British Cemetery and Cremation Records from Deceased Online

Deceased Online completes digitisation project for Bolton Council Completing the digitisation project of Bolton Council, 136,000 cremation records of Overdale Crematorium have been added to the database . From today all the records from 1954-1993 will be available to search. The plot of what would become Overdale Crematorium (1950) Overdale Crematorium at Heaton was opened in September 1954 by Lord Horder of the Cremation Society. Its foundation stone was laid by George Sykes, who had served as a Conservative Mayor of Bolton from 1931 to 1932. Sykes was born in Hull in 1874 and began work in a drapery business. He eventually became a director of Hampsons confectioners. A great champion of parks and open spaces, Sykes also took an interest in cremation, and was a keen advocate for the new crematorium. The idea for a crematorium in Bolton emerged as far back as 1938, but was delayed by the Second World War. After he died on 5 March 1958, George Sykes was cremated at...

We are really excited about all the new data we’re adding from the cemeteries and crematorium in the Bolton Council area. As you may have seen on our Facebook and Twitter pages, last week we uploaded 116,000 burial records for Tonge Cemetery, which dates back to 1856. This week, we have added nearly 95,000 records from Heaton Cemetery, which opened in 1879. As usual, included with the records are all the register scans and detailed maps of grave locations. For Tonge Cemetery, we’ve also included over 3,000 photographs of memorials and headstones which we estimate will represent some 15,000 of those buried. It’s interesting that the ratio of headstones and memorials to the total number is so small; only 10% of burials are acknowledged in this way. So the inclusion of a detailed map in the data is essential for those trying to find most of the graves. The map for Tonge Cemetery show how the cemetery designated specific areas for separate Christian denominations, with ...