Progressing Re-Use Where Burial Records are Problematic

7.4.1 Problems may arise as follows.

i In many cemeteries private plots were incrementally purchased/used in an almost random fashion (spatially), dotted here and there within the cemetery, but

numbered sequentially as they were bought/used. In these cemeteries the spatial arrangement of plot numbering in any one area or section therefore appears random. If the burial records have not been digitised then, at strategic planning stage, a manual checking of all plot numbers within the purchase register/grave register to ascertain the age structure of any given section or area (taking into account 2nd, 3rd and cremated remains interments) is likely to be time consuming to the point of being unworkable.

ii In some cemeteries, whilst all burials will have been recorded in the Register of Burials, a separate Grave Register (or Plot Register) may not have been kept for public (common) plots. In those instances whilst it may therefore be relatively easy to compile a list of the public plots appearing in any one area/section, it may be difficult (and unworkable) to manually compile a record of what interments have taken place in any one public plot from the paper records – because that would entail cross checking against every single entry in the burial register/and or day book.

7.4.2 In addition to the above, reviewing records may be complicated because:

 the way of recording burials may in many cases have changed over time meaning that there may be several types of records to consult;

 in some cases records will include a mixture of both digital and paper records;  in some instances there may be separate records, (for instance for still born

7.4.3 If the problems noted above at 7.4.1 (i) and (ii) apply then it is strongly recommended that the Burial Authority have their records digitised. Exactly what fields are digitised will be a matter for each Burial Authority but as an absolute minimum for the strategic planning of re-use, a Burial Authority will need to have the following data fields entered:

 Plot number

 Section number

 Private or public (or war grave)  Consecrated or unconsecrated  Date of 1st interment

 Date of subsequent interments

7.4.4 This would enable the Burial Authority, (having first manually compiled a list of all

plot numbers in any one section/area) to then filter/sort so as to be able to draw down a list for the dates of last burial in those graves. This would enable the process described in 7.2 to be undertaken.

7.4.5 To complete the detailed planning (see below) and to enable notification procedures

to follow, the following data would also need to be entered:

 Name of deceased

 Owner of grave

 Last known address of grave owner

7.4.6 In practice it is not cost effective to go back several times to complete digital data

entry so it is likely that authorities will have these fields digitally entered all at once. There may also be other benefits to having other fields completed at the same time (such as age of deceased/family details/other addresses) which are-useful for historical and genealogical reasons. It is beyond the scope of this guidance to look at these other options in detail, but there may be commercial or other pressures to have all such fields entered. What is critical is that whatever mechanism is chosen for digitisation/data entry, the Burial Authority should retain total control and access over the key elements of data necessary for strategic and detailed planning. They should also have the capacity to sort and filter the data to establish the Age of Last

Burial on a plot by plot and section by section basis and thus be able to work out the Proportion of Suitable plots at any given planned date for re-use.

Sampling

7.4.7 In many cases the Burial Authority may have already committed to digitising records

but the digitising is not complete (or the authority may not be in a position to commit to full digitisation of the records). In such cases, and to enable a strategic approach to be considered (without the benefit of the full digitised records) a ‘sampling’ exercise can be undertaken.

7.4.8 The aim of the sampling is to get an area by area or section by section overview of

the Age Structure, using information manually sampled from the records (e.g. by recording and correlating the age and section number of all burials within the Day Book having a surname beginning with the letter B). By sampling in this way consideration can be then be given to what might be an appropriate Age of Last Burial, and a target Date for Re-use can be set on a section by section basis.

7.4.9 Each cemetery and each Burial Authority will be different and a sampling exercise

will need to be devised to suit. This approach of sampling would then need to be followed up with a full review of all the records, potentially by committing to full digitisation of the records, as above.