600 Burials

I have been very quiet on the geneablogging scene lately as I have been concentrating on my personal research. 

Since I started researching 35 years ago many things have changed and many new indexes and resources have become available on the internet. My recent efforts have been directed towards killing off and burying the relatives in our family tree, I am slowly looking at those born prior to 1930 and seeking out their Birth, Death, Marriage and burial records.

I use the spreadsheet type view in Family Historian software that allows me to choose which fields I want to display and then sort them by name, date or other element. Viewing this shows me the gaps I need to fill

An excerpt from my database sorted by a surname (hidden) then a death date which shows the gaps 

To support this work I have many popular site tabs open on my menu bar. One of these is FindaGrave where I may have two or more tabs open.

In conjunction with this research I have been creating a Virtual Cemetery of our children's descendants on FindaGrave. When searching this site add extra details to family profiles and I try to link up family members. While on the site I add our biological relations to my cemetery. 

So why am I blogging about this today?

I have reached a milestone as I just managed to inter the 600th biological relation into my Virtual Cemetery. (I had intended celebrating at 500 but forgot.)

My Virtual Cemetery

I hope that some time in the future family members may find this useful. 

The Tonale Military Memorial

Driving through Italy we passed through the Tonale Pass. Apparently in winter this place is buzzing with the snow lovers who flock to the area  to participate in snow sports. When we visited in autumn the place was deserted, there was a chill in the air but not a snowflake in sight.

We made a stop there for a refreshment break and more importantly to pay our respects to those Italian military from the First World War memorialised at the Sacrario militare del Tonale. It was a sobering visit as we reflected on the loss of lives in all countries affected by war.

The building is right on the highway

The remains of many men rest inside the building

Perhaps occasional services are held in the building

A niche in the external wall

Information was displayed in English

Sarcophagi at Side

I was able to indulge my interest in taphophilia when we visited the ancient city of Side in Turkey tis week. 

The museum at the site had an impressive collection of very old sarcophagi. I used Canva to create a postcard of just a few. 

Laying the bait at FindaGrave

In her presentation at the winter edition of THE Genealogy Show I was convinced by Marian Burk Wood to use FindaGrave as cousin bait.  I had mentioned FindaGrave as a source of cousin bait in my presentation at that event but I hadn't fully explored the opportunities it could provide to reel in cousins. I'm not going to spill the beans on what Marian said; you'll have to find her presentation somewhere or invite her to talk to your group.

Prior to this I had only dabbled in FindaGrave managing my parents' memorials and adding a few odd facts to other memorials. I had previously uploaded all grave photos to BillionGraves and not to FindaGrave; I have reviewed that practice. Depending on time constraints I usually take photos of some neighbouring headstones when visiting family plots.

Since being enlightened by Marian I am adding information and photographs to close relatives' profiles and adding profiles for those missing from the FindaGrave database. Thanks to Marian for her informative presentation and to those volunteers who have willingly handed over management of family memorials to me. 

I am not trying to build up a huge collection of memorials to manage; I have no time for that.  I just want to care for memorials of close family members especially those aunts and uncles with no issue.  

I will continue to add value to the memorials of cousins I encounter in my meandering on the site. I'm now leaving plenty of footprints for others to find.

I had fun linking up my Dad's parents and siblings

2021 #AtoZChallenge S is for ...Sydney cemeteries : a field guide

I've been researching my family history for over thirty years. Along this genealogy journey I have been supported by hundreds of books, many of which I have listed on my Librarything page. 

During the 2021 #AtoZChallenge I will be writing about two of my passions, books and family history. I'll be taking a trip down memory lane and revisiting some of those books that have enriched my genealogy experience.

I know several of the fourteen other people who have Sydney cemeteries : a field guide by Sydney historian Lisa Murray listed on their Librarything accounts.

This 399 page paperback guide to resting places around Sydney published by the University of NSW is generously endowed with colour photographs. Its relatively small format makes it suitable to tuck into a bag for a cemetery tour or to take to bed for some bedtime reading!

The contents begin with an introduction followed by lists of cemeteries arranged in nine geographical regions thence by date of commencement. One nice design feature is that each geographical area has a colour code that is visible on the spine making it easy to dig into cemeteries in a particular area.

Clever coloured sections on spine

The glossary, bibliography and index all assist with access to the content and provide guidance for further reading. Each cemetery entry consists of a history and description, a list of notable burials and more information and photographs, some entries have maps and added Tips. 

