British Cemetery and Cremation Records from Deceased Online

Records for the second ‘Magnificent Seven’ cemetery in the Deceased Online database will be released on Boxing Day We are delighted to announce, just in time for Christmas, that all cremation and burial records from 1833 to 1901 for Kensal Green Cemetery will be launched on the database this week. Later records will be available in the New Year. When all 340,000 records are on the site (by early February), there will be over 3 million individual burial and cremation records for London available on Deceased Online representing approximately 8 million data items. The Kensal Green records include those of the West London Crematorium (est. 1939), which is located in the grounds of the Cemetery. The Main Entrance to Kensal Green Cemetery 1833-1860 was a busy time for this part of West London and the new Kensal Green Cemetery, which was the first commercial burial ground in London. Laid out between the Harrow Road and the Regent’s Canal in 1832, the cemetery w...

This week we launch the latest collection from The National Archives: military burials from overseas garrisons. Continuing our partnership with The National Archives (TNA), we have added burial records from collection WO 156 (War Office: UK and overseas garrisons: Registers of Baptisms, Confirmations, Deaths/Burials, and Marriage) to the Deceased Online database . The series dates from 1801 and includes miscellaneous registers of deaths and burials from British military bases in overseas. Details for some of the deaths recorded here may not be found elsewhere; not all those named have a surviving death certificate, for example. Previously, searching these records would have involved a visit to Kew. Much of the collection dates from the period of heavy imperial involvement in the years leading up to the First World War and most are not recorded as official war graves. The records include military personnel and their families. A surprisingly high number of British wome...

Thanks to one of our readers, we've discovered the first goal scorer of the Football League in the Deceased Online database We were very excited to be contacted recently about James Kenyon Davenport, known as "Kenny", who lies buried at Heaton Cemetery in Gilnow Road, Bolton. Davenport was born on 23 March 1862 in Bolton. After playing for his local club, Gilnow Rangers, he moved to Bolton Wanderers in 1883. He remained there for nine seasons, during which time professional football was legalised in 1885. In order to professionalize the game further, the Football League was inaugurated with five fixtures on 8 September 1888. The League differed from today's Premiership with only twelve teams, but some of today's top teams, Aston Villa, Everton, Stoke and West Bromwich Albion, were all present. The others were Accrington, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Burnley, Derby County, Notts County, Preston North End and Wolverhampton Wanderers. It was while pla...

In this week's post I look at the oldest records in the database. I also highlight where you are most likely to find records of 16th and 17th century ancestors Most of the burial records in the Deceased Online database date from the 19th and 20th centuries. We have digitized hundreds of registers from municipal cemeteries created from the mid-1800s onwards. However, you can also find thousands of individual burial records dating from as early as the 16th century. Much of this older material comes from Scottish council burial records . These go back further than many of the English sources and generally have far richer data, such as this example below from Guthrie Kirkyard in Angus . These records were copied later but include burial details from the mid to late 17th century. I was amazed to discover that the oldest record on the website is 888 years old. This record ( pictured below ) is from the Peterborough Cathedral collection and includes the details of three Abbots...

This week I look at the history and monuments of a fascinating cemetery in our North West England collection The Deceased Online database includes the records of Overleigh Old Cemetery and the newer Overleigh Cemetery , both in the beautiful Roman City of Chester, Cheshire. The cemeteries are two of those administered and maintained by Cheshire West and Chester Council Cemeteries & Crematorium Service.    The original Overleigh Cemetery was opened by the Chester General Cemetery Company on 12 November 1850. The site was laid out between 1848 and 1850 in Overleigh Road in the south-west Handbridge area of the city, close to the River Dee and the stunning Grosvenor Bridge. Its architect was a local man, Thomas Wainwaring Penson (1818-64). The chapels and entrance gate are now listed by English Heritage. Besides two chapels, two lodges and a chaplain's house, the original Victorian cemetery contained an ornamental lake with three small islands. Sadly, none of th...