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Death/Burial Records 1553-1854

The Old Parish Register death and burial records are by no means comprehensive and it has been estimated that a third of parishes don’t have any surviving records at all.

Most entries record the burial in the churchyard or the hiring of the parish mortcloth, which was used to cover the coffin at a funeral, rather than the death itself. If a parishioner died outwith the parish and was not buried in the churchyard then often no record was made of the death. Similarly if a child died without being baptised then often the name was not mentioned in the record as can be seen from this entry here.

Example of entry where child died before baptism (click to enlarge)

For further information refer to the Causes of death page.

Below is an example of a more standard death record recording the name of the deceased, their age, the father’s name, the father’s address, the cause of death and where they were buried.

Death/Burial Records 1553-1854

Example of entry where child died before baptism (click to enlarge)

Example of more standard death record (click to enlarge)