I found the placing of  general cemetery related articles in between the geographical regions confusing. I think these essays would have been better placed together in their own section. 

One of the quirky features I found interesting is the Top Five lists at the end of each section were the Top 5 lists eg Top Five Churchyards, Top Five Oldest (Undisturbed) Cemeteries. 

This book appeals to me for several reasons. I am a Sydney girl and booklover with an interest in good books, my home town and cemeteries. I have many dead relatives including all my parents and grandparents who are resting in Sydney cemeteries and I'm interested in their environments. Finally, as Mr GeniAus and I have a nice plot with a view chosen in a Sydney Cemetery it was good to be able to read about our future home and neighbours. 

As a bonus I'm adding links to two other four star death related books I enjoyed.

Murder, Misadventure and Miserable Ends: Tales from a Colonial Coroner's Court

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematorium

Trove Tuesday - Cause of Death!

I had no intention of  publishing a Trove Tuesday post this week until I came across this article which I was correcting as part of a project for my local area.

I hope those of my grandchildren who are not too fond of study don't read this post and note the cause of death.   

1899 'CATHERINE HILL BAY.', The Maitland Daily Mercury (NSW : 1894 - 1939), 14 November, p. 5. , viewed 28 Jul 2020, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article126338209

Graves in Guyaquil

When travelling in foreign countries I take photos of any cemeteries that we pass by. Unfortunately the photos I take from speeding buses are not of the best quality. However when we passed the Cemetery in Guyaquil, Ecuador recently the traffic caused the bus to travel at snails' pace so I was able to grab a few images through the windows. If ever I have the chance to visit Guyaquil again this cemetery will certainly be on my itinerary.

As in other South American countries we have visited the interments all appear to be above ground. The more modern multi-storey buildings with compartments for burials are similar to some we have seen in the United States.

Why didn't I think of that?

As I wrestled with linking my Six Feet under Downunder Google sheets to play nicely with my new Wix website I took some time off to read my email.

My clever genimate Carmel asked me why I was using Wix when a Google site would be "Easy for a Googly girl". I don't know why but I hadn't given Google a thought. Why didn't I think of that?

It's a long time since I made a Google site but with the help of Carmel's marvellous "How to create a family site" I was up and away.  I found the process a bit frustrating as the Google site does not have the flexibility of Wix but I don't need something with too many bells and whistles. I just needed something that would play nicely with my spreadsheets. A bit of tweaking is needed especially with the Header but for the moment I am more than satisfied.

I'm putting my Wix site to bed and will continue on with my new Six Feet Under Downunder Google Site which does a sterling job of sharing my spreadsheets.

Thanks to the wonderful Robbie Stockfeld I have lots of  links to indexes from Victoria and elsewhere to add to this site.

Going six feet under

Update 9/2/2019

Because of technical difficulties I could not resolve I have unpublished the Wix site mentioned below and replaced it with a Google Site Six Feet under Downunder. Please visit  https://sites.google.com/view/6feetunderdownunder/ and email me links to your favourite indexes.


I just can't help myself.

While preparing for my Six Feet Under Downunder webinar over the past few days I realised that there was no one site that lists all the wonderful resources in Australia that index the names of deceased resting in cemeteries and crematoria around Australia. It would have helped me no end in my preparation if there was a meta site that links to such resources.

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Of course I decided to fill the gap with a Six Feet Under Downunder Website. I must be mad but I hope that the many generous genies around Australia who know of such indexes of  cremations, headstones and burial sites will share them with me so they can be loaded on the site. I will link to free indexes big and small that are available online.

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Please bear with me as I set the site up and add data, it is my first attempt at creating a website with Wix so I'm on a steep learning curve. The site is live but have only added a little data until I get the structure right and work out how to add hyperlinks from the spreadsheets I am sharing on the pages. I will start wiht the sites I shared in the webinar and then add those shared by webinar attendees in the chat log. Feel free to take a look. 

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I need your HELP. If you know of a list not on this site please email me the details and I will add it.

Attendees teach presenter

Before I signed out from the Six Feet Under Downunder webinar this afternoon I took host Geoff Rasmussen's advice and downloaded the Chat Log and Questions Log from the event. I have just sat down and read through all the comments made and questions asked.

