British Cemetery and Cremation Records from Deceased Online

This week we had a great time at Who Do You Think You Are? Live and uploaded all cremation records from Manor Park Crematorium to the Deceased Online database. Big thanks to everyone who came to see us and tried out the Deceased Online database at this year’s Who Do You Think You Are? Live. The show is the biggest family history event in the world and this year did not disappoint. I was busy from Friday to Sunday meeting people on the Deceased Online stand, signing books and giving expert answers with the Society of Genealogists. I also met up with some lovely friends and colleagues, and generally didn’t stop talking for three days! As usual I sadly missed most of the many excellent talks on offer, but did catch a few minutes of William Roache speaking about his fascinating grandparents. His acting skills were much in evidence as he held the audience spellbound while recounting the tragic death of his grandfather. Jamie, John and the team on the Deceased Online stan...

Meet us at WDYTYA? Live! This weekend we are looking forward to meeting blog readers and users of the Deceased Online database at our stand 924 at Who Do You Think You Are? Live . There will be plenty of opportunities to try our database and chat to our team. I shall be there to give advice about finding your ancestors' burial places and how to take your family history search further once a burial record has been found. You can read more about the event here . Thanks to everyone who entered our competition to win one of three signed copies of Nick Barratt's super new book, Greater London. The competition is now closed and the winners will be announced imminently. The answers to the questions are as follows: Name the famous 19th/20th century novelist who helped clear and relocate burials from the old St Pancras Church graveyard to the new St Pancras and Islington Cemetery (records available on www.deceasedonline.com )?  A famous tree still stands in ...

Deceased Online's latest release includes the records of one of London’s largest cemeteries: Manor Park Cemetery and Crematorium E7. Last week, we uploaded about a quarter of the burial and cremation records of East London’s magnificent Manor Park Cemetery to the database . This includes over 100,000 records from 1931 to 2010. For burials up to 26 February 1996, the details have been scanned from registers, but data from 27 February 1997 has been digitised only as there are no registers. Many of you have already been in touch to let us know that you have found your relatives buried there. You can find out more by downloading the burial register scan, examining the grave details of other occupants, or locating the specific grave by noting the grave reference number and then printing the digitised maps. If you are able to visit, the privately-owned Cemetery can be found not far from the 2012 Olympic Park.   As the nation recovered from the First World War, domestic li...

This week we have three copies of Nick Barratt's new book Greater London to give away. To celebrate the release of the latest collections of London records on the Deceased Online database , we have teamed up with the publisher Random House for an exciting new competition. This week we will be uploading over 100,000 burial records for Manor Park Cemetery, dating from 1930 to the present day. We'll be adding the final stages throughout February. In the Spring, we'll add the records of Brompton Cemetery, West London - one of the "Magnificent Seven" Victorian cemeteries that were built just outside the centre.  Nick Barratt's book, Greater London: The Story of the Suburbs , looks further into the Magnificent Seven and at the growth of London that led to them being built. For Nick, though, London's most significant cemetery is Abney Park in Stoke Newington. He said, " Despite the architecture displayed in the mausoleums of Kensal G...

William Hartnell (1908-1975) - the first Doctor Who 2013 will see the fiftieth anniversary of the popular television series, Doctor Who . Although the Timelord is believed to be somewhere between 900 and 1,200 years old, he was introduced to the British public fifty years ago, on 23 November 1963. The first Dr Who was William Hartnell, who died in 1978 and is found in the database amongst the records of the Kent and Sussex Crematorium. William Hartnell playing his most famous role of Doctor Who    (c) Wikimedia Commons Deceased Online holds around 95,000 cremation records for the crematorium, most of which are scans of the registers dating from 1958 to 1995. More recent records are available fully computerised. Other Kent records on the database include the burial registers of Tunbridge Wells and Southborough cemeteries.  The gardens at Kent and Sussex Crematorium (c) www2.tunbridgewells.gov.uk William Henry Hartnell was born in the Blooms...

Deceased Online completes digitisation project for Bolton Council Completing the digitisation project of Bolton Council, 136,000 cremation records of Overdale Crematorium have been added to the database . From today all the records from 1954-1993 will be available to search. The plot of what would become Overdale Crematorium (1950) Overdale Crematorium at Heaton was opened in September 1954 by Lord Horder of the Cremation Society. Its foundation stone was laid by George Sykes, who had served as a Conservative Mayor of Bolton from 1931 to 1932. Sykes was born in Hull in 1874 and began work in a drapery business. He eventually became a director of Hampsons confectioners. A great champion of parks and open spaces, Sykes also took an interest in cremation, and was a keen advocate for the new crematorium. The idea for a crematorium in Bolton emerged as far back as 1938, but was delayed by the Second World War. After he died on 5 March 1958, George Sykes was cremated at...

Deceased Online looks forward to an exciting 2013 Happy New Year to all readers of this blog! 2012 saw a huge increase in burial records on the Deceased Online database and this year we are looking forward to even more.    London is very well-represented on the site. Last year we added data from the boroughs of Newham , Harrow , and Greenwich to join the collections of cemetery and crematoria records of Brent , Merton , Havering , Islington and Camden . Famous names from among these collections include Horatia Nelson in Harrow , Bertie Mee in Islington , and Richmal Crompton in Greenwich . Scottish records now include full burial records and headstone collections from Angus , Aberdeenshire , Edinburgh , the Highlands , Inverness , Banffshire , Dundee City , Ayshire , Stirling , Morayshire , Borders , Argyll , Clackmannanshire , Fife , Perthshire , Lothian , Lanarkshire , and the Isle of Islay . By the end of 2013, we hope to have up to 2 mil...