Derbyshire Deaths and Burials

The amount of detail you discover in each record can vary depending on the age of the record, how much information was available when the transcript was created and the origin of the record. Below is a list of some of the facts that you may find in a record:

• Name

• Age

• Birth year

• Death year

• Burial year

• Burial date

• Denomination

• Burial place

• County

• Parents’ names

• Spouse’s name

• Notes

Images

Some of the records will include images. These images are from records held by The National Archives in their RG37 series from the General Register Office. The records relate to the removal of graves and tombstones. Many of these records include the gravestone inscription, which provides you with a birth date, burial date, spouse’s name, children’s names, and more.

Burial registers are vital records for piecing together your family history. The records in this collection are the work of Findmypast, Derbyshire Family History Society, Steve Archer, Helen Betteridge and Jean Shannon, High Peak Borough Council and also records created by the College of Arms, the official heraldic authority for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and much of the Commonwealth including Australia and New Zealand. Several records include images of records from The National Archives. Before the introduction of the civil registration of births, marriages and deaths in 1837 all such events were recorded in the local parish.

Parish records generally begin from 1538 after the Church of England mandated the keeping of parish registers in 1537. Baptisms, marriages and burials were all recorded in a single volume until 1774, when the law changed to require a separate marriage register and another one for Banns (or proclamations of an intent to marry). Standardized forms for these registers appeared in 1812.

Other religious denominations, except for Quakers and Jews, often registered these events in their local Church of England parish even after the Toleration Act of 1689 although between 1754 and 1837 it was illegal to marry anywhere other than a Church of England parish.

Derbyshire is in the East Midlands of England. The southern extremity of the Pennine range of hills stretches into the north of the county. The country also contains part of the National Forest with Greater Manchester to the northwest, West Yorkshire to the north, South Yorkshire to the northeast, Nottinghamshire to the east and Leicestershire to the southeast. Staffordshire is to the west and southwest and Cheshire is also to the west.

Derbyshire has been a site of human habitation since the Stone Age. The lead ore that could be found in the county’s limestone hills brought the Romans. Later, during the Industrial Revolution, water mills made use of the fast-flowing rivers and brought workers flooding to the county town of Derby.

• Begin your search broadly with just a name.

• If needed, you can narrow your results by including additional search criteria such as a year or place.