Inspired by user feedback, this week’s post
looks at the best ways to use the database
Thank you very much to
all those who have emailed, tweeted and written on our Facebook
page. We really appreciate your comments and would like to respond
with some useful tips on getting the best from the Deceased Online website.
Burial records provide
an essential resource for family historians. Unfortunately, even when
you have details of an ancestor’s death from a death certificate or
obituary, finding where he or she is buried can prove difficult.
Sometimes, when your ancestor has a common name, the burial record
can provide the details you need to identify him or her in the
General Register Office index or in the ScotlandsPeople records.
The Deceased Online
database holds a variety of burial and cremation records, including
images of registers, maps of cemeteries with grave locations and some
photographs of memorials and headstones. The records also enable you
to discover who shares your ancestor’s grave. This can be
especially useful in revealing a relationship between two unmarried
people (in the case of two of my great great grandparents) and help
locate siblings or other family members whose married names are not
yet known.
Use the FreeSearch on
the homepage to check for family members in our records. It is worth
experimenting with the names. If you have female ancestors who are
buried in Scotland, for example, you may find them registered under
their maiden names.
If you are unsure of
the spelling of surnames (in particular) or other names, then there
are various tools to help you. A simple option is to replace the
letters in a name that you're unsure of with a % (percentage sign).
Obviously this wouldn't be effective with the first letter as it
would throw up infinite options. This and other searching techniques
are fully explained in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section.
Where your ancestor
has a common name and hundreds of entries are returned, you may
prefer to use the Free Advanced Search. Use the options to choose the
country (either UK or Ireland), the region, and the dates. If you
know the exact cemetery, click on the county dropbox and then on the
cemetery’s name in the ‘burial authority or crematorium’
dropbox which next appears.
You can also limit
your search to burial records, cremation records or headstone
collection.
If you know the area
where you ancestor died, and would like to know if it is covered by
the database, check the full list of participating cemeteries and
crematoria online.
Keep checking the list, this blog, or sign up for our email
newsletter, tweets and Facebook updates as we are continually adding
new areas.
From the list of
Search Results, use the burial date and cemetery name to identify the
correct person. Clicking on the name reveals the Burial Register
Summary and Further Information Available. These further details
vary, but can include details of the grave, revealing the names of
other occupants; a scan of the burial register showing your
ancestor’s name, age, address and other information; and a cemetery
map.
The cemetery map is essential for anyone planning to visit an ancestor’s burial site. I know from personal experience scrabbling through brambles in churchyards that a map showing the exact location of my ancestor’s grave has proved invaluable to the search. On one occasion, it was only the fact that the map showed the burial plot that I persevered. Eventually, after cutting through overgrown foliage, I found a large tombstone with a wonderfully revealing memorial to my great great grandmother. Even in modern, well-tended cemeteries, older graves may be neglected and difficult to find and frequently have no headstones. Where a headstone does remain, it may be weathered and illegible.
As users of the
website will know, we charge what we believe are modest rates to
download documents which are certainly considerably less expensive
than visiting cemeteries and/or bereavement services and (usually)
having to purchase paper copies of the data. You can read about our
pricing policy in the FAQ section and why we need to charge for
accessing the documents.
I discovered your web site via Google while looking for a related subject, lucky for me your web site came up, its a great website. cremation laughlin
ReplyDeleteThank you, Mike! We're so pleased you like it.
DeleteEmma.
John Wallace died 1949 in Selkirkshire in a Forestry Accident.
ReplyDeleteI have searched Graveyards, Cemeteries, Crematoriums, Funeral Directors, Newspapers, Burial Authorities, Records on line and Sheriff Courts. I know where he was born, worked, married, his children, how he died and where he died and the date of his death. WE CANNOT FIND THE FINAL RESTING PLACE OF JOHN WALLACE [1915-1949]
DeleteThank you for sharing this. Have you found your relative in the database?
ReplyDeleteEmma.