When presenting one needs to concentrate on the job at hand so there is no time to monitor the conversation that is taking place concurrently. Thanks to Geoff, a marvellous moderator, who replied to your comments online and provided links and information.

Sometimes one's activities have unintended outcomes, today's webinar certainly did. Firstly I was surprised that so many people tuned in to hear an Aussie grandma spruiking online, I was pleased to hear that people from 18 countries logged on. THANKS to you all. My curiosity is piqued because to me the attendees are anonymous, I wonder who it was that was online from Augsburg, Germany and down the road from me in Newcastle, Australia. There was a good representation from various states in the US, I think all Australian States were represented and our cousins across the ditch in New Zealand had a fair representation. A big G"Day to you all.

Many of the attendees who made comments taught me things I didn't know so the webinar was a learning experience for me.  Thanks to those who provided answers about the content on Tasmanian death certificates that I was unable to answer:

DEATHS

Prior to 1897 particulars recorded were:

Name of deceased.

Date and place of death.

Age at death.

Occupation.

Cause of death.

In 1897 the birthplace of deceased was added.

In 1914 age at marriage and number of issue were added.

I was interested to learn this about Deaths at sea: "When ex-Navy people are buried, the location (GPS / Lat-Long) of the position at which the ashes were scattered is recorded.  Should be able to ask for these through defence records also." and "Queensland death cert for burial at sea of infant ancestor who died while rellies were immigrating to Aus late 1800s include longtitude/latitude so can pinpoint with accuracy location of this sea burial."

I'll take a look at the unanswered questions and will try to answer them in a future blog post.

Thanks to those who provided me with links to online cemetery records. I will add these to my new blog/site Six Feet Under Downunder once I finish setting it up. I'll let you know when it goes live.

You can view the webinar online here for a limited time.

Legacy Downunder Webinars

I was rather chuffed last year when I was approached by Marian Pierre-Louis on behalf of  Legacy Family Tree Webinars with an offer to present a webinar in their new Downunder webinar series. Although I get incredibly nervous about presenting to a video camera I could not turn down such an invitation. I was so excited about this gig but I had to keep Mum about the event until the series was announced.

Marian selected the topic, Six Feet Under Downunder, from the list I have on my blog so for the past few weeks as I have been putting my Powerpoint presentation together I have been burying myself in books and articles about burial history and practices in Australia.

An outback cemetery

Hopefully I will manage to cover the following:

"After a discussion of the history of burial practices of indigenous and early European arrivals in the colony of New South Wales we will explore the development of cemeteries, crematoriums and memorial parks down under. We will discuss current legislation regulating burials and cremation and look at some current trends, practices and statistics for burials in Australia. The major focus of the webinar will be on resources available for locating details of people who were buried or cremated in Australia since European settlement in 1788. We will examine a range of free and subscription print and online resources that provide such details."

Tonight after I listened to the recording of Helen Smith's webinar on Australian Archives which kicked off the series it hit me that I am next on the docket for the Downunder webinar series. 

My nerves will be calmer if I know that some of my genimates will be joining me for my deadly webinar. YOU can sign up to join me in the webinar for FREE at 12 noon (AEDT) on February 6 from this link: https://familytreewebinars.com/webinar_details.php?webinar_id=910.

For my Genimates in Canada

This week we visited the grave of Jacques Cartier in the Cathedral of St Vincent in St Malo, France. I took a few snaps for you.

Heaven Address

Sometimes as I am practising Tangential Genealogy I find some great new stuff.

Occasionally when I search for an ancestor's name on Google I am directed to the Heaven Address site where I might find death and funeral details, sometimes there are tributes posted by family and friends and sometimes there is a collection of photos of the deceased. Until I returned this week the  only entries I found at this site were only for deaths in recent years.

On its home page Heaven Address claims to be "the respectful online memorial community to honour and celebrate the lives of your loved ones." One can join Heaven Address but there is no need to do this to search its database.

What I found this week, when I decided to search Heaven Address for the surname Curry for my CurryAus Surname study, were some old records back to the 1920s. In fact I found enough information to help me reconstruct a few Curry families.

I was under the impression that only funeral directors contributed to this database but it appears that  a small group of cemeteries and crematoria are adding records with maps and GPS coordinates of graves. This must be fairly new as many records, such as William Curry's (below) indicate that they have not yet been inscribed.

I found records from several Australian States. You can see the full list of Australian cemeteries and crematoria that are contributing records here: https://www.heavenaddress.com/partner/view/cem/AU

NSW Cemeteries contributing to Heaven Address.

