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Searching for a burial

Astoness

Astoness

TRUE BRUMMIE MODERATOR
Staff member
hi folks..for over a year now i have been trying to help a friend find out where her sister was buried but to no avail...i have tried so many places and most of them have been double checked for me...one lady i spoke to at one of the cems actually said to me ..oh no not another one and when i asked her what did she mean she told me that there is a lot of mystery surrounding the burials of still born babies that were born at loveday st hospital and she said that the general feeling is that a lot were buried in nearby churchyards or even in the grounds of the hospital itself without the knoweledge of the parents which was common practice in those days..it was just something that was swept and not talked about again...my friends family were always led to believe that the baby was buried at key hill or warstone lane but i have had the records checked 3 times and she is not there...any help or advise would be great as apart from going to the library in the hopes that some loveday st records still exist i am totally at a loss where to go next...here is a list of the places i have tried and also the still born cert...although she does not have a first name on this she was given the name norah by her parents so all the cems have looked for infant/stillborn/or norah matthews...the baby was full term with a weight of just over 8lbs..

list of places tried

warstone lane
key hill
witton
lodge hill
yardley
perry barr
brandwood end
quinton
sutton
handworth
 

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Hi, My brother John was a still born at Loveday Street in 1941. My mother was told that he was placed in the coffin of somebody else, an elderly person. That is all she was told. She regretted not knowing where he went. Some still borns were used for medical science.
 
hello northfield...i was quite prepared to find out that baby matthews was buried with others as this was the case with a baby rellie of mine in 1945...my friend is now thinking that medical science could be an option which is most upsetting for her but i shall continue to make enquires...just one thing i forgot to mention was that when my friends brother was about 10 he was with his mom walking past key hill cemetary and she told him that that was where his sister was buried..now wether she was told this by the hospital i dont know but this is how the family have always believed that baby matthews was buried there but as i said earlier we can find no records of her at key hill or warstone lane...quite a mystery..

lyn
 
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Hello lyn, I know a family who had a stillborn at Loveday St. and were told baby was taken to Yardley and buried in a common grave for stillborns. Enquiries many years later proved this was not true. Birmingham Library have no records for Loveday St. either. It's a mystery. So many stories surround stillborns and so many are upsetting.
I never had the courage to talk to Mom about my stillborn brother, I know they named him, but I shall never know what happened to him.
rosie.
 
hello rosie yes it is quite upsetting not knowing what happened to these babies....as you can see i have tried just about everywhere for baby matthews...i think i willl try the long shot of seeing if the library can offer up anything but i am now beginning to resign myself to the fact that this will be yet another unsolved mystery and i just cant get my head around the fact that stillborns could be taken away and used for medical science without the parents knowledge but i now understand that this was common practice...i will let you know if i find anything conclusive...

all the best

lyn
 
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most children who were still born were buried in other peoples coffins ie motheres who had died in childbirth,or almostanyone who died at that time ,maybe it would be better to check the undertakers as these would have been the ones placing the babies in the coffins and may have records good luck
 
Astoness said:
hello rosie yes it is quite upsetting not knowing what happened to these babies....as you can see i have tried just about everywhere for baby matthews...i think i willl try the long shot of seeing if the library can offer up anything but i am now beginning to resign myself to the fact that this will be yet another unsolved mystery and i just cant get my head around the fact that stillborns could be taken away and used for medical science without the parents knowledge but i now understand that this was common practice...i will let you know if i find anything conclusive...

all the best

lyn
Click to expand...
Hello...my name is Karen Bedford and my mom gave birth to a girl in loveday street in 1963 and she only lived for a few hours ...my mom doesn't know what happened to her after...I want to find out if she has a grave somewhere ...do you think I should start with asking the library and which one? Just wondered if you knew
 
Regarding my post #4, the couple were told Yardley but the burial has recentlly been proved to be Witton Cemetery. At least they know now.
rosie
 
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