Index to Burials in the Glasgow High Church-1699-1855

[SarahND]

Hello all,
Does anyone have this CD that has just been published by the Glasgow & West of Scotland FHS? I have been waiting anxiously for its publication, as their site kept saying "soon" and now suddenly I see it is listed as available.
If some kind soul has the CD and wouldn't mind looking up a name, I might ask Otherwise, I'll just have to order my own!
Cheers,
Sarah

[bethann]

Hello Sarah,

I have the Index to burials in The Glasgow High Church.
If you give me details I will have a look for you.

Beth

[SarahND]

Hello Beth!
Welcome to Talking Scot Thank you very much for your offer.

I am hoping to find a record of the death of Peter Giles (spelling on the last name can vary from Gilles, Gillies, Geils, Giels, Geals, Jeals, etc.) in 1840 or 1841. I have a letter dated November 1841 discussing his estate, so he died before then. He was in the Glasgow directory for 1840, so he was alive when that was compiled (would that have been late 1839 or early 1840?)
From an earlier letter of his he was a "joined member" of "St Mary's Chaple" which I believe was St Mary's Episcopal Church. He would have been at least 60 years old- probably older, but I haven't yet reliably found his birth record.

Thanks, again for doing this. It seemed a little steep to pay £15 for the CD when I only have (so far...) this one death to look up. I appreciate your kindness
Sarah

[bethann]

Hello Sarah and thank you for the welcome.

The only Peter Gillies that's listed was buried 1843, so too late for your Peter. I tried just looking for a Peter between years 1839 and 1841, but nothing that looked like Gillies.
There was a Gillies, but no forename given, formerly residing in George St. Buried 15th March 1839, age 60, boarding house. Cause of death, Decline.

Beth

[SarahND]

Thank you Beth
My Peter did reside in George Street, so it is more than possible that the no-name is my ggg grandfather! And the age fits with the most likely suspect for his birth record, also
Thanks so much! I have been looking for this death record for years...
A very happy Sarah

P.S. Does it say that there is any more information if one were to go to the record itself, or is everything transcribed?

[bethann]

Hi Sarah,

I'm glad the disc has been of some use to you. I believe there could be more information to be had, as the disc is only an index.
The only other information given is 'Grave/Burial plot data-refer to original'. You would need to contact the Glasgow & West of Scotland FHS for the burial records or if anyone on talkingscot is visiting the Mitchell Library and can check the records for The Glasgow High Church.
You can also email the library and ask them to check it for you.

Beth

[SarahND]

Thanks, Beth
Unless someone checks it for me at the Mitchell before then I will check when I go there (six weeks from now ) I would like to see if there is a record of the burial site and if I can find it!
Sarah

[Clarebelle]

Dear Sarah how was your visit to Scotland did you find lots of info and in particular the grave you were looking for? I plan to go sometime this year. I live in Victoria Australia my ancestors came from Argyll and East Lothian.
Clare

[SarahND]

Dear Clare,
The trip to Scotland was wonderful, despite the fact that I lost my voice as soon as I got to Edinburgh and didn't really completely recover until I got south of the border again! (but I attribute that to ancestral sabotage-- some people didn't want me to find out the less-than-edifying parts of their lives ). I did find out a lot, but there is much more to be found, of course. After getting the bare facts of dates, etc, the archives are a treasure-trove of details if one can just figure out exactly where to look. I only found out after I got back home that my ancestor's marital separation documents were not where I was told to look, but probably in another group of documents I didn't think to search So another trip is in order

The location of some great nuggets of information is impossible to predict, of course. For example, when I was in the Aberdeen Archives I was looking through some court records from the early 1800's. For the most part, it was all just I.O.U.s for small sums of money, but then suddenly there would be a Will, or I found one case where a woman needed to verify her age and they had sent for the birth record from Essex and gave information on the woman's parents, place of birth, etc. Imagine how excited someone would get if that was their ancestor! And they would never think of looking in the Aberdeen court records for a birth in Essex... Those would really be worthwhile to index, but what a job!

Back to your question on burials. I did find the burial record, but not what I thought! The reference Beth found turned out to be a woman who kept a boarding house, not a man living in one... so that was a disappointment. But when I went to the Mitchell Library I decided to look at the microfilms they have of burials. There is no index, so one has to guess which cemetery and scroll through to see. I guessed off the top of my head that it was the Necropolis, put in the film and there he was-- died just a year before the 1841 census and by his age at death was about 10-15 years older than I had thought, so back to the drawing board on the possible birth records...!

I didn't even try to find the grave in that huge place... so I'm not even sure if it would be possible. In any case, I am pretty sure there is no stone. Next time I will go there and at least stroll around.

Hope you have a wonderful trip!
All the best,
Sarah

[LesleyB]

Hi Sarah

I didn't even try to find the grave in that huge place... so I'm not even sure if it would be possible.

On the films at the Mitchell, along with the burials for the Necropolis there is usually a reference given for the grave. The Necropolis is split into named areas, (its all a bt cryptic..) e.g. one of the areas is called "quartas" - I think they are all latin-type names. After the names area there is a number. e.g. Quartas 123. This is a reference for the grave location...but ordinary mortals cannot work it out as there appears to be no map (that I could find) which shows where these differently named areas are located ...so....

Armed with that coded info, if you contact a wonderfully helpful man who works for the cemeteries dept, (I will supply name and tel. no if needed) he will mark the grave for you and give you directions to, or make arrangements to have you taken to it, it as long as he is given a few working days notice. (weekends, though, are not good - no one there)

Best wishes
Lesley

p.s. there is a good wee book about the Necropolis: "Death by Design" by Ronnie Scott, and there are free tours run by the Friends of Glasgow Necropolis at the weekends (well, there used to be... their web site seems to be down just now, so no more details...http://www.glasgownecropolis.org/ )