Why in this grave ??

[trish1]

noticed the times of your posts, are you on nightshift ?

Check to the right - I live in Australia

Trish

[Shortfuse]

[Andersonic]

Can I ask, please, as a non-scot - What is a "Lair"?

[Russell]

Hi Andersonic
A Lair is a plot of ground, the dimensions of which vary according to the burial ground and depth of soil available for burials.
A grave is a nominal 6 feet by 3 feet but many Scots churches and privately owned burial grounds offered a plot which could be the burial place for an entire family. Smaller plots (still 6' X 3') could have several layers of burials. Our local church burial ground offered 9 feet X 9 feet so husbands, wives, sons/daughters in law would all be buried in the same plot. The burial ground belonged to the church or owners but the plot was the property of the family which could legally be passed on to the next generation as long as the ownership papers were passed on as part of their inheritance. Sometimes a family who were emigrating would sell the burial rights to an unrelated family but the rights had to be registered in the Burial Lair Record book. Ownership also entailed ongoing responsibility for the maintenance of the plot.

Russell

[AndrewP]

Can I ask, please, as a non-scot - What is a "Lair"?

Hi Andersonic,

A lair is the plot of ground, often purchased by a family, used for burials. A single lair may typically take four to six burials depending on the depth of soil available before hitting bedrock. Sometimes a double lair is purchased, and hence double the amount of burials available on the joint plot. In some cases, the lair will be "common ground", what is sometimes less ceremoniously known as a pauper's grave. This is where the family did not have a lair, often could not afford a lair, and the parish council (later the local council) would have the lairs, and anybody could be buried there, whether family or not. Common ground burials normally would not have a headstone (as it would be a group of strangers).

Typically a lair record will have a lair (plot) number, the name and address of the person who purchased the lair (and sometimes who it subsequently passed to), the name and address of those buried there, the depths the were each buried at, the age of the deceased, the date of interment and the undertaker involved. This information does not seem to have been standardised: sometimes it will give a cause of death, sometimes it will give the date of death.

The local cemetery records office, as well as holding the lair books, will normally have a map of the cemetery, so you can find the lair if you visit the cemetery.

All the best,

AndrewP

Edit, a few minutes later: Russell must have been typing away when I started my reply.

[Russell]

Nice one Andrew I think between us we have covered all aspects of Scots burial ground tradition and legal aspects.

Russell

[trish1]

Nice one Andrew I think between us we have covered all aspects of Scots burial ground tradition and legal aspects.

Russell

Thank you both - in my world I guess it is simply called a family plot - or a family grave - the normal grave has 2 levels & for multiple burials the width then has to expand. The largest I have seen for my family has 7 adults and 2 children - the last burial being 1905. Later generations seemed to prefer cremation - I often wonder if this was by choice or because the grave was full.

Trish

[Andersonic]

Thank you very much, all of you. I think in England we'd call this a "Family Plot", and they often have railings round to demonstrate that they are a sort of private, family area. I must admit I'd wondered if a "Lair" was a sort of stone built family vault, from the context. I feel I know a little more now than I did. I suppose the term "lair" implies that that it is where ancestors lurk, and seems much nicer than just a family plot.

[Russell]

Hi Trish
Since Andersonic uses the term Family Plot perhaps the Aussie description derives from the higher number of English convicts arriving in Australia
In Scotland we had less space in the graveyards and wherever possible they dug deeper. Up in Caithness the depth of soil is much less so most were for a single burial and they were covered with massive slabs of local stone.

Russell

[Currie]

My Great Uncle is buried in NSW in an unmarked single grave and he is nicely sandwiched between two sisters-in-law. Lola died in 1945, Walter in 1954, and Elsie in 1960. He was a musician and more than likely a bit of a bohemian.

His wife didn’t die until 1967 and she’s buried in a nicely marked kerbed and covered grave about a hundred metres away. Possibly it was a case for him of room but no money and for her of money but no room.

There was a recent news item here about a push for vertical burials in the Northern Territory because of a lack of space. According to my calculations the Territory has about 1/25th the population of Scotland and about 17 times the area. http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/201 ... 713471.htm

This is a Family Plot. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qfl6RI1a8Ds

Good Evening,
Alan