Genealogy Chat

I know how to find war graves but could anyone give me advice on how to find a where someone is buried once you have the death certificate ?

It usually tells you on the war graves site where the person is buried. - I thought it did anyway. Dea

If it is a Great War death, it is more likely that there will be a memorial as opposed to a grave, i.e. at Thiepval, as the majority of the KIA were not identified individually. Ian

If it's ordinary burials that you are talking about, then the way you can do it is to ring up the local county council for the area where the death took place, and they will have a list of cemeteries in their area. Most large cemeteries have offices where they keep records of all burials in their cemetery, and if you give them the name and date of death, they should be able to tell you if that person is buried in their cemetery and what the plot number is. If the buriel is in a churchyard, then I think you will have to look at the relevant county record office to see if they have details of church records there. Kath. x

Thanks Kath it was an odinary grave I was looking for Paul

I had a dilema like this the other day, what I did was start with what I knew (where the death was reg) and then got in touch with the local council who helped me guess the nearest cemetery. (I did have an address to go on too). Then I phoned the cemetery, gave them what details I had, and luckily I hit the jackpot first time, I've always found cemetery staff really helpful too. Good luck Teri :O)

The Thiepval Memorial was for those for whom they could identify no mortal remains. Where there was a body (or, I understand, even part of a body) which could be identified, they were buried in a grave, although there were some multiple burials (aircrew, for instance, in WW2). Christine

You could try http://www.framland(.)pwp(.)blueyonder.co.uk/ remove brackets!! I've found this site really useful, as many relatives came for a village where the gravestones/memorials had been transcribed - hope its good for you. Jo

It can be difficult. There are Monument Indexes for many churchyards - try a web search or the website of the FHS covering that area. If it is likely to be in a municipal graveyard then have a look on the WWW to see if that council have a website or EMail address. They vary, some can check the location whilst you are on the phone but some have paper indexes. They are usually very helpful but if you do get a reference number for the grave ask for a map as it can be difficult to find sometimes one grave in a large cemetery. Some do have markers on either every headstone on at the end of each row. The cemetery office will have a large map usually. Last month I was trying to find four Newfoundland Overseas Forestry Unit war graves. I had had a walk around the cemetery but it was too big to have much chance of finding them so I EMailed the cemetery office and within an hour received full details of the locations complete with a scan of a map of the cemetery. I was looking for an Australian war grave in Wrexham Cemetery. It is the only cemetery where I have found a map of the layout on the notice board. The member of staff based there took me into his office and gave me photocopies of the plans of the layout then took me to the grave itself. Any staff working in the cemetery can be helpful and will often show you the location - this includes undertakers and stone masons who usually also know the place well. It can be worth printing out the list of war graves from the Commonwealth War Graves website as these can give you clues to the layout of the cemetery. If there is no trace in the local cemetery then it can be more difficult. Local newspapers might have a death notice which gives the location of the funeral. It all depends on the period.

National Burial Index gives places for lots of people, but its coverage is not complete. Remember too, that increasingly people were cremated rather than buried. There's also a possibility that they weren't buried near their death place. In London, many cemeteries are outside the area - St Pancras cemetery for example is in Finchley. My great-grandfather died in North London but was buried in the Norfolk village where his wife had been interred. nell