Research & Stories

For a more personal approach to researching your family history, the volunteer Burial Research Team, based at the Gatehouse office, will carry out a burial search for you. The team use a database of the 87,000 burials and memorial inscription records compiled from original archives by many Cemetery volunteers over 20 years. Over many years of research and enquiries from the public, the team have built up what are called “People Files” containing high quality information on some of the Cemetery’s residents. These contain such items as newspaper cuttings, photographs and notes derived from previous research. If you wish to engage the search team in research work we accept donations for their efforts and to help cover running costs. The suggested minimum donation for this service is :

• £15 which includes monument inscription (if there is one), burial record, photograph of the monument (if one exists) and map showing the location of the burial.
• Clearing the area of interest of vegetation from £20.00, depending on the amount of work required. Please note, grave access is not always possible.
• No donation is expected if we are unable to find any information regarding your query.

The team offer a high quality service, based on many years of experience in helping enquirers with their family history research. We believe the fees we levy are very modest for the service offered – all income generated goes back into supporting the running of the Trust and the work of the volunteers.

You can make your donation for this service by cheque or with a credit or debit card through PayPal by visiting our donation page. Details on how to contact the research team can be found on the Contact Us page.

We now sell an index CD containing the names, dates of death, dates of burial and ages of all 87,000 burials at the General Cemetery. The data is in Microsoft Excel format and the disc contains Microsoft Excel reader software, if you don’t have Microsoft Office.

Please Note – The data does not include the burial plot locations. Our search team are more than happy to provide individual plot locations on request, free of charge, to customers who purchase a CD – please go to the Contact us page.

You can purchase a copy by visiting our online shop.