England & Scotland Cemetery Records on Internet

Free Genealogy Search at Deceased Online Website

Sep 26, 2009

Cemetery records for some English & Scottish councils are free to search online, with more to come. Register details, grave images & maps are available for a small fee.

Burial records, with all of their genealogical information, can be difficult to search. They are often scattered across counties and countries, in fragile books and dusty boxes. How is a genealogist to access the wealth of family history they contain?

United Kingdom Burial Records

In the UK, each local council has the responsibility for burials and cremations, and for keeping the appropriate records. In these days of modern technology, they use computer software to manage the information and are preserving old registers and maps with digital scans. But the information is still scattered throughout the councils.

Deceased Online Website

Deceased Online is a company formed to provide these council records to the public. They began in July 2008, but the parent companies (Gower Consultants and Manuscripti) have been providing computer software and document preservation services to the councils for years. As such, they already have access to many of the records.

There are currently nearly a half-million UK burial records online as of this writing. Richard Gray, Marketing Director of Deceased Online, says that there are 300 major councils in the UK, and that while they've started with six councils, the company expects burial records from 25 councils to be online by the end of the year. By the end of 2010, that number should be 50, which would include 15-20 million burial records since the mid-19th century.

The Republic of Ireland is not part of the UK, but Gray hopes that Irish burial authorities will join the project as well.

Scotland and England Burial Records

The Angus Council in Scotland has just made nearly 200,000 burial records from over 70 cemeteries available through Deceased Online. The majority of the records come from the areas of Arbroath, Forfar and Montrose.

Several councils in England have also made information available for nearly 270,000 burials. These include the London boroughs of Brent, Islington, Camden and Havering, plus the Kent & Sussex Crematorium and the Tunbridge Wells Borough Cemetery.

Searching for Ancestors' Burial Records

Genealogists can search for their ancestors by name and date in the basic search form. By using the advanced form, they can search by any combination of first name, surname, country, region, a year range, and a choice of burial or cremation records or both.

The initial search is free, with no registration required. When a likely ancestor is found, users can register and click to see what further details are available. To actually view the details, users must purchase credits. These credits are then "spent" to view the details, most of which cost 15 credits, with grave images and maps costing more. As of this writing, 30 credits cost £3.00, with discounts for larger purchases.

The possibility of seeing what kind of details are available before paying for viewing the burial record is very welcome; many genealogy sites using a pay-per-view method charge at different levels, and spending a credit just to see a results list of possible names can become irksome.

New, searchable databases are exciting for genealogists, and online burial records are most welcome additions. Family history buffs will look forward to additional UK and Ireland records when they become available.

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The copyright of the article England & Scotland Cemetery Records on Internet in Vital Record Resources is owned by Jennifer Jensen. Permission to republish England & Scotland Cemetery Records on Internet in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.