Can anyone please advise me about the obligation of churches to keep records of where individuals are buried in their cemeteries? I am not enquiring about civil cemeteries, only church cemeteries. I am presently doing some research for an elderly lady who would like to visit her grandmother's grave and pay her respects but is becoming distressed because we cannot find the grave. We know for sure that her grandmother, Margaret Bowe, is buried in the graveyard at Holy Sepulchre, Ashington - the death was 29 Jan 1908 and the burial 01 Feb 1908. However, there is no mention of a plot number on the burial records and sadly there does not appear to be a gravestone (the M.I.s have been recorded and I have consulted these to no avail). I have asked at the Church Office and they do not have a plot book, and there is no sign of one at Northumberland Archives at Woodhorn. I have tried various avenues to guess where the burial may have been. The two people who did the M.I.s have kindly given me information on those who died and were buried at Holy Sepulchre the week before and the week after, in case the burials were close together, however only two of them have a gravestone and they appear to be buried in different areas of the graveyard. One of them is, however, buried in the section that seems to cover the period 1900-1920. Would the church have been obliged to keep a record of who was being buried where? At the moment I don't even know if such a record exists - and before I rattle any more cages I need to get my facts straight! Many thanks Cheers Pat ======================== Mrs Pat Pierpoint Publicity Officer - NDFHS Email: [email protected] or [email protected] ======================== _____ I am using the Free version of SPAMfighter <http://www.spamfighter.com/len> . SPAMfighter has removed 12984 of my spam emails to date. Do you have a slow PC? <http://www.spamfighter.com/SLOW-PCfighter?cid=sigen> Try a free scan!

I have no idea about what the obligation is, but I know from experience that in many cases churches don't have records, or if they do don't know where they are.  On the other hand, in many cases local residents have spent many hours preparing lists which can often be obtained from the area's FHS.  As I guess you've also found, sometimes friable gravestones have been allowed to deteriorate so it is no longer possible to read what was written on them. --- On Sat, 23/3/13, Pat Pierpoint <[email protected]> wrote: From: Pat Pierpoint <[email protected]> Subject: [NMB] Church Graveyard Records - Ashington To: "[email protected] com" <[email protected]> Date: Saturday, 23 March, 2013, 11:45 Can anyone please advise me about the obligation of churches to keep records of where individuals are buried in their cemeteries?