taking ownership of a grave

[poppymilly]

hi
my gr gr gr grandmothers daughter has a very large grave with a six foot tall granit stone the daughter married but never had children the daughter still ownes the grave but she died in 1909.
This may sound stupid but i have been told that i may be able to claim ownership.
Has anybody heard of this before or even done this,
The grave is at Chingford mount.

[dawnsh]

The first thing you need to do is contact the cemetery office and find out if this is possible.

I would be very surprised if the ownership is still valid, very few graves were sold 'in perpetuity', the leases usually last for 50 or 75 years.

My g-grandparents are buried in a municipal cemetery in Hertfordshire. The 50 yr lease expired in 1999 before I got involved in family history. All the cemetery could do was put my name and address on file in case they ever need to contact me.


Dawn

[poppymilly]

hi
thanks for your reply
i remember visiting the geave about 2 years ago and spoke to the 'cemetery people' they were they ones that gr gr gr grandmothers daughter still owned the grave so i did mention about taking the grave over they said i would have to prove i was related.
Do you think this may be a private grave.
M gr gr gr gran was the first person to be buried, on the burial details the depth after she was burried was 12 feet.
Is that quite a deep grave, there are four people burried there.
Thank you

[dawnsh]

It is a private grave if there is a memorial or headstone, you aren't allowed to put those on public graves.

You really must contact the cemetery to find out what their actual terms & conditions are.

http://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/index/environment/funerals/cemeteries/chingford-mount-cemetery.htm

Make sure you have the full name and date of death to hand when you make you enquiry. They won't be able to help without it.

Dawn

[poppymilly]

hi thanks dawn
i will let you know how i get on

[Gaille]

hi
my gr gr gr grandmothers daughter has a very large grave with a six foot tall granit stone the daughter married but never had children the daughter still ownes the grave but she died in 1909.
This may sound stupid but i have been told that i may be able to claim ownership.
Has anybody heard of this before or even done this,
The grave is at Chingford mount.

You will need to prove that all other possible 'owners' are deceased i would think.

My mum had my grandparents grave transfered to her ownership after my nanas death - we had to take papers to prove mum was the only child of both of her parents, and that they had both died (easy enough as they were both in the grave!)

My grandparents grave is an 'in perpetuaty' one - and the man in the cemetery office told mum all she had to do was lodge a letter with them saying that the grave was to revert to ownership of myself & my siblings upon her death (which I obviously hope wont be for a while yet!)

We have another family grave that is 'owned' for 50 years - I asked what we do when this time is up and the registrar said we could 'renew the lease' if we wanted when this happens (lol made us all giggle at the thought of having a lease!)

Gaille

[poppymilly]

hi
thanks for you commet
i have rang the cemetery and they are sending papers

[poppymilly]

Hi all
Spoke to chingford cemetery
The grave is a large family grave
The last person to be buried in grave was 1909
As long as i am a direct decendent of owner of grave they are going to allow me to register as owner
They are going to send me the paper work and wrtite up new deeds
As the grave is so old all they know is the owner they are not sure how long the lease is for so they are not able to use grave
Realy intresting
So if there is anybody out there with an ancestor at chingford cemetery then get in touch with them they are realy helpful and are very intrested in people researching there ancestors

[dawnsh]

That's really good news for you.

Just make sure you leave the deeds somewhere safe and with your instructions for later on.

Dawn