This is a very useful database to add to your Genealogy Toolbox especially if you are undertaking a surname study.

Trove Tuesday - Woronora Cemetery

Yesterday we attended a family funeral service for my Aunt, Kathleen Jones (nee Curry) and her burial at Woronora Cemetery on the southern edge of Sydney. As we live on the northern fringe of our city this was quite a trek.

As we drove through the cemetery and noticed some of the older graves I wondered about the history of the cemetery where quite a few of our relatives are buried.

Trove to the Rescue.

Pasted below is part of an article that appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald in 1895. As it is a long article I am just posting a snippet. I am also posting a transcription of the full text of the article.

1895 'THE WORONORA CEMETERY.', The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), 9 December, p. 3, viewed 15 October, 2013, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article14028160

THE WORONORA CEMETERY.  

——◊——

The new cemetery which has been opened at Woronora, close to the Sutherland station, on theIllawarra line, is probably the most systematicallyplanned burial ground in the colonies, and when theusual improvements and cultivation have beeneffected the cemetery's picturesqueness aided by thenatural surroundings of the National Park, will bear avery impressive completeness. For many years theresidents of the southern suburbs agitated zealouslyfor a grant of find for cemetery purposes, and asthe once sparse population began to rapidly swellthe small provision which had been made by some ofthe Churches was not only inadequate, but the burialsbecame objectionable to the community for sanitaryand other reasons. Eventually the LandsDepartment decided to grant a portion of theNational Park for the purpose advocated,and in the beginning of last April dedicated112½ acres as a general cemetery under section 104 ofCrown Lands Act of 1884. The allotment to thevarious denominations was made as follows :—Church of England, 28a. 2r 31p. ; Roman Catholic,19a 0r. 8p. ; Wesleyan Methodist, 10a. 1r. 20p. ;Presbyterian, 7a. 3r. 28p. ; Congregational, 3a. 0r.28p. ; Primitive Methodist, 2a 3r. 7p. ; unsectarianportion, 2a. 3r. 7p. ; Baptist, 2a. 3r. 7p. , Jews, 1a.0r. 32p. , Lutheran, 1a. 0r. 25p. An area of 32a. 0r.33p. is set apart for a custodian's residence, planta-tions, roadway, and a mortuary station, and 2r. 39p.is reserved as a site for a lodge. The space per grave is fixed at 3ft. by 8ft., and as it is estimated that about 1000 can be pro-vided for per acre the burial accommodation of thecemetery, after allowing for the reservations forborder plantations, roadways, &c., will approximate  70,000 graves. Each denomination is representedby one trustee, and there are two trustees for the un-sectarian portion, making a total of 11 persons, whoact as a combined trust for the whole area. Thissystem of trusteeship is a departure from thathitherto adopted. For the Necropolis and mostother cemeteries each denomination has separatetrustees, but it is anticipated that the new systemwill prove both a more satisfactory and economicalone, as the trustees will co-operate with a view toeffecting general and uniform improvements. Thetrustees for the several denominations are :—Messrs. T. S. Schofield (C.E.), John Kelly, (R.C.),    J. Sproule (Presbyterian), H. M'Pherson (Congrega-tionalist), Hon. J. H. Carruthers and Mr. F. S. E.Holt (General and Unsectarian), Hon. H. E. Cohen  (Jews), Messrs. Peter Herrman (Wesleyan), G. Farr(Primitive Methodist), C. Howard (Baptist), C. W.Berghofer (Lutheran). The cemetery will serve thepopulation of Kogarah, Arncliffe, Penshurst, Hurst-ville, and other southern suburbs, where, except in  cases of churchyard burial, the residents have hithertohad to bring their dead into the Redfern station, andthen have the bodies conveyed to Rookwood orWaverley for interment. The Government granteda sum of £1000 for expenditure on improvements tothe new cemetery, and that amount has been ex-pended on having the burial ground fenced in and  cleared, the main road or drive made, trees plantednear the fences, and the different sections laid outand pegged. The only difficulty in the way of thetrustees now is the requirement of a rail-way siding into the cemetery. A surveyfor this purpose was made by the RailwayDepartment, but as no money was voted for thework nothing farther has been done. The cemeteryhas now been opened about three months, andbetween 20 and 30 burials have taken place.
These people who are somehow related to me are resting at Woronora: