Death Records – Records of municipal and private cemeteries

Since the mid-19th century, the upkeep of almost all burial grounds in Scotland has become the responsibility of local authorities: initially parochial boards and burghs, then parish councils and burghs, then burghs and district councils (of county councils), then post-1975 district councils, and now (since 1996) unitary local authorities. Many private burial grounds, previously run by commercial companies or religious bodies, were taken over and new cemeteries built between the 1890s and 1960s. Crematoria have also been constructed since the 1890s, some run by local authorities and some privately run. In some cases the records of the management of a private burial ground taken over by a local authority were transferred, but for others little was saved. From 1855 burial registers should have been maintained by the burial authority.[1] From 2016 there have been legal requirements to maintain electronic burial and cremation registers and for the local authority to maintain a register of private burials.[2]

Burial registers and related records are most often held by the relevant department of the local authority, who continue to require them for operational purposes. However, in some cases the records (or microfilm copies of the records) may be held by the local studies library or archives service of the local authority.

For access, the first point of contact should be the local studies library or local authority archive service since these will doubtless have answered many identical or similar enquiries. Under the 2016 Act there is a right of access to the information in burial registers but the local authority is entitled to charge for this access.[3] Note that those records which contain information about living individuals (such as lair registers) may be subject to data protection closure periods. An alternative, whether or not the records of the burial ground survive, may be to look for published monumental inscriptions from the burial ground.

 

References

[1] Burial Grounds (Scotland) Act 1855 (18 & 19 Vict. c.68) s.31.

[2] Burial and Cremation (Scotland) Act 2016 (asp. 20) s10, s.23, s.102.

[3] Burial and Cremation (Scotland) Act 2016 (asp. 20) s.10(3).