Infant Death & Thameside Grave Use

[maninblack]

I wonder whether anyone on the board has experience of the historical policy on infant burial in the early 20th century.

My family has a plot in Dukinfield Cemetery which has eight burials between 1911 & 1942.

Six of these are known family members but two are a 65 year old woman who I assume is a family fried buried by permission in 1919 and a 2 year old girl buried in 1914 with no obvious family connection.

My cousin was told recently, by a local undertaker that cot death and still born babies may have been placed in recently opened graves on an ad hoc basis.

Has anyone got any ideas, suggestions or confirmations?

[lenhar]

Hi.
I can confirm that this happened. Poor families would take the body of a baby to the local undertaker, who would discreetly include it in a burial without the knowledge of the deceased's family. It ensured a Christian burial for the child, without cost. Two of my mother's baby siblings were buried in this way.
Lenhar.

[maninblack]

Lenhar,

Thanks for that info; it ties up with what I had heard.

My issue is that there is over two years between the burial of this child and any other in the grave.