St Luke's, Cheetham, Manchester

[njsimon]

My Great Great Great Grandfaher is absolutely definitely buried in this beautiful old churchyard and I am so grateful to have found this site.

We want to make a journey to see if we can find his headstone but from the postings it looks like a difficult task.

Does anyone know what the future holds for the churchyard?  Who could we contact to make some progress? 

All suggestions gratefully received!

Thank you.

[Cancan]

Hi,

St Luke's and St Mark's are still in the same state - nothing has happened yet, either clearing or recording. 

There is a plot map for St Mark's done by MLFHS they have given them their own numbers and doesn't  match the numbers on the gravestones, hopefully they will correct this when it is done again. Haven't seen or come across plot plan for St Luke's or had a reply to my query if there is one from the North West Heritage.

North West Heritage are now in charge of St Luke's, but like said nothing has happened to make any improvements to the grounds yet, we were last there two weeks ago and the weeds were higher than the stones. The gates and railings had been re-secured. Best time to visit would be when all the weeds etc have died, stones can be seen then.

Try contacting N.W. Heritage but as previously said by myself and others they don't seem to be much help, I've contacted them five times now and still no reply either by email or phone.

I've given up with them, but maybe luck will be with you
Or just try general pestering

Good Luck!

Cancan

[Jolyon]

Hello njsimon,

As the originator of the topic perhaps a brief update would be useful to yourself and others.

My attempts to gain access is too long a story to relate in full here, but included contacting local clergy and the NW Heritage Trust, neither being particularly forthcoming.
However, my persistence was rewarded when I eventually arranged to co-ordinate a visit with a time when NWHT workmen were on site.  But I gave up looking for my family grave as the graveyard is indeed in a very poor state and terribly overgrown. And I'm not that mobile these days.

I recall there is a map, of sorts, of the graveyard at M/cr Archives, and they were very helpful in response to my 'paid for' search.
If you PM me I can perhaps dig out a couple of useful phone numbers and contact names from my own archives.

Jolyon

[sefton1]

A relative discovered some years ago that some of the family headstones at St Lukes had been moved. There are burial records which are not deposited at the Manchester Archives from the 1930's to the closure of the church in the 1980's and despite receiving an email from the Archives who were 'going to look into it', I didn't hear back. Does anyone know where they are?
Thanks!

[Cancan]

The Monumental Inscriptions for St Luke's are held by the Manchester & Lancashire family History Society.  This is stated on the first page of the microfilm that the LDS have.  It is a typed Transcription and it does look like the ink has bled.
I haven't seen or come across a plot plan for St Luke's yet.
Cancan

You could try contacting the mlfhs for a lookup, if you have the names and dates, but I have been told recently that they now make a charge for a lookup, if not a member    Hopefully not

As the mlfhs done the transcriptions in the 1980's/90's?  I would think they transcribed all the stones that were there at the time.

The LDS copied parish records that were made available at the time they approached Churches to copy their records.  These were mainly done in the 1970's/80's, for the UK   though they are still doing this to date, all over the world. Churches do have the option to state what date they can be copied too.  (Many at the time used a 70yr protection date.) So this why many are not available for later dates.  It is upto the Church to contact any organisation if they wish to donate anymore records to be copied.  (Some that allowed the records to be copied to later date, the LDS have used a cut off date for protection.) (This information about the LDS films and details was told to me by various people who visit LDS genealogical libraries.)

The microfilm for St Luke's via the LDS is not worth spending the money for as it is badly copied. Whether the copy held at the Manchester library is better I'm not sure

Best option is the mlfhs 

As previous posters have stated, none of us yet after contacting via persons and organisations cannot find any other records available.

Good Luck with your search!

[Luzzu]

Hi,

May be able to help with the memorial inscription but would need names and approximate dates.  If you want to send a personal message you need to make three Rootschat postings before you can do this.

Luzzu 

[sefton1]

The family graves that I am looking for are those relating to Jabez & Louisa Perkins, Richard & Mary Kew, George H Kew and Herbert Todd. I have added some of their names to the database on www.findagrave.com .

 I called off at St Lukes yesterday to see if I could photograph any of the graves through the fence. There are no notices up warning of the dreaded knotweed but there is no access to the site.  There is an information board up with the phone number of the Heritage Trust for the North West but that's it.

 It was very tempting to try and squeeze under the fence...! However, I was good and managed to get some photos of some of the graves by standing on the wall. I've also put these names on findagrave, but haven't got round to putting the photos on yet. If I've listed anybody's relatives on there let me know and I'll put the corresponding photo on. As already mentioned in previous posts, the graveyard is very overgrown so seeing any stones is a bonus! Hope they help someone.
Liz

[Luzzu]

Just checked the MI's for the names you are looking for - without success I am afraid.  Sorry  .

Luzzu

[sefton1]

Thanks for looking anyway... I've tried to plot the grave photos I've got by checking the burial records on familysearch, so I know roughly where our graves are (almost within reach of the fence just behind the bus stop annoyingly!). Hopefully someone will get access... Ho hum- would love to see them.
Liz