where were the all buried? RALPH family

[rachelralph]

this may have been answered before on one of my many other hampshire posts, but scrolling through them all i cant find any reference to it.

all my RALPH family were born and raised, married and died in st marybourne hampshire. all the way back from CHARLES RALPH B 1794 D 1844 to the most recent WESLEY RALPH B 1879 D 1948

all the siblings and wives and children also in between as far as my records show died here too, and yet when i visited st marybourne church and graveyard i found no ralph's!

was there another graveyard or church that the residents of st marybourne attended?

[Moscatella]

Hi Rachel, 

Did you look for spelling variations? There are some Rolfes in the Hants Burial Index for St Mary Bourne. I can do look-ups prior to 1842 if it`s any help to you.

[Little Nell]

Municipal cemeteries and in the 20th century, there is always the possibility that they were cremated. 

Can you be sure that they remained CofE?

Nell

[rachelralph]

rolfe wasnt really one of the variants i have come across although who knows? so far it has only been roalf and ralph.

i cannot say for sure that they stayed CofE i just assumed they did. its just so odd that these people lived and worked and died in a village and then the church yard has none of them buried there!

[Little Nell]

I see that you say you visited the graveyard and found no Ralphs.  There may not be any headstones, but they might still be buried there.  Not everyone could afford a headstone, even in the mid-20th century.  Most of my great-grandparents (all of whom died in the mid 20th century) don't have headstones on their graves.

Nell

[Moscatella]

For what it`s worth there is a John Rolfe died 1838 age 33, Martha in 1841 age 34 and infant John 1838. 

[rachelralph]

ahhhh yes i hadnt thought of this! they werent rich people at all so this could be the reason why!

thank you very much for that linda i will look into that too

[supastitcher]

have u tried ringing test valley borough council on 01264368000 they have a list of all burials and cremations and where they r

[hampshire-grandma]

Hi Rachel,

I have loads of St. Mary Bourne Bright family in my tree, and they have no gravestones either.  I think they were too poor.  There is a disused old Methodist chapel on the Stoke Road, which has a few headstones, but again I'm sure they had to be well off.


I know of one person by the surname Ralph living in Whitchurch, Hants, which is  only about 3 miles from St. Mary Bourne.

There was also a Salvation Army building in St Mary Bourne way back, and probably a Baptist church, as there is a road called Baptist Hill in the village, but I expect neither of these would have burial grounds.

Regards,

Hampshire Grandma