In a message dated 26/06/2004 13:24:13 GMT Daylight Time, VMSPEED@aol.com writes: Would a member of a Primitive Methodist congregation have kept a shop selling alcohol? (I thought they were Baptists / Weslyans.) . . There has never been any Law preventing it but in the 19th century Methodism, of any variety, and total abstinence were usually considered to always go together. To actually make a living from selling alcohol would be anathema to any true Primitive Methodist. . I find that the Primitive Methodist churches seldom had graveyards of their own and folk were buried in nearby graveyards belonging to other denominations. If that is the case, were their burials recorded and by whom? . Methodist registers usually cover baptisms only. A burial would always be recorded but by the owners of the graveyard in which it took place. Before the advent of Local Authority Municipal Cemeteries, Methodists, and other denominations as well, would all have been buried, as of necessity, in the local parish churchyard, as that would have usually been the only burial ground in the parish. The records of such burials will be in the parish register. If there was a convenient Muniicipal Cemetery then that would probably have been used instead (unless there was a family grave existing in the churchyard, a widow wishing to be buried with her deceased husband, for instance), and their records will be among those of the Local Authority - possibly still at the Cemetery Office, possibly in the Civic Centre or Town Hall ("Parks and Cemeteries Department") or possibly deposited in the local County Record Office. . . Geoff Nicholson . 57 Manor Park, Concord, WASHINGTON, Tyne & Wear NE37 2BU Ask for details of NBL/DUR family history research in depth by THE local expert, working for YOU.