Saddleback Valley Trails
South Orange County California Genealogical Society

 P.O. Box 4513, Mission Viejo, CA. 92690

Monthly meetings are held on the third Saturday of each month from 10:00 a.m. to Noon at the Mission Viejo Family History Center Institute Building, 27978 Marguerite Parkway, Mission Viejo, between Medical Center Drive and Hillcrest Drive. Membership is open to anyone wishing to join. Yearly membership fees are $20 per calendar year for individuals, $25 for joint membership. SOCCGS is not affiliated with the LDS Family History Center.
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IT’S 2004! HAVE YOU RENEWED YOUR MEMBERSHIP?
Please find the renewal form on the last page of the newsletter.

GENERAL MEETING JANUARY 17, 2004

Andrew Pomeroy will present his topic, “Finding Anything Online: Intermediate Internet Research Skills.” In September Mr. Pomeroy’s lecture on “Mastering Search Engines on the Internet” was well received, and this program promises to further improve our genealogy researching skills.

We are purchasing books and cds. Please let us know if there is an item you would like to see added to our collection. Call Janet or Mary Jo. Members are encouraged to sign up as a docent or substitute. Hours will be tailored to fit your schedule. As little as one shift per week will help keep our library open for researchers.

SADDAM’S GENEALOGY?

The Iraqi Genealogy Authority has deleted the name of Saddam Hussein from the list of noble offspring whose lineage stretches back to the Prophet Muhammad. It seems that Saddam had forced a number of genealogists to create a family tree for him to claim that he had a noble pedigree. The descent from Muhammad was published, even though proof seemed to be lacking. With Saddam now safely removed as a threat, the genealogists are now rejecting the genealogies published when the dictator was in power.
(From Richard Eastman’s Online Newsletter 12-21-03, Vol 8 No. 51)

FOUNDING MEMBERS

Following are the names of SOCCGS Founding Members who are currently on the membership roster. Founding members are those who joined through June 30, 1994. Mary Ellen Lytle*, Jinx Cochrell*, Goldie Gay*, Ruth Sheean, Barbara Smith, Iris Graham, Pat McCoy*, Paula Roberts, Beverly Long, Margaret Auxland, Evelyn Shopp, Donald Dary, Darlene Dary, Sherrie King, Mary King, Judy Deeter*, Janet Franks, Shirley Fraser, Mel Kinnee*, Eugenia Gannon, Ellen LaLonde, Robert La LaLonde, Ruth Loustaunau, Kathleen Mausey, Eleanor McInnis*, Diane Miller, Virginia Akers, Patricia Stalcup, Patricia Weeks*, Norma Wilson, Ruby White*, Grace Clark, Georgiana Emery, Patricia Stafford*, Laura Lee Mitchell, Sherry Donaldson, Bob Weatherly, Arlene Schreder, Norris Roberts, Doris Roberts, Sylvia Sligar, Bea Norred, Alice Catalyne, Louise Supple and George Supple. * Denotes Founding Board Member.

