Genealogist helps with mass grave
The tragic fate of over 400 residents of a Catholic children’s home in Scotland who were buried in a mass grave has been uncovered in local records.
The Sunday Post newspaper and BBC Radio 4’s File on 4 programme conducted a joint investigation into Smyllum Park orphanage in Lanark.
The Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul, who ran the home, told reporters that they had records of children buried in 158 lairs in nearby St Mary’s Cemetery.
However, Janet Bishop, chair of the Association of Scottish Genealogists & Researchers in Archives, conducted a search of death registers for Lanark Parish and found that 402 people, almost all children, died at the home between 1864 and 1981, when it closed.
Only two of them have been located in burial sites elsewhere, meaning that at least 400 are thought to be buried in unmarked graves in St Mary’s.
Janet told Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine: “I didn’t know about the content of the programme. I treated it the way I would treat any other research job.”
Former residents of Smyllum Park also allege that they were abused by staff at the home, which is being investigated as part of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry.
The Daughters of Charity refused to comment, but issued an apology to anyone who suffered abuse in their care. You can hear the File on 4 programme at bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0938tnj.