Greenock Cemetery.....

[Carolann]

Hi Andy
Received e-mail and thank you once again.
Carolann

[HeatherV]

Hi Andy,

I've compiled my list of relatives resting in Greenock - one more here requesting the email address - hopefully the Greenock Cemetery is not overwhelmed with requests.

Regards,

Heather

[HeatherV]

Andy,

Received - Thanks very much !

Heather

[shirley]

Hi Darlene

Just been up to Greenock Cemetry and they charge £11.00 for the information you require.

Shirley

[HeatherV]

Back to the cemetery ...

I received a very helpful reply back from the Greenock Cemetery. The letter noted that one individual was buried 'in common ground' in Greenock. Does anyone have any idea where this might have been located around 1894 ?

Thanks,

Heatherv

[AndrewP]

Common ground will be an area of the cemetery where people were buried in a communal piece of ground with others unrelated to them. These were sometimes less ceremoniously called a "pauper's grave". These were used when there was no bought family plot (lair), most often because the family couldn't afford their own plot. There would be no headstone, so the exact burial plot is more difficult to pinpoint.

Some members of my family are buried in common ground in Ratho Cemetery. I have seen the cemetery lair books, which gave a plot number within the common ground and then I saw the map of the lairs, so I have a good idea where in the cemetery they are buried (give or take a few paces in any direction).

I believe that some cemeteries have less detailed records for common ground. There can be no lair number, just the reference "common ground". A map of the cemetery will the show an area of "common ground", so all you will ever know is which area of the cemetery they are buried in.

All the best,

Andrew Paterson

[HeatherV]

Andrew,

Thanks very much!

Regards,
Heather

[Alison Plenderleith]

Hi All,

Have just read what common ground is, thanks to Andrew, but I have a Dunfermline burial in 1840 which says old ground.

Would be grateful if someone could enlighten me please.

All the best,

Alison

[DavidWW]

Hi All,

Have just read what common ground is, thanks to Andrew, but I have a Dunfermline burial in 1840 which says old ground.

Would be grateful if someone could enlighten me please.

All the best,

Alison

Alison

Very common to find a new cemetery opened alongside the old one, when the latter is full ............ but there is still space in the lairs in the old one, - in other words, no room for new graves .... and I can well imagine the reference to the opening of a lair in the old cemetery for a burial referring to it as "old ground". But this is just speculation.

Davie

[Alison Plenderleith]

Thanks Davie,

Regards,

Alison