Church of Scotland / historian experts?

[TightDiamondShoes]

Around 1930 my grandmother gave birth out of wedlock. She subsequently married and went in to have many more children.

Sadly, the firstborn (my uncle) died around 1935 of what we now know as leukaemia.

Because he was born out of wedlock - the church refused to bury him in the main grounds - and, when my grandmother died in the late 60s, she’d wanted him exhumed to rest with her. Alas, her wish was not granted.

The few surviving siblings are desperate to know where their brother’s body is - and how we might go about finding him and honouring his resting place.

Does anyone have any idea what might’ve happened to a child in these circumstances?

If you know what church then I think they should be able to give you information from their records. It's not really that long ago.

Just wanted to say how awful for your poor grandmother and how poorly she was treated. If you want to get technical about it then Mary wasn't married when she had Jesus. I'm an atheist though so maybe not the best to be commenting.

Have you tried here?

www.findagraveinscotland.com/

@BinBandit he’s not there - I’ve tried there before. I know which church it is - very rural and I don’t want to go in all guns a blazing as it were.

they were pretty fucking horrible to her - when she DID walk down the aisle, everyone spat at her. 😭

different times.

Btw, my grandmother and grandfather are in the graveyard proper - just nobody ever told her where my uncle was buried. He wasn’t allowed a headstone because he was “impure” or whatever the fuck they called it.

I’d write to the minister asking if there are historical records of burials in the kirkyard.

I agree with Seymour. I'd be fuming but a simple factual request is probably the best start. The people involved nowadays probably have more acceptable views and would not have been involved in the treatment of your grandmother and uncle. Definitely give them the opportunity to be kind and to help you.

Do you think family simply refused to claim his body? If so, his death certificate should say which hospital he died in. If he was unclaimed, then his burial or cremation would then have been arranged for by the local authority over the hospital as a ‘public health burial’ (called pauper burial in the 1930s). So start with death certificate to see location of death- usually the hospital is named or actually filed the death certificate, then look up the local authority and ask if they have any records. If you think it likely he was cremated, many county crematoriums also have databases that you can search through online or by calling them and giving name, date of birth and date of death.

Rural Scotland in 1935 - he would have died at home and not in a hospital.

OP I assume you've scoured the Scotland's People website?

www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/advanced-search

Many (but not all) of Scotland’s graveyards fall under their respective Council now so depending on where you live the Council may have detailed plans of the cemetery with accurate information re who is buried in which lair. I don’t know about Pauper’s Graves though as there might not be specific lairs. It is incredibly difficult to get permission for exhumation. I’ve been involved in the funeral business over 20 years and have dealt with 2. These terrible injustices from the past are heartbreaking.

Are you sure? Even with leukaemia?

As far as I know he died at home (another uncle remembers being told to be quiet all the time…).

I’ve got some good leads from this thread thank you and will follow those up before contacting the church directly.

The family had money by this point, so I don’t think it would’ve been a paupers burial - as the family already had plots within the sacred grounds - just he wasn’t allowed to sully them.

As far as I know he died at home
Well that’s a huge relief, then you know your best bet is through the church records and GRO.

I'm sorry for the way your gran and your uncle were treated. If he wasn't allowed to be buried in the church grounds I wonder if he may have been buried in a council cemetery? As a previous poster has said, their records tend to be very good. Our family has experience of tracing a lair which was used in the 1930's even though no gravestone was erected.

Most church graveyards were transferred to local council ownership in 1929, although I believe there are a small number of exceptions to that. If you know which church, then it should be easy to find out. And if it was owned by the church, then presumably he would have been buried in another graveyard which the local authority should have records for.

You could also see if the local undertaker has records going back to that time.

I have a surprisingly fast update - hurrah for tiny parishes!

They wouldn’t allow him to be buried within the walls or with a stone. So when my ggm died (also illegitimate) she told them to do one - and was buried outside the walls with him - so he’s not alone.

Official records show he’s buried with my grandmother - but he’s most definitely not as it transpires they didn’t even own that plot when he died.

So there was some confusion there about my grandmother not knowing where he was - but it turns out this was another child who died at birth.

The best we can make out for him is that he went into a shared grave at the gate of a different Kirk for all “stillborns”. 😔

I’ll be visiting in a few months and recording what I’ve learned to date.

That's great that you've got some answers and so swiftly too. Your ggm sounds like a brilliant woman.