British Cemetery and Cremation Records from Deceased Online

Blackburn Old Cemetery opened on 1st July 1857. Since then thousands have been buried in its hilly grounds overlooking the town of Blackburn. This week I highlight some of the remarkable, altruistic and notorious individuals whose burial entries can be found in the new Blackburn and Darwen Collection in the Deceased Online database. The Anglican Chapel, Blackburn Cemetery 19th century (reproduced with kind permission of the Friends of Blackburn Old Cemetery) Elizabeth Ann Lewis (1849-1924) Elizabeth Ann Lewis was born in Shropshire in 1849 to farm labourer George Lewis and his wife, Ann. In 1867, she married Thomas Lewis, a coach builder from Cheshire. The couple settled in Blackburn, where Elizabeth Ann was horrified by the scale of alcohol addiction and public drunkenness. Celebrated as the "Temperance Queen" or "Drunkard's Friend", Lewis dedicated her life to improving conditions for the working classes. She challenged the town's 600 licensed prem...

This week I look in detail at the burial registers featured in the new Blackburn and Darwen Collection, highlighting the rich variety of information to be found within. This collection has been digitized in partnership with Blackburn and Darwen Borough Council . The Council's Cemeteries Office is based in Pleasington Cemetery BB2 5LE, from where staff manage three cemeteries and one crematorium . The Deceased Online database contains their burial and cremation records for the following dates: Blackburn Cemetery (aka Whalley New Road): 1859 - 1997   Darwen Cemetery: 1861 - 1998 Pleasington Cemetery: 1969 - 2001  Pleasington Crematorium: 1957 - 2003 . Black burn and Darwen's records includes scans of the burial registers, details of those buried in each grave, and some also have detailed sections maps showing locations of the graves. The total number of individuals recorded in the three cemeteries' burial registers is over 276,000, and there are detai...

This week Deceased Online will launch a new collection of burial and cemetery records from Blackburn & Darwen in Lancashire. Here I look at the history of Blackburn and the background to lives of many who are remembered in the burial registers. I grew up in rural Lancashire, about 30 miles away from the heartland of the former cotton industry that is Blackburn and Darwen. Although there were a few mills around the area in which I lived, they were nothing compared with the vast numbers of mills and factories that emerged in the 18th and 19th centuries in Blackburn, Darwen and their near neighbours, Preston and Burnley. Like Blackburn, my village lay in the shadow of the brooding Pennine hills and our grass was bright green from regular rainfalls. Jubilee Tower, Darwen (c) John Darch Today, Blackburn is remembered as "Cotton Town", a name that lives on in an excellent local history project: http://www.cottontown.org/Pages/default.aspx  The origins of the town's ...

Thank you very much to all those who came to see us at Who Do You Think You Are? Live Scotland 2014. We had a great time. Many thanks to Scotland, Glasgow and the SECC for the excellent hospitality. Scotland's first time hosting WDYTYA? Live has proven to be a great success. The SECC was packed throughout Friday and Saturday last week, with Scottish family historians queuing to speak with vendors at stalls as well as to listen to the many talks and workshops on offer. The Deceased Online stand was one of the largest at the August event We were delighted to be virtually mobbed on our stand, regularly having a queue of visitors keen to view the database . The newly added Aberdeenshire collection was very popular, while several attendees wanted to learn more about our forthcoming Moray collection. The team is now recovering after working flat out from opening to around 4.30pm on both days. But we're looking forward to doing it all again and introducing even more exci...

This week the team at Deceased Online are packing their suitcases for what should be a fun couple of days in Scotland's largest city. Here I look at what you can expect from the first ever Who Do You Think You Are? Live Scotland and the exciting records you can explore at the Deceased Online stand. Everyone at Deceased Online is looking forward to discovering more about their Scottish ancestors and meeting users of our database at the inaugural WDYTYA? Live Scotland on Friday 29 and Saturday 30 August at Glasgow's SECC . As well as having the opportunity to meet stallholders, visitors to the show can enjoy an array of workshops, talks and advice sessions on subjects as varied as Scottish legal documents, tracing First World War ancestors, and DNA. Deceased Online will be exhibiting alongside local family history societies, our partners at the Scottish Memorial Inscription s project, plus visiting experts from England, Ireland, Belgium and Australia. WDYTYA? Live Scotl...

This week the Deceased Online database adds burial records for two more Hertfordshire cemeteries. In this post, I look at these new registers as well as those of other burial grounds in the Hertfordshire Collection.   Deceased Online 's exclusive Hertfordshire Collection now includes ten cemeteries, dating back to 1801. Across the ten cemeteries there are over 200,000 records for more than 90,000 individual names and burials. The Hertfordshire records can be found on the website in the "East of England" region drop-down box. Hertfordshire borders north London and you may find, like me, that your Hertfordshire ancestors travelled back and forth to work in the capital.  Row of trees at Hatfield Hyde Cemetery (c) Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council The latest additions are Welwyn Hatfield Lawn and Hatfield Hyde Cemeteries . Their records of original registers, grave details and cemetery section maps come from Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council . The registers for Hat...

From Portsoy on the north coast to Laurencekirk on the Angus border, from Braemar in the Cairngorms National Park to Peterhead on the eastern coast, Deceased Online 's collection for Aberdeen City and Shire covers a wide variety of burial records. In this post, I look in detail at some of the burial records available and explain how to use them in your family history research. Aberdeenshire is Scotland's fourth largest council region. Its vast area encompasses 24 Munros (mountains over 3000 feet), 208km of coastline, more than 129 whisky distilleries, over 300 castles, 18 sites of Pictish stones, stunning golf courses, fishing ports and magnificent royal estates. All of this signifies the county's rich heritage. Over the centuries, the area has been home to crofters, landowners, servants, fishermen, merchant seamen, distillers, inns and the royal entourage. My crofter ancestors moved around the Mearns through the 18th and 19th centuries. Their offspring included farmers ...