Expert’s Tips
Lorraine Evans’ Burying the Dead (2020) explores the history of burial grounds
Researching cemeteries can be a rather daunting task. Historic Environment Records (HERs) are an important starting point for anyone interested in the archaeology and historic environment of a defined geographical area. Previously known as Sites and Monuments Records, HERs provide an online database of historic sites and landscapes, combined with a useful digital-mapping system, which is accessible to the public. Nearly two-thirds of HERs are available online through the Heritage Gateway ( heritagegateway.org.uk/gateway/chr),
where you can cross-search several national as well as local datasets on the historic environment.
I live in the remote Highlands of Scotland, where gaining access to physical library collections is no simple matter, involving journeys of many hours and hundreds of miles. As such, Historic Environment Scotland ( historicenvironment.scot)
has been a valuable resource in my search for private burial grounds that are now lost, or grave markers that have since disappeared. For example, most of the publications by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, from 1908 to 2015, have been digitised and are now available to search and download. I have obtained vital information in respect to changes in parish boundaries when searching for elusive clan interments.
Finally Historic Environment Scotland also hosts canmore.org.uk, an online database that currently has some 1.3 million catalogue entries, such as drawings and manuscripts, as well as an Image Search facility of more than 333,000 images. Some of these relate to cemetery research, and comprise modern-day surveys to photographic collections.