Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Newham Council’s burial records available on Deceased Online

Another large important London cemetery added to growing database

From the Deceased Online press release:

Newham Council will be helping both local people and family history and genealogy
researchers worldwide to find their ancestors in this fascinating and historical area of East
London. Newham, the borough which hosts many of the Olympic Games main venues, joins
a growing number of councils to have placed burial and cremation records on
www.deceasedonline.com, the UK’s only central website for these statutory records.

Newham manages West Ham Cemetery (located in Forest Gate), created in 1857 as one of
London’s first publicly-owned cemeteries following the Metropolitan Burials Act of 1852. The
Act was introduced as at that time London’s small burial grounds were overcrowded causing
serious health problems and lacked good management and accountability. All of the burials
since its opening were manually catalogued and these have now been digitised and indexed
for the Deceased Online website.

Deceased Online allows users, free of charge, to search the national database by name of deceased, date, and location. If relevant records are found, the online user has the option to purchase access to these to view, print and/or download.

In its 22 acre site, West Ham Cemetery comprises over 180,000 burials over its 150-year
plus history and Deceased Online will have a range records for all of these. Initially these
will comprise computerized records, details of grave occupants and scans of burial registers
which will enable online searchers to establish information about the deceased. In addition,
there will also be maps indicating the section within the cemetery where the each grave is
located thereby helping researchers to establish almost exactly the place where an ancestor
is interred.

Deceased Online is also adding records from over 50 Scottish burial grounds and cemeteries.

To start searching, go to www.deceasedonline.com

No comments: