A Day Out With Other Genealogists
The constant accumulation of
knowledge is a must for any genealogist.
There are always new areas that require research and updating of your
knowledge and visiting places of genealogical interest always raises questions
and furthers our knowledge. Recently I visited the Brookwood Cemetery also
known as the London Necropolis, with the AGRA South East Network Group. After a fascinating tour of the Surrey History
Centre and some unusual conservation techniques, at least for the lay person,
followed by a delicious and entertaining pub lunch, the open air at Brookwood
was needed.
There are over 235 000 burials at
the cemetery, and it has different sections including, The Church of England
Burial Ground, which is further divided, with some areas attributable to specific
London Churches. The Muslim Burial Ground also has a variety of areas, one
being the London Mosque and Ahmadiyya Burial Ground. There is also a nonconformist area, divided
into sectors such as Roman Catholic, Zoroastrian and Swedish being a few and
also a Military Section. Many of the
earlier pauper burials sadly have no gravestones.
We spent our time in the Military
Section where people of many nationalities are buried. The gravestones have a variety of religious
symbols and sometimes no religious indicators, and they can include regimental
insignias and badges. I have attached photos of two symbols from the
gravestones. One is a badge of the Royal
Engineers, which like many other military regiments uses the garter and motto
from the British Chivalric Order of the Garter, - ‘Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense’,
translation ‘Shame on him who thinks evil of it’.
The other is a Star of David with
Hebrew letters in the centre. The letters are an acronym for the phrase, ‘May his
soul be bound up in the bond of life’ which is a paraphrase of 1 Samuel 25:29 -
‘But my Lord’s soul shall be bound in the bond of life with the Lord your
God’.
There are also military gravestones
with other members of the family mentioned, sometime children, parents or wives
and husbands although why they are mentioned or if they are actually also
buried there is uncertain. There are also some graves where questions were
raised as to whether those interred were prisoners of war, or men who had died
while on bombing raids over England.
The cemetery is a massive store of
information for the genealogist and the cemetery staff undertake searches for a
fee and a photo of any grave stone can be provided also. The Surrey History Centre also has the burial
registers (1854 – 1976) on microfilm and a search can be made on the
Commonwealth War Graves Commission website for military burials. Additionally Find a Grave http://www.findagrave.com/ has a good
supply of transcriptions and photos for the military gravestone and
approximately 742 for the non-military graves.
Although there are not many non-military graves, it is continually
growing. The advantage of Find a Grave
is you can browse the complete list rather than just inserting a single name
search.
The Brookwood
Cemetery Society also conducts guided walks on the first Sunday of each
month. It starts at 2 pm and costs £3,
no need to book in advance. The walk takes
about ninety minutes and further details can be found at their website, http://www.tbcs.org.uk/