to think if there was a dead body buried in the garden you would want to know about it?

[CarenzaLewis2]

I know I would.

And I have discovered there is one in my neighbour’s garden. Do I tell them?

OP can you tell us how to check our own properties.

What have you decided to do?

If you've done a bit of archaeology, you should be aware that there are laws about digging up the dead.
Does that apply to the Mother in Law?

I would want to know! I would put a market in the ground and enjoy telling everyone. Please, how do we're five out about the bodies on our properties?????

I wouldn't tell them.
It may freak them out and upset them big time.

It wouldn't bother me remotely it were Roman or even medieval. If it was less than 100 years old I might feel differently.
My main concern would be that it might make the house difficult to sell, if there is some kind of ancient monument in the garden. Surely that should have come up on searches? .

I wouldn't want to know.

Former archaeologist here. You need a coroner’s licence if you’re going to examine or excavate archaeological human remains, and you first have to show that there’s scientific value in that excavation.

Well the first reason that I can’t dig it up is because it’s in next door’s garden and given that relations are a bit tense because they haven’t fixed the fence, me and my spade won’t help matters.

Anyway this was a post about whether you would want to know, rather than “AIBU to dig up human remains?”

I’ll try and find the link for the site I used to find it.

You were considering imparting this theres a body in the garden type news to neighbours you are in a tense relationship with. For why?

Have you decided whether to tell them now?

Looking forward to that link you used; I presume one can check any address?

I'd want to know so I don't accidentally dig them up if planting a big tree/pool/trampoline.

I'd probably make them a little stone and say hi to them when I'm in the garden

You seem to be a bit gleefully macabre about it. It's hardly a fresh corpse in the garden, it's a centuries old burial. Wanting to "poke around" in a grave seems fairly odd to me.

Please don't be cavalier about excavating any human remains. 1) unless you are extremely experienced and qualified, you will a) damage them b) ruin any context/fail to accurately record it 2) there are rules/requirements about excavating remains & you will likely break them. 3) have some respect. Sometimes we have to excavate a burial because it has to be moved for construction, or because doing so has scientific/historic value... We don't "dig things up to have poke".

Wouldn't all the bodies be decomposed from roman times? And surely every garden has had a body buried in it at some point during human history??

I wouldn't be poking about but legally what is stop anyone digging their garden, for valid reasons, like putting in a pond for example.

If you didnt know, and how would you, the whole having to be a coroner, etc, wouldn't come into it would it?

But OP would know, lay people would not and presumably.are free to dig their gardens?

You seem to be a bit gleefully macabre about it.

Very accurate description.

I would NOT want to know. It would weird me out.

I would be devastated if you told me, OP. I would rather not have known as it would freak me out on nights when I’m alone and the floorboards creek. I would end up moving. I vote that you say nothing

I'm half wondering what the website is so that I can look at what's hidden in my garden - but then, I don't really want to know.

I know that the ashes of the original owners were scattered, but I'm sure they've long since blown away.

I live near a 17th century plague pit. Doesn't bother me, I just find it interesting

Lots of parks are over plague pits, lots of tenements, too.

Well this is fascinating. I want to know what’s in my garden.

Ooh look up my house too! Have I got one?

I'd want to know so I don't buy the house. In my old flat there was a mound of earth which I never touched or went near ( I didn't use the garden other than the shed for storage)

If I already lived there I would not want to know!

I’d want to know OP. But if you live Nextdoor to me - please come and tell me. I will let you do your archeological dig as long as I could be part of it. Fascinating.
How do I find out if there are bodies in my garden?

This reminds me of the Yorrick thread a while ago.