Up to the 1700s, most of our English ancestors were buried on the south side of the parish church in an unmarked grave, wrapped in a shroud (after 1678 it had to be wool). If a coffin was used for the service it was probably the parish coffin, because most people could not afford their own. The great and the wealthy were buried inside the church and had memorials suitable to their station in life.
Churchyards were not big enough to allot a fresh space of ground for everyone; bodies were buried on top of others already interred. The level of the churchyard rose, or the bones of those long dead might have been removed to a charnel house (also known as an ossuary); sometimes the crypt under the church served this purpose. A charnel house is more likely to be found associated with a town or city church.
Not everyone wanted to be buried in the parish churchyard; Puritans, Catholics, Quakers, and other nonconformists looked for their own locations. The earliest burial grounds for those not within the Church of England were opened in the 1600s. Bunhill Fields in London, first referred to as a dissenters' burial ground in 1665, may be the best known; others were opened after passage of the Toleration Act in 1689. Few Roman Catholic churches had their own burial grounds before 1800.
Population growth and the migration of people into towns and cities led to a space crisis in the 1800s. This was also a health crisis, and local government officials became aware of the dangers of overcrowded burial grounds in the midst of densely populated streets. Beginning in the 1820s, privately operated and city/town-operated cemeteries opened in many urban areas.
Church of England Records - A few Church of England registers date from 1538, but many more begin in the 1560s or 1590s. Not every deceased person was recorded; those left out included suicides, executed criminals, and nonbaptized children. Catholics and nonconformists, although entitled to burial in the parish churchyard, may have been buried elsewhere and would not have had the burial service read.
Sometimes the burial of a dissenter was noted in the register; mention may also be found in the presentments (reports) of the churchwardens to the court of the local archdeacon or bishop; these records are usually in county record offices in England.
Register entries were brief, perhaps just the name and the date. Some registers give the age of the deceased and place of abode; if the deceased was a child or unmarried daughter, then the father's name may have been recorded. >From 1813 there was a set format for a burial entry: name of the deceased, place of residence, age, date of burial, and name of officiating minister.
If registers have not survived, check for contemporary copies known as the Bishop's Transcripts (BT). Each year, around Easter, local parishes were required to submit copies of all entries recorded in the parish register to the office of the bishop. This practice did not happen everywhere (e.g., not for London churches) but was widespread enough that the existence of BTs should be ascertained (For locating BTs, I recommend Bishops' Transcripts, by J.S.W. Gibson, Federation of Family History Societies (FFHS), 5th ed; (http://www.ffhs.co.uk).
Microfilm copies of a significant percentage of Church of England registers and/or BTs can be viewed through the facilities of the Family History Library and the network of Family History Centers.
Public Burial Grounds - The Rosary Cemetery, opened in 1825 in Norwich, was the first urban burial ground available to all who paid the fees. Others soon followed in Manchester, Liverpool, and London. (There, Kensal Green was the first in 1832.) If your ancestor died in a large city after 1830, check into new cemeteries and some of the history. In London, Brookwood and other cemeteries competed for the contracts to bury the poor of several London boroughs, not necessarily close by. The wealthy had their preferred burial grounds too. Most people were buried; cremation was not legal before 1884 and the use of this alternative grew very slowly.
Some of these records have been published, some are in local libraries and archives, while others remain with the cemetery. Check online through GENUKI and in the Family History Library Catalog according to the place for resources; regional archives and libraries will also have information, and perhaps the records of the new cemeteries. For London there is a guide, Greater London Cemeteries and Crematoria, published by the Society of Genealogists.
Research Hints - Before beginning a search for burial records consider the date range, the religion of the family, and the size of the community. Directories and topographical dictionaries or detailed gazetteers should list large burial grounds. Once you know if you are searching only in Church of England churchyards, or more widely, then you can check for records and how to access them.
Keep several other facts to the fore. What was the ancestor's home parish? What was his approximate age at death? Where did the ancestor die? (Death may not have occurred at home.) Is the date of death definitely before the start of civil registration, 1 July 1837?
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Sherry Irvine, CGRS, FSA (Scot), is an author, teacher, and lecturer specializing in English and Scottish family history. She is the author of Your English Ancestry (2nd ed, 1998) and Your Scottish Ancestry (1997) and she is a regular contributor to several journals including Genealogical Computing. Since 1996, she has been a study tour leader, course coordinator, and instructor for the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research at Samford University. She teaches online for the family history program of Vermont College and has lectured at conferences in Canada, the United States, and Australia. She is the president of the Association of Professional Genealogists. Ancestry Daily News, 18 November 2003 * Copyright 2003, MyFamily.com.

Ten Top Reasons Family Historians Catch the Bug*
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak - Ancestry Vol. 21, No. 5, Fall 2003

21% School assignment
20% Death of a family member
15% Gave or received a family gift (software, heritage scrapbook, compiled family history, etc.)
11% Other** (See below)
8% Family Stories
7% Desire to share heritage with children
5% Co-workers or family sharing enthusiasm
5% Homeland or cemetery visits
4% Adoptees/orphans seeking answers
4% DAR membership/scholarships
* Statistics taken from random poll of seventy-five family historians.
** Other: taking an adult education class; seeing errors of family data online; receiving a challenge from a church leader; researching why a family name was changed; reading a newspaper notice; etc.

LIBRARY ADDITIONS - DECEMBER 2003