British Cemetery and Cremation Records from Deceased Online

This week I look at the records for the county in which I grew up and summarize what you can find on Deceased Online to aid your search for ancestors who died in Lancashire Administ rative map of the ancient county of Lancashire in 1832. Showing Hundreds, Parishes and Boroughs. Source data on parish boundaries - Kain, R.J.P., and Oliver, R.R. (2001) "Historic parishes of England and Wales: Electronic Map - Gazetteer - Metadata", Colchester: History Data Service.  ISBN 0 9540032 0 9 . Source data for Boroughs: H.M.S.O. Boundary Commission Report 1832 (courtesy of www.visionofbritain.org). Lancashire is a fairly young county in England, dating from 1182. Farming dominated life in the county in the medieval and early modern periods, although in 1612 the area became notorious for the trials of the Pendle witches, The trials of twelve women accused of witchcraft in the Pendle Hill region are well recorded. Eventually, the twelve were charged with the murder of ten people by ...

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...

A deeper look at the Victorian records of  Deceased Online's  new  Highgate Cemetery Collection Some of the Victorian monuments and headstones in Highgate Cemetery Like the other Magnificent Seven cemeteries, Highgate is celebrated for its Victorian funerary architecture, particularly those of the gothic tradition. This week's post highlights some of the lives of the Victorians buried in the north London site. The Victorian records on Deceased Online cover 1839 to the early 1870s, with a gap between 1863 to 1865. The first burial took place in 1839 in what is now known as the West Cemetery. Fifteen years later, i n 1854, the London Cemetery Company sought to expand the burial ground by purchasing the area opposite the cemetery, across Swain's Lane, that now forms the East Cemetery.  The Terrace Catacombs are located at the highest point of Highgate's West Cemetery Some of the most identifiably Victorian of the monuments and headstones lie in the ...

This week Deceased Online adds burial records for the magnificent  Highgate Cemetery in north London   We are very excited to announce the release of records for Highgate Cemetery , one of London’s 'Magnificent Seven'. A total of 160,000 records have been uploaded to the database  of this significant collection, which dates from 1839 to 2010. They include coverage of the first three decades: 1840 to the early 1870s, with a gap in the records from 1863 to 1865. Highgate’s original burial registers are held at the cemetery itself and at Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre in Holborn but are available online only through   Deceased Online .  Pages from the Highgate Cemetery Register showing burials from 1839-1843 History Like the other ‘Magnificent Seven’ cemeteries, Highgate Cemetery is world-renowned, contains hundreds of notable burials, has several listed monuments, and provides a haven to inner-city wildlife. EnglishHeritag...