New data for
Scotland will be appearing on Deceased Online over the next couple of weeks.
Here we give you an insight into our holdings on the cemeteries of Aberdeen.
The ‘Granite City’,
as Scotland's third largest city is known, features strongly in the Deceased
Online database. You can search around 248,000 records from nine cemeteries and
burial grounds, including St Nicholas Churchyard, Trinity Churchyard, Nigg
Cemetery, John Knox Churchyard, St Peter's Cemetery -
linked with Spital Churchyard, St Clement's Churchyard, Old Machar Churchyard,
Grove Cemetery and Nellfield Cemetery.
We have just added
detailed grave location maps of Spitak (aka St Peter’s) Churchyard and St
Peter’s Cemetery. Located in the north of the city, these two cemeteries form
one vast graveyard. The Deceased Online database contains registers, which date
from 1767, for over 160,000 burials. Besides the registers are the Dues Books.
For the earliest dates these cover the date of burial, name occupation, age and
dues paid.
The Churchyard (or
Kirkyard), also known as Spital Churchyard, was open from January 1767 to 29
December 1894. After this closed to burials, the connected St Peter's
Churchyard was opened. Burials took place there until 23 April 1951. The cemetery
and neighbouring long Spital road are named after the medieval St Peter's
Hospital, which no longer remains.
A unique feature of
these maps is that they are section maps, showing the section of the cemetery
where a grave is located as well as the grave reference and general maps. There
are four sections: the Churchyard, the Cemetery, the South Division (opened
1874) and the West Division (opened 1884). As the sections within the cemetery
are small, it makes it much easier to locate graves. For anyone planning to
visit an ancestor's grave at St Peter's, these maps should prove invaluable.
Within St Peter's there are a number of notable burials and memorials, including members of the Bruce Baronetcy and a large mausoleum dedicated to the Moir family of Scotstown. According to Mr. William Brodie's Aberdeen, Its Traditions and History p. 26, "the site of the Mausoleum of the Moirs of Scotstown in St. Peter's Cemetery in Old Aberdeen, was formerly the site of the chapel that formed part of the hospital buildings, founded by Matthew Kyninmonde, Bishop of Aberdeen, about the year 1197."
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| Page from the burial register of 1851 showing George Charles Moir. His name is recorded on that of his family's mausoleum. Not all those named are buried in St Peters. Another George Moir (Colonel of the Royal Bengal Horse Artillery) died in 1870 in Umballah, India. |
Look out for more
Scottish material over the next few weeks, including full records from two
historic burial grounds and further data from the Scottish Memorial Inscription
(SMI) project.
As usual, do let us know if you have found any ancestors in the Aberdeen records. We love to read your tweets, facebook posts and blog comments!
Sources:
I am looking for my Moir connection in Scotland. My great grandfather, Alexander L. Moir, and my great great grandfather, Alexander Moir, wrote the popular Moir Genaelogy book. Any help would be very much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteYour family sounds interesting, Scotty. Have you found any of them in the Deceased Online database?
DeleteHi Scotty! I am related to you through the Moir line. I am traveling to Aberdeen in a little more than a week and will visit St. Peter's Cemetery where the Moir Mausoleum is located. My Moir connection is through my grandfather, James Moir Kite Jr. Alexander Moir II (1692-1777) is my 7th great-grandfather! So hello cousin! Message me if you would like. I am in the US, Chicago area. Hope you see this!
DeleteI'm happy to say that I finally found one set of my great great great grandparents, John Inglis and his wife, Margaret Reid were buried in St Peters Cemetery. While I have been able to find the burial records, I have not been able to find out where in the cemetery the couple are buried exactly unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteThese are the only members of my family I have been able to find on deceasedonline.com to this date although I have been able to find a few other family members on other sites. I've found that it's quite difficult to locate where people are buried in Aberdeen and it's even more difficult to find this information when you live and research in America.