Genealogy Chat

I have quite a few infant deaths in my tree between 4 months and 3 years old... I have the death certificates for all of them anyone any idea how I would find out where they were buried, did they bury them in those days? Maggie

If your family was poor they were probably buried in pauper's graves. I think they would be listed in the burial register though. I hope they buried them!

Two of the babies born to my Great Grandparents in 1896/8 were buried...then my Great Grandparents, my Grandmother and now my Mother are all in the same plot. Maybe its worth finding the adult graves you may find they are with them. Good Luck Sheila

Thanks Helen, Where would the Paupers burial register be kept? Maggie

Thanks Sheila, Maggie

Forgive me for being sarcastic, but what do you think they did with the babies if not bury them ?

Sorry Paul but I think that kind of response is likely to prevent people from asking questions - the only daft question is one that isn't asked. It might seem logical to you, but personally I wouldn't like to assume that what we consider appropriate today to have been the case decades ago.

Paul, I agree with Sarah, perhaps cremation was an option. Losing a child is traumatic enough, at least a burial, albeit in a pauper's grave, would have given the parents some sense of closure. It seems only nowadays that we have become a hard hearted people who can dispose of unwanted babies in rubbish bins etc. No, I'm not climbing on an anti abortion soapbox here because this is not the place, but if it gets some people thinking about it.....I have made my point.

This is the same question I asked on General Topics and which a few took as distasteful. Anyway, will look forward to a sensible answer to your question!

And the 'sensible answer' is yes 'babies' do get buried and cremated.

Someone did some lookups for me on the NBI (National burial index?) and one was aged 1 day.

My Gt Grandparents had 14 children. Only 4 survived. All the ones who died were buried in Common Graves in Whitby Cemetery. The youngest was 12 hours old. Scarborough Crematorium who look after the records for Whitby were extremely helpful and gave me the plot numbers for each grave and also sent me a plan of the cemetery.

I only found out about my G grandparents 4 dead babies because there was a mention of them on their father's gravestone. "In memory of four children died in infancy". There were no names dates or ages but at least it pointed me in the right direction. As to where they were buried - I have no idea. Anne

Maggie Infant deaths - either we think about these matters or we don't. If we do, then it is necessary to consider every eventuality that can be thought of - proper burial through to medical research, and no doubt it happened then too. If the child was not baptised then I believe they were buried in unconsecrated ground, outside the churchyard. Coupled with lack of grave marker it is likely to make matters hard to track down. Ian

Sylvia the tone of this question is VERY different to yours. The lady who started this thread does NOT refer to the babies as "it". She obviously thought long and hard about the wording before making her post.

My father's sister died at three weeks, I have her birth and death certificates, but when I searched for her burial record at the local council, it was never found. I was told by the lady at the council, that babies when buried around the walls of the church or chapel within the cemetery, so when it rained, the water that fell off the chapel became holy and blessed the babies buried below. M.

Oh how sweet...what a nice thought

One of my children was stillborn at term 8 years ago and at the time lots of older women opened up to me about their experiences. It was quite usual even 30 years ago for stillborn babies or those who died in infancy to be buried with an adult and for parents to have no idea where the baby was buried. I think it is a particuarly emotive issue for us in the 21st century because we don't have to face up to the loss of infants in the way our ancestors did.

Hi Everyone, Wow what a lot of replies, I thought I would just check to see if anymore replies had come in and there they all were! The children I am mainly talking about are my Grandmothers brothers and sisters, my grandmother always said that she was the youngest of 9, we only knew of 5, I have now found all nine but was curious as to how they buried or even cremated in those days, it must have been so heartbreaking to lose any child but to lose 3 within 6years with the average age of 18 months must have been awful. So from the replies I have had it looks like if I phone or contact the local church where they died they may have them in their burial index, even if it was a paupers grave. Thanks everyone. Maggie

I was discussing this with a friend recently, who said that because infants were often buried for free, they were often laid in the coffins of strangers.