Undertakers

[Paddy12]

Hi.

I am trying to locate the burial place of my grand uncle who was buried somewhere in SE London in 1955.  All I know is that the undertakers were Messrs., Knox Brothers, 204 Rotherhithe New Road, London, SE16.  I have googled this firm and see they are no longer in existence.  Does anybody know if the same firm still operates at a different location or if not would their records still be available anywhere.

Thanks.

[dawnsh]

Hi Paddy

My co-moderator Valda has written an excellent guide to burials in London here

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,403492.0.html

My first suggestion would be to look at a map of the area where your grand uncle lived before he died and see which cemeteries are the nearest.

At the moment, I don't know if Knox are still in business, I can't find them in the phone book. If they have been taken over by another firm, their records may survive. If they have ceased trading, the records have most probably been destroyed by now. You could also try ringing F A Albin who are local funeral directors and may know what happened to the business. I wouldn't build your hopes up about this method of research though.

Dawn

[Paddy12]

Thanks Dawn.

He lived in London W7. It was while a patient in St. Thomas' Hospital he died. A record I seen held at City of Westminster archives states his body was removed to a mortuary by Knox Brothers Undertakers. My grandfather travelled to arrange his funeral and stayed with inlaws in SW London. One member of the family remembers Nunhead being mentioned but a I had a gravesearch conducted there and that proved unsuccessful. I would really like to visit his grave as I do not believe anybody has been since his committal. My only other option is to search cemetery by cemetery and I do not like the thoughts of doing that!!

Thanks again,

Paddy.

[dawnsh]

Hi Paddy

Nobody likes the thought of that sort of search but unfortunately, in London especially, that is the reality.

Knox Brothers may have had the hospital contract to remove the body, but he may have been buried by another firm.

Have you tried cemeteries closer to W7?

I don't know if these are relevant

KNOX BROTHERS 184 Mitcham Road, Tooting,
SW17 9NJ
020 8672 2616

KNOX BROTHERS 53 Haydons Road,
Wimbledon, SW19 1HG
020 8540 2755

Knox Bros had 5 shops in SE London in the 1968 London phone book.

Dawn

[Paddy12]

I've wrote to both those firms and am awaiting a response. Do you think them 5 shops were owned by the one Knox Brothers or by separate families. Actually he didn't die in the hospital. As a patient he disappeared and was recovered from the Thames. His body was moved from the pier directly to a morgue. I might also contact F A Albin for his advise on the matter. I emailed the hospital but they never responses. Thanks again for your help.

Paddy

[dawnsh]

Traditional family funeral directors tended to be run by members of the same family, not always the same branch though. My father's business started in the late 1850's, split in half in the 1940's and is still going today but the other half is now run by a different branch of the family. His half was taken over by another firm in the 1980's when he sold it, still trades with the 'old' family name but he has nothing to do with the business. I can tell you though that his business records weren't kept dating right back to the beginning of trading.

I hope you get a reply to your enquiries but I wouldn't build my hopes up.

Although painstaking, I would pursue the cemetery enquiry route.

Dawn

[Mark1973]

Have you tried looking on www.deceasedonline.com

I found a lot of my family from Mitcham and Wimbledon on there

[Paddy12]

Hi Mark.

Thank you for your suggestion however it proved unsuccessful. No results have shown up for my search. I'm out of options at this time, I can only search cemetery by cemetery but this will take alot of time and money.

Thanks again for taking the time to write.

Regards,

Paddy.

[Valda]

Hi

There are 5 London boroughs who have put their cemetery records on Deceased Online (see the London burial guide for further details). They are Brent, Camden, Havering, Islington and Merton. In all there are 32 London boroughs plus the City of London. Three other London boroughs have their own cemetery records online Kingston-upon-Thames, Richmond-upon-Thames and Barking and Dagenham (though the latter is currently unavailable).


W7 would be the Paddington area therefore the City of Westminster (though Paddington Cemetery is now owned by Brent - records not online though).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W_postcode_area


In SE London the two London boroughs for St Thomas' hospital would be Lambeth and Southwark. Southwark has three cemeteries as does Lambeth, plus an independently owned cemetery in Streatham.

Unless you are certain there was a burial you should also request a search through cremation records which are kept separately from burial registers.

If you are not sure of the cemetery, the search (excluding privately owned cemeteries) would be by London borough not by individual cemetery.


If he is buried with another family member that might widen the search otherwise those are the three most likely London boroughs to make a start with.



Regards

Valda