OPR Death & Burial Help Please

[JaneyJ]

Hi all,

I have downloaded  several OPR Death entries for Edinburgh, not sure which graveyards they are, my people where married in St Cuthberts and the Canongate.

Anyway my question is, there seem to be directions to where they are buried at the end of the entries, and I don't know what the abbreviations mean, IE.

"Christian Pakerson (Parkinson) 35 years, Spouse of William Rankin, Porter"......There are 4 columns headed, Date (January 1837), Recorded (25), Buried (26), Place of Interment. "1 1/2 (half) DPM. E. of Murrays Head Stone".

Does "Recorded" on the 25th mean she died on the 25th, though it seems a bit quick to bury someone the day after?.

The place of interment information, I presume is a map ref'. Does anyone know what the DPM means, I've come across this in other OPR's, also Swansons (?) Ground, why would area's of a church yard be called after someone?

I've trawled the web but can't find anything about this, any info would be great.

Jane.

[Billyblue]

Can't help specifically, but a comment re "though it seems a bit quick to bury someone the day after?. "

Before refrigeration, people were often buried the day after.

Dawn M

[JaneyJ]

Hi Dawn

Thank you for your reply. I wasn't sure about how long before the burial, but it makes sense really, especially having a dead body in the cramped conditions my family lived in at that time.

Thanks again
Jane

[Templar75]

Hi Jane,

           some burials were done the next day especially if there was no place to keep the bodies, if there were Coffins it would have been a ready made one, or they may have been buried just in a sheet.

What does IE mean the " I " for Internment " E " I would think is East and 1 1/2 stands for Paces DPM - E, I would imagine is Directly Past Middle being middle of the Headstone and East of the Headstone.

So standing at the center of Murray's headstone take 1 1/2 paces East of it so that marks the spot of Christain's Plot where she is buried.

Regards.

Archie.

[JaneyJ]

Hi Archie,

Thank you so much, it's been driving me mad trying to work it out.  My family were Porters and Labourers in the Cowgate, so I should imagine that there would be very little money for a funeral.

Once again thankyou I can put this puzzle to rest now 

Jane.

[Unë kthimi i papenduar]

Same information for the recent post on "graves".

http://waeve.co.uk/genealogy/sourcefiles/St.Cuthbert's_Cemetry.pdf   Page 19 mentions an elaborate stone for a Murray.      However http://www.lineages.co.uk/?s=Murray has others in Edinburgh which could also fit.

[JaneyJ]

Thank you for the links, spent the last 2 hours having a little look. 

I think the next time I go up to Edinburgh I'll have a little wander round the grave yards. Though I think my people were too poor to have head stones, it would still be nice to see where the are.

Jane.