Search Tips for the New Collections

This week's blog features tips on how to get the most out of the Deceased Online database

We hope you are finding the new collections on the database useful for your family history research. Thank you very much to all those who have emailed or tweeted. We really appreciate your comments and would like to respond with some up-to-date tips on getting the best from the Deceased Online website.

Advanced Search Facility
To narrow searches down to an area or to a specific cemetery or crematorium use the advanced search facility.

For example, to search records in Sandwell, select the following:

Country - United Kingdom
Region - West Midlands
County - West Midlands
Contributor - Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council (for all Sandwell records)
or Cemetery - Uplands (for Uplands only)

Once you click on a name in the search results it will show the information that is available to view.

Search Results
Common types of information include:

The scan of the relevant burial or cremation register page. This will show the handwritten entry made in the original register and will usually include details such as the age, dates of burial/cremation and death, and address.
How many people are in the same grave as the record you've searched, their names, dates and the full grave reference
A section map showing the area where the grave is located or the ashes are buried/scattered
Some record collections also contain headstone images

Above: Viewing the other occupants of the grave

Useful search tips:

The wild card is a % and can be inserted anywhere that there may be a variation in the spelling of a name. Typing "ab%" will return all the people whose name starts with Ab, such as Abbott, Abberley,
Abbey, etc. Typing M%cDonald will return both McDonald and MacDonald.

For all variants on one letter in a name, use an underscore: _. Typing "H_ywood" will return both Haywood and Heywood.

Above: Searching a cemetery with the surname Ab%

For more search tips, do take a look at Deceased Online's help page.

Do you have any questions about finding your ancestors in the database? We love to hear from you. Feel free to contact us via the Comments section below or on our Facebook and Twitter pages.

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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...

New Maps Online for St Peter's Cemetery and Churchyard

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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, Nort...

British Cemetery and Cremation Records from Deceased Online

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