

[grandma]

Hi Lodger.

Thanks for the explanation. It does seem strange though that they couldn`t afford a decent burial. The husband was a furnace man and even though there were 4 younger children there was 1 son living at home who was working as a coal miner.

There were 2 other children who died earlier so can assume they all ended up in the common ground. Guess we`ll never know.

Cheers.

Mary

[Lodger]

Mary, there is nothing strange about it.  It happened to thousands of working-class people throughout the land.  Most people had no savings of any kind, some had life insurance but that was usually reserved for the breadwinner. The luxury of a decent burial was something only the better-off could afford.  It wasn't much of a decision really, spend the few pounds you had in order to bury your wife or, pay the rent buy coal and feed the children. (Mournings had to be bought too).
These were the good old-fashioned values Maggie Thatcher wanted us to go back to.

Lodger.

[grandma]

No., I guess we just can`t imagine what their lives were like. At least their children went on to better lives, the ones who survived childhood. My grandmother went to Canada and ended up, a highly respected person of the community.

Hoping that if I find where my gr.grandfather is buried that there is a stone in their memories.

Thanks for explaining this.

Cheers.

Mary

[fifer1947]

Please try to understand how bitter life was for these poor people. 

Miners or colliers were shunned by other levels of society a throwback to attitudes of the 1600's when they worked naked underground like animals.  I was fortunate not to have come from a line of colliers or miners but did some research into their lives through my partners family (and for Fife Pits site) going back to 1600's - well documented I might add - because they (and their wives and children they produced) belonged to the mine owner at that time and were bought and sold along with the mine.

Just going back 100 years to 1910/1915 the way these people were expected to live was an absolute disgrace.  Often what little money was spare or could be scrimped and saved was used to help their young folk get away to another country and the chance of a better life. 

The following site will give you some idea of the conditions of pit row cottages they had to live in before WW1.  http://www.scottishmining.co.uk/143.html

[grandma]

No. it`s almost impossible to understand how they survived at all. This was 1860/70 so I can only try to imagine what it was like. Having children every second year and living like that on Furnace Row. My gr.grandmother died after giving birth to her 10th child!!!

We don`t know how lucky we are in this day and age.

Mary