Stranger in the same grave. - Genealogists' Forum

Durham Lady · #1 11-08-14, 21:23

My paternal grandfather was buried in 1938, his wife was buried with him in 1943. I've found out that an 83 year old lady was buried in the same plot in 1955 but I have no idea who she could be. The surname is not one that has ever come up in my family.
I know graves were sometimes used for later burials but, would it be usual for a burial of someone unrelated to the family to take place relatively soon after a family member? 12 years doesn't seem long and there were other family members who might have wanted to use the same plot.

JBee · #2 11-08-14, 21:55

I would say that it depends whether the plot had been purchased or not. It could also have been a mistake but either no-one realised or didn't want to go through the process of a re-burial.

kiterunner · #3 11-08-14, 21:55

Did they pay for the plot, do you know, Daphne? Or was it paid for by someone else? Just wondering if it could have belonged to someone who was related to one of the couple and to the old lady, but on different sides of his family?

JBee · #4 11-08-14, 22:01

I was just going to say that too Kite.

MY OH's great aunt purchased 3 x 2 berth plots. She is buried in one along with a brother.

OH great grandparents are in one and his grandparents in another. Great aunt never married

To be honest I had to work out who the owner of the graves was.

Kit · #5 12-08-14, 00:22

If they open a grave up for burial and decide it is the wrong one, or is too full, they will close it up again.

It happened with my grandma. She wanted to be buried next to her parents but it turned out there were 3 not 2 people in there already so they closed it back up and she is somewhere else.

Daphne I wonder if you contact the cemetery if they would know? The undertaker would be a better bet but 1955 is probably too long ago.

Shona · #6 12-08-14, 05:52

Same thing happened in OH's family. The mystery woman was buried in the family plot in WW2.

Durham Lady · #7 12-08-14, 07:28

Thanks for your thoughts everyone. It looks like it could be a burial in the wrong place or perhaps a friend of someone in the family and they were offered the space to save having to have the lady put in a common grave.

As far as I know the plot was purchased by the family. It is in the Churchyard not a council owned cemetery. I have never come across anyone with the surname of the lady buried with my grandparents that could be related to them or related by marriage to any of their children. My grandparents had no siblings anywhere in the area, grandfather's were all in America and grandma's Northumberland.

Tony I would have no idea who the undertaker would have been back then. We don't get that sort of information on death certificates as you do in Aus so purchasing that wouldn't help me.

It looks like a mystery for me to try and solve, along with all the other brick walls

kiterunner · #8 12-08-14, 08:04

You can post up the names and let us have a go at it if you like, Daphne.

Phoenix · #9 12-08-14, 08:17

When the owners of a graveyard want to re-use graves, or otherwise disturb them, they usually write to the latest address they have. It might be that they did this, but got no reply from next of kin. There is huge pressure on graveyards, so they may have been reusing graves if they couldn't make contact.

Aunt tells tale of going to lay flowers on her parents' grave (probably less than twenty years after the last was interred) to discover that the council had removed the headstone.

Olde Crone · #10 12-08-14, 09:25

The unrelated elderly lady buried in a family grave turned out to be the housekeeper who had lived with them in their declining years! My uncle remembered her and said he thought she was widow with no children, so rather than her being buried in a paupr's grave, they used the last space available for that family.

Also are you relying on transcribed records? I've been ploughing through transcribed MIs recently and have found two definite mistakes in transcription.

OC