A Note on Hertfordshire Parish Graveyards

Grave boards at Ayot St Lawrence from a postcard published circa 1905.

I frequently get requests from people who have discovered that their ancestor was buried in a particular parish and are planning to visit - so a brief summary of what they might find is appropriate.

Before about 1800 nearly all burials would have been marked with wooden grave boards, such as the above examples, and some were still being used a hundred years later. Typically after 50 year the wood would be rotten and for many centuries the grave would have been renewed. The very few graveboards that remain will be completely unreadable unless they have been renewed. 

While a few late 17th century grave were given headstones they typical materials used in Hertfordshire mean that often it is not even possible to see if there was an inscription. During the 19th century the use of gravestones became common - and in most of the towns the churchyards fill up and town cemeteries were opened - and burials ceased in the church graveyard. 

Maintaining a graveyard full of stones of the long deceased can be an expensive business and many church graveyards have been tidies up - particularly in towns. This may (if you are lucky) means laying the stone flat - inscription up - so it can be mowed over. In other cases stones are leaned against the churchyard wall, used to make paths (and in one case I have seen the walls round a compost heap) or taken to the tip. - Some 50 years ago I was horrified to find that the beautiful pink granite slab on one of my great great grandfather's tombs had been scrapped in this way.

So if you are planning a visit be sure to check the burial register (at HALS or online at FindMyPast). Find out if the Herts Family History Society have indexed what is left. It can also help to look for online photographs of the church (Google satellite or street views, Geograph, etc) to see if any tombstones remain.

Parish Registers

Further advice on family events is available on the main web site - although some has not yet been updated to include the latest online sources.

Genealogists' Magazine - December 2013 - Burial Records

SoG

I have just received the latest copy of the Genealogists' Magazine, The Journal of the Society of Genealogists.

It contains a useful article on UK Burial Records on the Deceased Online Web Site which lists many municipal cemeteries including the following from Hertfordshire.

• Kingshill Cemetery, Berkhamsted (1947)
• Heath Lane Cemetery, Hemel Hempstead (1878)
• Woodwells Cemetery, Hemel Hempstead (1960)
• Tring Cemetery, Tring (1894)
• Bury Green Cemetery, Cheshunt (1855)
• Ware Road Cemetery, Hoddesdon (1883)

The Hoddesdon Cemetery includes burials re-interred from St Monica's Priory.

There is an article on the Society of Genealogists Apprentice index, produced in 1920 and now being put online, which includes some apprentices from Hertfordshire.

Other articles don't relate to the county but I really enjoyed reading about Dr Thomas Smethurst, The Richmond Prisoner, which has some interesting twists at the end, and I was interested to discover the army pensioners were sent to Western Australia from 1850 to act as guards to some of the last prisoners to be transported.

Hertfordshire Parish Registers now online

Parish Registers

Findmypast.co.uk has published online Hertfordshire records dating from 1538:

• Baptisms 803,133 records for the period 1538-1910 – see a list of parishes and dates covered (PDF)
• Banns 164,314 records for the period 1653-1928 – see a list of parishes and dates covered (PDF)
• Marriages 297,962 records for the period 1538-1928 – see a list of parishes and dates covered (PDF)
• Burials 605,940 records for the period 1538-1990 – see a list of parishes and dates covered (PDF)

Jolly good as far as it goes - as we have been waiting for this for over a year - but when I checked my Aunt's baptism in 1895 I found a bad transcription error - a very clear "Finch" was indexed "Frank" - and, unlike the census returns, FindMyPast has provided no way of submitting amendments. 

I also found that for the parish I am most interested in, Sandridge, the amount covered is very limited - Baptisms 1898-1910; Banns 1824-1928; Marriages 1898-1901; Burials None. Other parishes seem better.

Interestingly if you select a Sandridge baptism for 1910 and view the register pages - you can scroll forward into 1911 and perhaps beyond but these are not indexed. In fact the software tells you that the baptism after 1910 for Sandridge is not found without telling you this is because it is not indexed.

I don't have time to do a detailed survey at present so if you try the new records why not add a comment below as to what you find to help other people find their way round the new facility.

Where would you bury someone from Scotland?

Michael knows that Jesse Henderson was born on the Isle of Mull, married in Glasgow, and died in Aldenham, Herts. He has search high and low to find where she was buried and in HENDERSON, Aldenham, 1876 I have reviewed the possibilities. 

There was no Church of Scotland church in the area before 1895 - but there was a well established Presbyterian Chapel not far away. Unfortunately there appear to be no relevant chapel records for the period - but Trinity Chapel, Dagnall Street, St Albans, looks a real possibility.