Blackburn, Lancashire - Municipal Cemetery Records
These were filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah at Lancashire Record Office, Preston, Lancashire in 1999. The whole collection comprises 24 separate microfilms. For some reason, the Family Search Catalogue shows these 24 films under 4 separate headings:
1. Blackburn Cemetery, Nonconformist Division, Roman Catholic Division and Church of England Division, register of burials, 1943-1999 and register of graves, 1943-1999; with index, 1905-1989. – 7 films, all of which are all freely viewable online.
2. Index and registers of burials in the burial ground or cemetery for the township of Blackburn in the county of Lancaster : non-conformist division. 3 films, 1 listed as only viewable at a Family History Library (circular cine-reel icon), 2 listed as stored at the Granite Mountain Record Vault (circular cine-reel icon). Non therefore viewable online.
3. Index and registers of burials in the consecrated burial ground or cemetery for the township of Blackburn in the county of Lancaster : Episcopal division [Church of England]. 10 films, 3 listed as only viewable at a Family History Library (camera and key icon), 3 listed as stored at the Granite Mountain Record Vault (camera and key icon), and 4 listed as viewable online.
4. Index and registers of burials in the Roman Catholic burial ground or cemetery for the township of Blackburn in the county of Lancaster : Roman Catholic division. 4 films, each listed as only viewable at a Family History Library (circular cine-reel icon).
As there appeared to be no basis on why only 11 films are viewable online, whilst the remaining 13 are only viewable at a Family History Centre, or even at the Granite Mountain Record Vault itself I emailed the archivist at Lancashire Record Office to ask what restrictions had been placed on the 1999 filmings. The response I received was as follows – I quote: “Thank you for your email. Lancashire Archives has not placed any restrictions on access to whatever microfilms the Genealogical Society of Utah has of these records. I hope that helps.”
As such, can I ask the appropriate department at Family Search to address the various restrictions on these 1999 films as a matter of urgency, and make all 24 films viewable online. Doing this would bring the Blackburn Cemetery records accessible to all, and would bring them in line with other municipal cemetery freely available to view.
Thank you.
David
Answers
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Your comments have been noted and we are seeking to address them. I cannot at this time give a time scale to resolve this. What you could also do is put in a request to the free site Billion Graves.com if there is a certain gravestone you are looking for.
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Thank you PMLynch for responding to my observation and request for open access to previously filmed records. Hopefully a positive resolution to this matter will not take too long. I have many family members buried in the Blackburn Municipal Cemetery across over 100 years.
Unfortunately the site you mention Billon Graves.com only records headstones, but additionally even then has not covered this extensive town cemetery. The already filmed information I referred to runs into well in excess of 100,000 individual burial and grave records, and therefore would be a massive and important resource if it could eventually be made available online.
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Dear David, having asked a colleague regarding your query, she suggested rather than go in catalogues which will give you a list of items, go into Search on the landing page Images In search Images in the Place put Blackburn, England, UK, click on the link for more options, and under life Event put in Death this will bring up 95 batches of records on deaths in Blackburn. Some of these will not be indexed yet however. hope this also helps.
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Hello Peta11.
Thank you for this suggestion. I did as you suggested, but unfortunately the only films that show up and can be viewed through this search method are the same 11 ones that can be found through the catalogue search. In fact the 13 films I mentioned in my original post as being unavailable to view online do not show up at all using this method.
I appreciate that the films have not been name indexed, this is also the case for some other municipal cemeteries in England, however I don't particularly need the indexed facility for my research, just the ability to browse the original burial and grave registers for any particular registration quarter. Hopefully Family Search will amend their restrictions coding on these 13 films in the near future.
Thanks again for the suggestion though.
Regards,
David.
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If it's not too much to ask, could someone...anyone from the IT department of FamilySearch like to give a response to this request.
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I am not connected with FamilySearch. In my view it is very unlikely that anyone from the IT department of FamilySearch will post here.
In terms of How do I request a correction to the FamilySearch Catalog? FamilySearch Help Center Article Id: 8463, September 14, 2022, you could try the following email address
"To report an error in the FamilySearch catalog for:
- Microfilms
- Microfiche
- Digital images
Contact the FamilySearch Library at: FHL-SLC-FilmRequests@churchofjesuschrist.org "
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Thank you Maureen. I will follow your kind advice.
David.
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