***************************************************************************** This email and any files transmitted with it are intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. ***************************************************************************** This is not something I have looked into closely and what follows are no more than thoughts. One does come across references to hiring out the mort cloth for paupers in kirk session records, particularly where session accounts exist eg Durness. It is clear that such records were often created on paper and then hopefully copied into registers. Most have not survived. Given that most of the old graveyards in Sutherland show signs of being very full, we have to assume that burials were made one after another for many hundreds of years with the same piece of ground re-used many times over. The concept of a family having a plot was something reserved for higher status people and which only spread slowly, becoming established during the 19th century. Presumably mental maps of graveyards were retained by the kirk officer - reinforced by the oral record kept by families. Such informal records were eventually committed to paper, sometimes only in the 20th century. In short, it does not surprise me that there are no 18th or 19th century graveyard records. Malcolm Bangor-Jones -----Original Message----- From: Christine Stokes [mailto:chris@northants26.freeserve.co.uk] Sent: 17 July 2001 07:28 To: SCT-SUTHERLAND-L@rootsweb.com Subject: RE: Cemetery Records Sutherland ******************************************************************* This email has been received from an external party and has been swept for the presence of computer viruses. ******************************************************************* I have been busy following up the lead from Ron that the burial records were in Dornoch but have to say that they are only from recent times as David pointed out. The old burial records which would have been kept by each church through the mort cloth rentals do indeed appear to have vanished. It was said to me that it may be that an undertaker may have them!! Anyone know who was the undertaker in Rogart between about 1750 and 1890? I have always imagined that burial would have been very much a 'DIY' thing with the local carpenter making a coffin, the minister turning out for the burial and presumably each church having a gravedigger. Stands to reason that there must be stonemasons with some records of the stones they carved and erected but that is not what I am looking for. In the old parish churchyard of St Callan's in Rogart there are no more than two hundred stones - this was, at the time I mention, the only church in Rogart. There must have been a couple of thousand people through that period who died and were interred there with no stone. Surely a record was kept somewhere!! When you study the stones you see a father next to a son - undoubtedly that is that family's plot so presumably grandad etc are buried in that area also. Anyone got any ideas or thoughts about this? Christine Highland Hearts http://www.highlandhearts.com/ -----Original Message----- From: DReade2034@aol.com [mailto:DReade2034@aol.com] Sent: Saturday, July 14, 2001 12:27 PM To: SCT-SUTHERLAND-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: Cemetery Records Sutherland Hi All, I would agree with Ron about the helpful lady at the Council Office in Dornoch, but can't help with her surname. We were there a couple of weeks ago. I did not know that they had maps as well as books, unless they are using the Sutherland M I book by Cowper and Ross as a reference book. I was under the impression that they only had burial record books from about +/- 1900. The Golspie book started in 1897 and Rogart in 1908. As we were dealing with burials which were noted as in the old ground at Golspie, there was no indication of exactly where they were buried. We can only guess that it must have been into a family grave. The book for Rogart was too late for our Jane Ross, nee MacKay, who died in Golspie in 1903, but was not buried there. We guess that she was taken back to her family's grave in Rogart. David Reade ==== SCT-SUTHERLAND Mailing List ==== You may, at times, wish to check out previous messages to this list. You can do this at http://archiver.rootsweb.com/SCT-SUTHERLAND-L/ ============================== Search over 1 Billion names at Ancestry.com! http://www.ancestry.com/rd/rwlist1.asp --- Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.263 / Virus Database: 135 - Release Date: 6/22/01 --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.263 / Virus Database: 135 - Release Date: 6/22/01 ==== SCT-SUTHERLAND Mailing List ==== You may, at times, wish to check out previous messages to this list. 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