Burial registers are an incredibly useful resource for those researching family history. Most entries record the name, age and place of abode of the person who has died, but sometimes extra notes are included in the margins. In a series of three blogs we will look at some of the interesting information that can be found hidden in these records, so stay tuned!
Cause of death
In some registers the cause of death is noted in the margin. Wagons and wells seem to have been quite dangerous with many instances of people falling off of the wagons, being run over or falling into a well and drowning, but you can also discover more uncommon causes of death.
In 1828 17 year old John Damon died in Broadwindsor having ‘lost his life whilst amusing himself at a sport called ‘turn the pudding’ by which violent exertion he broke a blood vessel.’ We have been unable to discover exactly what was involved in this sport. If anyone knows we would love to find out.
The men of Ashmore must have been looking forward to a good day of deer hunting on Cranborne Chase in 1830. The hunting rights of the Chase, regardless of who owned the land, had belonged to the crown, and later to the Pitt family, until it was disenfranchised in 1829, so it would have been a novel experience. Unfortunately the day ended in tragedy when 50 year old Samuel Stainer was accidentally shot and killed.
Lina Lefèvre-Finucane, who was buried in Upwey, also died in a tragic accident, although this event happened in Paris and appeared in newspapers around the world. The 23 year old was one of 126 people who died in the fire at Bazar de Charitie on the 4th May 1897. The Bazar was an annual charity event attended by many aristocrats. In 1897 it took place in a wooden warehouse in which a medieval street scene had been created. One of the attractions was a cinematograph installation, which used ether lamps, and it was this equipment that started the fire. Most of the victims were aristocratic women and it was one of the earliest use of dental records to identify victims. Lina’s body was return for burial at Upwey where her widowed mother Caroline Rosina lived until her death in 1916.
Relatives
It is always helpful to genealogists when the rector includes details of relatives in the registers and it is even better when you get more than just a name.
The burial entry of Mary Bartlett, buried in Sturminster Marshall, includes the information that her husband George was also known as ‘Shongo’ and a note next to the burial of Florence Jane Douch in Piddlehinton in 1914 notes that she is the ‘reputed wife of James Way’, who was buried on the same day.
Maria Young was 89 when she died at Bishop’s Caundle in 1847 and according to the note on her burial entry at the time she had 121 living descendents, including 9 great-great grandchildren.
John W B Murray died at sea and was buried on Portland in 1816. From the burial register we learn that his father. E.W.Murray of New York, visited the grave on 21st October 1828. We think that this is when the age of the entry was altered from 26 to the very precise 23 years, 4 months and 3 days.
Fever and Vaccination
There are several notes concerning the spread of fevers and diseases. Besides the burial entry for 1 year old Georgina Hooper, who died of scarlet fever in Affpuddle in 1862, there is a note recording the spread of the illness. It records that there had been no fever in the parish since 1808 and that this fever started in Bere Regis, went to Turnerspuddle and from there to Briantspuddle before reaching the village.
It is noted that 2 year old Sarah Ann Spriggs, who died of small pox in Ryme Intrinseca in 1858 had not been vaccinated and that 31 year old William Norman from Wooton Fitzpaine died of the natural small pox in 1858, but his three vaccinated children were doing well.
Not all notes are linked to a burial. In the Hazelbury Bryan register of 1837 there is a note recording that in this year there was an unprecedented outbreak of influenza across the whole of England and that in the course of February and March it visited every house in the parish. ‘Several persons appeared to be approaching the grave, but no one died of it.’
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In future, we will be looking at what burial registers can tell us about shipwrecks and plane crashes, criminal activities, the views of the Vicar, and military service; so keep reading our blogs!
Great examples – I wonder how many current Dorset people are directly descended from Maria Young.