How many days between death and funeral - nice cheerful thread!

[SmallTownGirl]

In the PRs the vicar/curate, etc would sometime write the date of birth of the baby, and that is fabulously helpful, but I've not seen the date of death in burial registers, only the date of the burial.

So, for all my agricultural labourer ancestors and their wives back in the 1800s, given the lack of refrigeration etc (don't need to go into any detail, do I?) , how many days are there likely to have been between death and burial? I have a child in my Tree who was baptised on 3 October and buried on 7 October the same year. Would 3-4 days be about normal? Fewer in the warmer months, maybe?

It's not that I'm looking to invent dates just so that I can add them to my Tree, it's that I have been rather wondering this for a few weeks and thought I'd get the question asked and out of the way.

Yours cheerfully
STG

[LangleyValeSue]

My 3x G grandfather died on 17 August 1838 of consumption and was buried on 23 August 1838. That's one I can think of off the top of my head, but I'll have a look for any earlier ones in my tree.

I would have thought it also would depend on how busy the Church and gravediggers were at the time as to how quickly burials took place.

My 4x G grandmother died 17 August 1849, but wasn't buried until 4 September, which seems to me to be rather a long time between.

Edit: Just realised that mother & son died on the same day, 11 years apart! Spooky ;)

[Janet]

I think you will find that pre 1837 just burial dates were given. Post 1837, after which time all deaths should have been notified/registered, then you will find both death and burial dates. They vary, but most would probably have been within a few days or a week after death, due to the lack of refrigeration etc. Incidentally places like Ireland and Jewish custom and no doubt most hot countries like India still do operate a system of burying the dead/cremation as soon as possible after death and within a few days. Some burials might have been delayed if death took place under suspicious circumstances or other reasons for delay.

Janet

[JBee]

I would think just a few days unless there was an epidemic.

However it has been known recently to take 3 weeks here in January due to so many people waiting until the New Year.

[Olde Crone Holden]

I read one grisly report about a remote moorland village which was snowbound for several months. The dead were stacked outside and covered with snow until the ground thawed enough to bury them!

OC

[Sand Dancer]

From my tree I have....

Death 20 March 1865, buried 22 March.
Death 4 Oct 1852, buried 7 Oct.
Death 18 Oct 1867, buried 22 Oct.
Death 22 Feb 1891, buried 25 Feb.
These were all in a small market town in Cambridgeshire, they didn't seem to hang about.

The following were in London, and appear to have taken slightly longer.
Death 27 Feb 1856, buried 3 March.
Death 13 Jan 1928, buried 20 Jan.
Death 4 Oct 1934, buried 18 Oct.

[kylejustin]

i should think most cases less than 4 days, sometimes the very day if it is expected, or there is a fresh grave! some are reburied in different places though. and a few of my gentry died in london or devon, and would be taken to essex or lincs to be buried in the family tomb.

[Anne in Carlisle]

I have an infant buried on the same day as he died but he was buried with his adult brother who had died a few days beforehand so I guess they went in the same grave.

The ones I know the date of are usually just a few days. On my Family Historian program I usually put the exact day of burial but just the month and year for the death. Obviously if they were buried on the 1st or 2nd of a month I would say they had died in the previous month.

Anne

[SmallTownGirl]

Thanks for all the replies. Kinda bears out what I thought.

Off to think happy thoughts.

Thanks again.

STG

[Dolly Rocker]

As late as 1925 in a city, OH's great grandfather dropped dead at work on Tuesday morning, the inquest was held on Thursday and they buried him on Friday of the same week.

D

[grumpy]

Not likely to happen a few hundred years ago but if you are Moslem the very next day, but really does it really

matter. We are talking about people who have passed on a day or two is neither here nor there. Usually on a

gen program there is space for two entries died and buried, so one knows that the date can be either correct

or a day or two out.

[dublincat]

Hi. Interesting thread. Here in Ireland the burial is usually 3 days after the death. Not always though, it can be slightly longer if, for example, there has to be an inquest. Dublincat