More Aberdeenshire Records

Look out for thousands more burial records from Deceased Online's Aberdeenshire Collection

By the end of Friday 2nd May, the Deceased Online database will hold over 75,000 burial records from Aberdeenshire in North East Scotland. All the burial grounds from this collection are managed by Aberdeenshire Council.

The magnificent 17th century Craigievar Castle lies close to the village of Alford, which features in the latest release

Aberdeenshire is a large county, covering 8% of Scotland's land mass, and is steeped in history. The parishes covered in the new release are predominantly rural, with a number, such as Alford, Udny and Cluny, lying in the shadows of great castles. Unfortunately, neighbouring Towie Castle now lies in ruins.

Auchindoir, which features in the latest records, takes its name from the Gaelic Auehindoir, or 'field of the chase'. This is associated with the flight of Macbeth's successor, Lulach, who is believed to have run through the parish to escape his foes. Sadly for him, he was unsuccessful, being executed in nearby Essie on 17th March 1058 (ref. © The Editors of the Gazetteer for Scotland, 2002-2013.).

This brings the total of Aberdeenshire burial grounds and kirkyards on the database to more than 50. The collection include scans of registers and grave details identifying all those buried in each lair. We hope to complete the collection within the next few weeks, and will include records from the old county of Kincardineshire. There are still more than 150 sites to be placed online.

New Competition

Thanks very much to everyone who entered the recent competition to win a copy of my latest book, My Ancestor was a Woman at War (SOG, 2013). Congratulations to the winner, Pam Smith from Harrogate.

For those who missed out, the good news is that the Society of Genealogists has kindly given us another two copies of the book for prizes. For another chance to win, simply answer the three multiple-choice questions below by midnight BST Friday 9th May and email info@deceasedonline.com:

(i) Who was known as 'the lady with the lamp'?

A Lady Canning

B Florence Nightingale

C Mary Seacole

(ii) Aethelflaed was the daughter of which famous English King?
A Alfred the Great

B William the Conqueror

C George III

(iii) Women killed in the First World War are named on memorial screens in which cathedral?

A Canterbury Cathedral

B St Paul's Cathedral

C York Minster

Competition Rules

entries by no later than midnight GMT on 9th May 2014

email your entries to: info@deceasedonline.com with heading: 'Woman at War competition'

entrants should provide full contact information including full postal address and at least one telephone number

only one entry per person/email address

the winning entry will be drawn by Deceased Online

judges' decision is final

the prize will be sent to the winner by post as soon as possible

We'll be adding more details on the Aberdeenshire data on our Facebook and Twitter pages over the coming week. Do 'like' and 'follow' to keep up to date!

Cluny Castle

London's Spa Fields

Deceased Online has just uploaded around 114,000 burial records from Spa Fields in the modern London borough of Islington Spa Fields today, with the Church of Our Most Holy Redeemer in the background Spa Fields Burial Ground became notorious in the 19th century for its overcrowded and insanitary conditions. Located in the parish of St James, Clerkenwell, the grave yard was not far from the ever-increasing City of London. Spa Fields was known also as Clerkenwell Fields and Ducking-pond Fields in the late 18th century, hinting at a dark side to what was then a summer evening resort for north Londoners. What would become a cemetery was a ducking pond in the rural grounds of a Spa Fields public house. It was here in 1683 that six children were drowned while playing on the ice. In his History of Clerkenwell (1865) William J. Pinks wrote that visitors, "came hither to witness the rude sports that were in vogue a century ago, such as duck-hunting, prize-fighting, bull-baiting

Haslar and Netley Military Hospital Cemeteries

Following on from last week's post, I'm looking further into Deceased Online 's latest collection of burials. These military burials were digitized in partnership with The National Archives . Two notable institutions in the collection are Haslar Royal Navy Cemetery and the Royal Victoria Hospital in Netley. Both Haslar and Netley (as it was more commonly known) were Britain's foremost military hospitals during the bloodiest years of war in the western hemisphere The Royal Hospital Haslar and Clayhill Royal Navy Cemetery, Gosport, Hampshire The Royal Hospital Haslar dates from 1753. For over two hundred and fifty years Haslar served as one of main hospitals caring for sailors and marines of the Royal Navy and merchant services. Patients came from ships as well as from naval and seamen institutions in nearby Portsmouth and Gosport. The hospital closed as the last official military hospital in 2007. The Haslar Cemetery closed in April 1859 but the neighbouring Cl

Wakefield Collection: Cremation Records now available on Deceased Online

Records for both crematoria in Wakefield, Yorkshire have been added to the Deceased Online database Above: Pontefract Crematorium The two sets of crematoria records have been added to Deceased Online 's Wakefield Collection . Wakefield district contains nineteen cemeteries and two crematoria. Many of the records go back to the mid and late 19th century when the cemeteries opened, and range across a wide geographical area. The full list of Wakefield cemeteries live on Deceased Online, with opening dates in brackets, is as follows: 1. Altofts Cemetery – Church Road, Altofts, Normanton (1878) 2. Alverthorpe Cemetery – St Paul’s Drive, Alverthorpe, Wakefield (registers from 1955) 3. Castleford Cemetery – Headfield Road, Castleford (1857) 4. Crigglestone Cemetery – Standbridge Lane, Crigglestone, Wakefield (1882) 5. Featherstone Cemetery – Cutsyke Road, North Featherstone (1874) 6. Ferrybridge Cemetery – Pontefract Road, Ferrybridge, P

British Cemetery and Cremation Records from Deceased Online

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