Manchester General Cemetery On Winter Break until 2013

[Luzzu]

Some more "thank yous" added to our website guestbook this week:-

alpinecottage
Many thanks to the team for taking on this massive project.  Your hard work has led to the discovery and identification of one of the few gravestones that I've traced for my family, which would have remained undiscovered without the team's help.  It's wonderful that you have all been prepared to spend so much of your own time to preserve this useful and vital family history information. 

Ken
What a great idea.I have been looking for ages to try to find my grandparents John and Ellen (Helen? )who died 1940 and 1942 respectively. On completion of this project,I might get lucky! Good luck and thanks to all volunteers.

Graham & Sue
We visited the cemetery on Sunday 26th June, arriving just as the The Manchester General Cemetery Transcription Project team were packing up.  After a chat about what we were searching for the team turned around and helped us to find what we were searching for.  Unfortunately, when we found the grave there was no visible headstone.  Karen and her team checked the grave and established that the headstone was in fact covered in a number of inches of soil.  One week later the team had uncovered the headstone and sent us photographs - confirming that we had indeed found some 'lost' relatives.  Many thanks for your efforts and keep up the good work!

Jean
I would just like to thank you very much for your cooperation in helping me trace my families graves. I was overwhelmed with the amount of assistance i received and I can't thank you enough, because it is very difficult to do when you live in Australia.
Thank you again

Also a couple more people added to the Notable Burials:  George Edward Lomax, a popular temperance and political speaker and witness to the Peterloo Massacre and James Ogden Fletcher MD who during his medical career was the surgeon at Manchester City Gaol.

Have a really good day tomorrow.

Luzzu 

[Cancan]

Hi All!!!

Well, it absolutely bucketed down today.  So only managed to get the morning for recording transcriptions and uncovering.

Spatts & goldy did a exhausting job of uncovering!!

beannie is working on her project of epitaphs, soon to appear on the website!

beannie also came across today a gravestone that has been re-erected by the Council workers that had a ceramic picture of the lady in the centre of the Gravestone in 1901.   Quite a find!!

For those of the team who are holiday  at the moment or just going,  enjoy and have a lovely time, see you soon!  from ALL the TEAM.

Cancan

Sadly all the work by the Council seems to have ground to holt at the moment, since the break in of their cabin.  We are trying at the moment to find out what is going to happen regarding the Cemetery.

[Cancan]

Hi All,

Sunday 17th July's Ground Work day is CANCELLED due to the predicted bad weather,  hopefully it will all have cleared by next Sunday!!

Cancan

[Barbara.H]

To cheer up all rained-off transcribers a bit - I found this in the newspaper archives..

"An egg was laid on Saturday morning, by a duck belonging to Mr. J. B. Rogerson, registrar of the Harpurhey Cemetery, Manchester; it measured in length 8 inches and in circumference 6½ inches; and weighs a quarter of a pound and 18 grains avoirdupois. the duck is a white one, of small breed, and lays regularly every morning."

Friday, May 24, 1850, reported for some reason, in the Newcastle Courant 

As I'm not able to get down to the ground work days as often as I'd like, I thought I'd look through the archives for interesting news & burials in our cemetery - this was one of the first items to surface!

  Barbara

PS article on John Bolton Rogerson, Manchester poet, registrar (and duck-keeper), from dictionary of national biography, here:
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Rogerson,_John_Bolton_%28DNB00%29

[Viktoria]

OUCH!!!! Do you think a goose could have hi-jacked the duck`s nesting box?

I can`t get down at all -- my O.H fell and fractured his shoulder and wrist and then went into kidney failure so admitted to Fairfield Hosp as an emergency.He`s unable to drive for the present and I can`t so what with  our long -term general health problems we are misssing it all and there are so many of my rellies buried there it is frustrating to say the least.
I never thought that on my wish list would be a visit to a cemetery!!!!

Well done all the stalwarts.  Viktoria.

[Luzzu]

That's an interesting snippet Barbara.  They must have been short of news in Newcastle on 24 May 1850  .  Bit of nuisance that he died and was interred on the Isle of Man otherwise he could he (and his duck) could have featured on our Notable Burials section.  We'll have to fit him in to the website somewhere though.

Luzzu 

[Barbara.H]

You mean we have no records for ducks? tut! 

There are one or two interesting people in the papers who did oblige by being buried in the cemetery though.
Found an actor, a boxer and a Waterloo veteran so far! I'll send you their details asap

And if there are any more like Mr Rogerson, we could start an 'Interesting Registrars' section 

  Barbara

[Luzzu]

Ooh yes Barbara send them through  .

Still wondering why people in Newcastle would be interested in Mr Rogerson's duck, its egg with such precise measurements too  .

Luzzu

[Cancan]

                                 

Well, what a difference a week makes!!

Weather was fantastic and we got loads done!!!

The Council have now removed their works cabin after the break-in, and no more work has been done at the Cemetery since the break-in, which is a real shame as it was starting to look better!!  Lets hope they haven't given up!!

Hopefully we have more to add to the website, with Luzzu doing a brilliant job of research!!

See everyone next Sunday!!

Cancan