I love exploring cemeteries just about everywhere I go. As I study family burial lots, it is common to see a marker with another surname other than that of the other people interred there. There also are individuals buried adjacent to one another who are not apparently related in any way. Have you ever considered why a person is buried where he or she is buried?

In Along Those Lines . . . this week, I’d like to pose some hypotheses as to why people may be buried in what we might consider unlikely places.

Motivations for Burial Site Selection
People choose cemeteries for their family interments for many reasons. My Morgan family chose a hilltop lot in a cemetery just outside my hometown. The lot was purchased at the time of my Grandfather Morgan’s death in March of 1953. There are six burial plots in the lot with a family surname stone monument in the center. My grandfather was buried in the center plot on one side of the stone. Footstone markers have been used for all those buried there. My Grandmother Morgan died in December of 1966 and was buried beside my grandfather. Their only daughter, unmarried, died in February of 1969 and was buried on the other side of her father. When my father died in May of 1980, he was buried in the center plot on the other side of the family stone.

Before my mother died in 1993, she insisted strongly that she be buried beside my father but on the side of him that was farthest from her mother-in-law. Yes, there was a lot of animosity there. Mother told us that she would come back and haunt us if we buried her head-to-head with my grandmother. We followed her instructions. However, this just points to the fact that there are reasons that people request that they be buried in certain places and certain positions. Let’s explore some other reasons.

Why Would They Choose That Place?
People choose any number of places for their burial and for many reasons. Some of the most common are listed below.

• Place of Birth -- Some people want to be returned to their hometown for burial. They may feel better about being buried near their family members or in that familiar childhood place than elsewhere.
• Burial with a Predeceased Spouse -- My grandparents and parents are typical in the fact that they were buried as couples beside one another. However, what if a surviving spouse remarries? Perhaps he or she decides to be buried with the new spouse, but it is possible too that the burial may be with the previous spouse and other family members associated with that marriage.
• Burial with In-Laws -- In order to be buried with one’s spouse, a person might be buried beside or near him or her in the spouse’s parents’ or family cemetery lot.
• Burial with Children -- It is not unusual for older, widowed or divorced parents to relocate to live with a child and his or her family. The child, the daughter- or son-in-law, and any grandchildren may take care of the parent as he or she ages. The parent may then be interred in the child’s family group cemetery lot.
• Burial in a Lot with Other Relatives -- A person may have had a special relationship with or affection for family members other than his or her parents, spouse, or children and may be interred with them. (This is a choice that I, myself, have stipulated to in my will and burial instructions.) When the surname of the person is different than the rest of the members of the family interred in the lot, it makes for a great deal of interesting speculation, I always think.
• Burial by an Employer -- In past centuries, it was not unusual for there to be a town that built up around an industry or an employer. Company houses, a company store, and often a company cemetery were components of the community. An employer may have taken responsibility to pay for burial of workers and the placement of markers. This is why keeping track of the employment of an individual may become very important to your search for the death and burial location.
• Burial in a Mass Grave -- Epidemics, accidents, natural disasters, wars, and genocide are among the reasons why an individual may have been interred in a mass grave. These events have often resulted in overwhelming numbers of deaths that require expeditious burials for community health reasons. Commemorative monuments, tablets, steles, and other markers may have been erected for these persons.
• War Casualty Burials -- Death on the field of battle during military conflicts result in burials nearby. For example, soldiers killed in Europe, Asia, and other military theaters of operation during the World Wars may have been interred in military cemeteries. Although governments may have offered to disinter and ship the remains back to the families, many families opted to refuse the offer. Take a look at the American Battle Monuments Commission site, the Canadian Virtual War Memorial, and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site for examples of online memorials and databases of war casualties buried overseas.
• Church and Parish Burials -- Some people are buried in a churchyard or in a parish churchyard (maybe not the one adjacent to a church) because of their religious affiliation, the presence of other family members, or for some other reason. These people may have opted for this location rather than being interred in a family cemetery lot elsewhere. And don’t overlook that a person may have been interred inside the church and/or in its crypt.
• Workhouse, Poorhouse, and Pauper Burials-- The poor and indigent in a community often had no choice of the disposition of their remains after death. Burial grounds, sometimes referred to as “potters fields,” were commonly used. The interments were seldom recorded and the graves were usually not marked.
• Prison Burials -- Prison and jail inmates may have been interred in the burial grounds of the facility, especially if their families had turned their backs on them or there was no family know or surviving.

Where Are They?
The examples described above may give you some good ideas about those elusive ancestral burials you’ve been seeking. Of all the events in a person’s history, the burial is often the most difficult to discover. A proper search should include a review of all the information for the individual and his or her family members -- spouses, parents, siblings, children, grandparents, and other relatives. An essential question to ask is, “When and where were they last seen alive?” Sometimes you can backtrack from a period when the person was known to have been dead, such as the omission of their name from a list of survivors in another person’s obituary. It really is a case of having to narrow the range of time period and location and then begin searching from there.

Think About It!
Are there people buried in your family cemetery lot about whom you know little or nothing? Are there people buried there who you though should have been interred with other, closer family members elsewhere? And are there family members you expected to find in the family cemetery lot who aren’t there? Certainly there are many reasons for choosing where to be buried, and sometimes the decision is made by someone else. However, the next time you go cemetery-roaming, perhaps some of these ideas will cross your mind and cause you to consider the reasons why people are -- or are not -- buried in a particular place.

Happy Hunting!
George

Click here to visit George’s website for information about speaking engagements.

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