Irish and scottish burial records

[kylejustin]

Random thought, if anyone knows the answer? Why is it so few burials are recorded in ireland and scotland pre civil registration? Why only births and marriages?

[GallowayLass]

Scotland:
Ye cannae commit sin when ye are deid LOL so practically speaking, the kirk is not interested. To be a member of the church, you needed to prove you were baptised or undergo baptism before joining. You married in church so that you were not defamed in front of the congregation for fornication and to make sure your children were not labelled as bastards. Once you had died, there was nothing society and religion could accuse you of. Crude but there it is.

[Janet]

Nobody thought that pre 1864 Family Historians woud be interested in deaths!!

It has always been one of my pet thoughts though as far as Ireland was concerned many people died of famine/disease etc and were then often buried where they lay or in nearby plots, not necessarily church plots, so no names existed for these and church was not always informed.

I used to go with my OH to his family farm in Wexford every year and each time we wold pass by a big patch of ground which according to hearsay was a huge burial ground dating back to Cromwell. Passing it at midnight I used to feel the hairs on my neck stand up on end and hated going past it. I wondered why it had never been researched. Then about 10 years ago the whole place was researched and found to contain many people who had died during the Cromwellian period tp the 1798 Wexford Rebellion and famine victims. There were hundreds there, but who were they?? Now, it is a proper memorial site but only commemorating the events, not the peole so no names!! There are many places like this all over Ireland.

I have found in my travels around Ireland, burials of people in the most unlikeliest of places, some with names but most without. I have found several in fields, not a church in sight. Most of my ancestors pre 1864 were baptised, married, but their death eludes me, except for those that went to the USA/UK!! I have also had difficulty finding Scottish deaths, so is it the same there?? My Robert Wyllie death eludes me totally. He just disapperas from life pre 1841, married Tulliallan 1825, three children baptised Tulliallan 1826, 1829 and 1831 and then no sign! He was a ship owner and mariner so he may have drowned at sea. My Great Grandmother married twice, first time 1855 then 1865 and her second marriage show father as Robert Wyllie deceased sailor. Finding his death might help with deciding whuch family of Wyllie he is from!! So frustrating!

Janet

[Janet]

One other point to remember as far as Ireland is concerned is that 80% of Irish population were RC, which of course was a banned religion in Ireland until Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829, though some relaxation of this was in evidence in the late 1780's onwards but there were few Catholic churches so very few Catholic burial places so this might be one reason why ancestor burials are in short supply. But what about Scotland?

Janet

[Olde Crone Holden]

I have found my pre registration Scottish relatives well recorded as long as they were buried in a lair! Which echoes the above posts, of course. Money is always recorded.

OC

[Elwyn]

In Ireland the only denomination that has ever routinely kept burial records is the Church of Ireland. Other denominations have never routinely done so, so it wasn’t until death registration started in 1864 that comprehensive records become available.. The Catholic Emancipation Act has been mentioned as a reason why RC churches didn’t keep them but I don’t think that’s necessarily so because many RC churches did keep baptism and marriage records prior to that Act, so why not keep burials too? Evidently, as with Presbyterians in Ireland, they felt there was no need for the information.

The odd RC parish and the odd Presbyterian church did keep some burial records, but where they exist it’s usually only for the duration of one Minister or Priest, and primarily for financial reasons. The records usually record their fee, and that is totted up faithfully, so you sense that that one person found it a useful way of keeping their accounts, but there doesn’t appear to have been any clerical need for recording burial information across the country.