View Full Version : Where on earth was she buried??
ElizabethHerts
16-07-13, 04:56
I have the death certificate for my 4x-great-grandmother Elizabeth White.
She died on 26th January 1847 in Saint Mary's, Guildford, Surrey. She was 77.
You would think it would be easy to find her burial now that the PRs for Guildford are on Ancestry. But no, she is not buried at Guildford St Nicholas, St Mary or Holy Trinity. I checked Stoke-next-Guildford too.
As far as I'm aware, she lived all her married life in Guildford, and her husband George was buried at St Mary's in 1804.
Rather puzzling.
I don't have any answers, Elizabeth, but just wanted to sympathise. I have lost count of the number of relatives who have gone missing after their deaths with no explanation.
I don't suppose any cemeteries had opened in the area by that date? I would have thought even if there was an available cemetery she wouldn't be in it unless St Mary's had stopped burials (no they hadn't) or perhaps if she was non-conformist.
ElizabethHerts
16-07-13, 06:29
I don't think the cemeteries had opened by then, Merry, but I'll check.
The non-conformist route is worth pursuing, as the birth of George and Elizabeth's last child, Rebecca, is recorded as non-conformist. Also, their son Edward, my 3x-great-grandfather, brought his children up as Baptists.
ElizabethHerts
16-07-13, 06:33
There's nothing showing on UK BMD Registers.
Burial Grounds (as distinct from parish churchyards) were started by non-conformists in the 17th century; many more were established in the 18th century. The first public cemetery in London was established in 1827 in Kensal Green, a 79-acre site, which had separate chapels for Anglicans and Dissenters. Other landscaped public cemeteries were soon opened at Norwood (1837), Highgate (1839), Nunhead (1840), Abney Park, Stoke Newington (1840), and Tower Hamlets (1841). Before the middle of the 19th century such cemeteries were generally run as commercial ventures, but after the passing of legislation in the 1850s enforcing the closure of urban churchyards, municipal cemeteries became the rule.
Would Highgate be near?
Would Highgate be near?
No it isn't! lol
ElizabethHerts
16-07-13, 06:51
Not such a silly question, Merry, as my great-grandmother is buried there, and she died in Guildford! That was because her husband was buried there as they were living at Hornsey when he died.
OH has an ancestor buried in Bunhill Fields.
How good is the recording of burials? I have an ancestor dying in nearby Wonersh in 1838 and they couldn't remember what day of the month they had buried her and I have seen baptisms squeezed into the bottoms of pages.
I checked Brookwood, but that didn't open until a few years later.
ElizabethHerts
16-07-13, 08:07
I don't think Stoke Cemetery at Guildford had opened either.
I did wonder about human error, Phoenix!
Olde Crone
16-07-13, 10:24
No help at all, but I have a tranche of family all buried at a noncon chapel (I think!) between 1799 and 1821 when the chapel closed and two new chapels were opened. The burial register went missing then and hasn't been seen since!
OC
Mary from Italy
16-07-13, 10:56
Quite a lot of noncon burials don't seem to have survived; I've found very few for my noncons.
NSW death certificates have place of burial listed, but sometimes that is not as much help as you would think.
I have an ancestor who was buried where Sydney Central Railway Station is now and I don't know if he got relocated. His wife is supposedly buried in Morpeth, but no sign of her there. I am fairly sure she should be there as the undertaker was her grandson who lived in Morpeth.
tenterfieldjulie
16-07-13, 11:33
Marquette, Have I ever looked for his death? I have out of the library at the moment a book called "Sydney Burial Ground 1819-1901 (Elizabeth and Devonshire Streets) and History of Sydney's Early Cemeteries from 1788", by Keith Johnson and Malcolm Sainty. There is a lot of information in it, including the transfers in 1901, so let me know if I haven't looked. Julie
I have the death certificate for my 4x-great-grandmother Elizabeth White.
She died on 26th January 1847 in Saint Mary's, Guildford, Surrey. She was 77.
Is that when she died or when her death was registered? Any poss that she may have been buried at the end of 1846?
ElizabethHerts
16-07-13, 12:25
That was the date she died, Shona. Her death was registered on 28th January 1847.
I'm going to e-mail the Surrey History Centre later today to see if they have any non-conformist burial records for Guildford.
Even with recent burials it can be hard.
OH's mother died in the 1950's and only recently have we found that she was cremated at a private crematorium in Edinburgh. - thanks deceased online.
Until statutory registration, generations of my Scottish lot left no trace of when they died or where they were buried.
ElizabethHerts
16-07-13, 13:47
I've just e-mailed the Surrey History Centre to ask for suggestions.
I must visit, because I know there is a big box of tricks relating to my 2x-great-grandparents' shop in Guildford High Street, which my mother's cousin deposited when the shop closed in the 1960s.
I must visit, because I know there is a big box of tricks relating to my 2x-great-grandparents shop in Guildford High Street, which my mother's cousin deposited when the shop closed in the 1960s.
That sounds very interesting!!
ElizabethHerts
16-07-13, 14:58
That sounds very interesting!!
My daughter has seen it. Apparently it has lots of miscellaneous stuff in it, including a photo of my 2x-great-grandmother, born 1837, sitting on a platform surveying the goings-on.
A friend (we think we are cousins, but that is a VERY long way back) had an ancetsor in Normandy (Surrey) a neighbour of William Cobbett. He was a renowned non-con and walked to Kingston for a good sermon, only to find that the chapel had closed 4 years ago. The baptisms of his children are sprinkled all over the place. It might be further out than you'd think. Though I would expect a couple to be buried together.
Surrey History Centre would be delighted to see you: they are thriving on the more unusual requests that come their way these days.
ElizabethHerts
17-07-13, 08:03
Thanks, Phoenix. I'll try to get there soon. I have a soft spot for Guildford and the surrounding area as I was born in Guildford and married at Shalford.
ElizabethHerts
17-07-13, 08:13
I've just had a thought!
The 1804 burial I have for George White does not give an age, and therefore isn't necessarily mine.
Especially bearing in mind the fact that in 1801 there was more than one George White in Guildford.
http://www.familytreeforum.com/showthread.php/53680-1801-Census-of-Guildford
My George could have been buried elsewhere too.
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