British Cemetery and Cremation Records from Deceased Online

This week we continue our series looking at epitaphs - those final words that help to immortalize our forebears in cemeteries.    Above: a painting of Eliot by François D'Albert Durade, and her headstone Numerous literary giants can be found in the burial and cremation registers on the  Deceased Online website . One of the famous literary epitaphs is that of George Eliot in Highgate Cemetery , north London: "Of those immortal dead who live again In minds made better by their presence" Here lies the body of "George Eliot" Mary Ann Cross George Eliot   (1819 to 1880),  o ne of the most prominent writers of the Victorian era,  was buried in Highgate East Cemetery. Although she was baptised "Mary-Anne Evans", the novelist's later married name of Mary Ann Cross is inscribed on her headstone below that of her pen-name. Born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, Eliot left home after her father's death in 1849, and after travelling in Europe, she settled in Lond...

Unique opportunity for visitors to one  of london's magnificent seven Cemeteries inside The west cemetery If you have ancestors buried in Highgate Cemetery's West Cemetery, you may have found it difficult to visit their graves. In recent years, visitors have been allowed into this part of the cemetery by guided tour only.  This summer, as an experiment, Highgate Cemetery is offering visitors the opportunity to experience Highgate Cemetery West on their own, without a guide.  Numbers are limited to preserve the tranquillity.  This will be possible on Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets go on sale 5 weeks beforehand, so it is worth checking back later if the date you want is not yet listed.  Tickets will not be sold at the Cemetery. If you turn up without a ticket, you will be refused entry. And t ickets cannot be changed or refunded.  The cemetery is divided by a main road between the  East and West Cemeteries . The East Cemetery has different visiting arra...

This Christmastide, we explore the connections between the author of A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens, and the cemetery records in the Deceased Online database For many, Charles Dickens (1812-1870) is indelibly associated with Christmas. Besides the iconic   A Christmas Carol (published in 1843) , he also wrote the semi-autobiographical short story ‘A Christmas Tree’ (1850). Dickens loved the meaning and ritual of Christmas festivities. In later life, he enjoyed parties, and even in his poverty-stricken younger days, he always participated in the season. The ghosts in A Christmas Carol are believed to have been inspired by the stories told around the fire in his childhood Christmases that first inspired Dickens’ imagination to ‘hanker’ after the supernatural. Although Dickens is buried in the Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey , the burial records of many of his family and friends are found in the Deceased Online database .   In our  Highgate Cemetery  ...

Sad loss of well-loved and historic tree Sadly, Highgate Cemetery has reported the loss of, "its great old Cedar of Lebanon " The beloved tree predates the cemetery, having been planted more than 50 years before the  London Cemetery Company began its  layout began in 1836.   It is not known exactly how old the Cedar was, but it was believed to be at least 250 years   Highgate Cemetery’s layout on seventeen acres of the former Ashurst Estate by Highgate Village,  which was itself taken down to allow for the building of  St Michael's Church, Highgate  in 1830.  The areas lie on a steep hillside, facing the centre of London, and winding down Swain’s Lane past Waterlow Park towards Hampstead Heath, Dartmouth Park and Kentish Town. Garden designer,  David Ramsey , created exotic, formal planting.  Stephen Geary , the architect, and surveyor,  James Bunstone Bunning  designed the stunning monuments and chapels of what soon ...

Modern burial ideas are drawing on experiences of the past On 16 October 2018, the Chief Executive of the  Friends of Highgate Cemetery 's Dr Ian Dungavell was interviewed on  BBC Radio London's Vanessa Feltz programme  to discuss ideas to create more burial space. The programme discussed how to find room for future generations of Londoners while maintaining all that is special about the cemetery. Surprisingly, this is not a new concept. Before the 19th century, particularly during the medieval period, social norms allowed for  old graves to be exhumed in order that space would be freed for new burials. The remains were transferred to charnel houses (bone stores). Examples of these can be found across the country, such as in Spitalfields, London .  The news was also reported in The Telegraph  with a warning that there will be no space for full-sized graves (and thus coffin burials) by 2024. Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust have completed a...

Today's taphophiles and family historians often enjoy the calm and greenery of urban cemeteries. But would today's cemetery users want to return to a Victorian policy that sought to convert burial grounds into public parks? The Hardy Tree in the grounds of St Pancras Old Church In the 1860s, the graves of the ancient pa rish churchyard of St Pancras were cleared. Among those who  helped clear and relocate burials from the old St Pancras Church graveyard to the new St Pancras and Islington Cemetery , was a y oung Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) .  A famous tree still stands in the old graveyard which bears his name.  Some of the church lands was taken by the Midland Railway. During this period, around 8,000 bodies were exhumed from their burial plots and some were relocated to the new cemetery in Finchley. Some headstones, like that of the feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (1759-1797) were left standing and can still be seen in the churchyard today. ...

As most of the UK is covered in snow today thanks to the 'Beast from the East', this week's blog focuses on the beauty of some of Highgate Cemetery in winter. View from the South Entrance to the Cemetery Snow settled on a fallen crucifix Snow remains settled on the ground but not on the headstones Do you have any photos of local cemeteries covered in snow? Are any in the Deceased Online database? Please share your images with us on Facebook or  Twitter  @deceasedonline!

In honour of Valentine's Day, this week's blog looks at some of the most romantic stories and headstones in the Deceased Online collections marking the everlasting love of couples reunited after death. While Valentine's Day is a fun celebration of love and romance for some, for others it can be a harsh reminder of loneliness or the loss of a loved one. Like birthdays, anniversaries and religious festivals, Valentine's Day triggers thoughts and memories of happy times with someone who is no longer here. An illustration of Sophia Peabody Hawthorne by Stephen Alonzo Schoff, taken from Nathaniel Hawthorne and HIs Wife: A Biography by Julian Hawthorne, p. 39 (Google books)  When I visit graveyards, however, I am often struck by how much love continues after death. This may be the love of a parent, child, spouse, lover, sibling or friend. In some cases, a spouse's body may be removed from a grave or cemetery and relocated elsewhere in order to join the...

This week I continue my series on  Deceased Online's  Highgate Cemetery Collection with an introduction to some of the many artists among its records. Beautiful sculptures like the above can be found spread across Highgate Cemetery. Anyone who has strolled around the monuments and foliage of this Magnificent Seven cemeteries is struck by the number of unusual, artistic headstones. Mostly, these belong to artists who chose Highgate as their final resting place. Below I highlight some of the remarkable artists buried here along with images of their memorials. Artists of all kinds abound in the registers of Highgate Cemetery. These registers, now digitized and available to search on  Deceased Online , include the names (and sometimes addresses) of some of the most significant painters, sculptors and illustrators of the 19th and 20th centuries. Buried close by are also their muses. "Cromwell in the Battle of Naseby" by Charles Landseer RA The achiev...