Grandmother's Grave

[gallapunk]

Does anybody know how I can find out where my grandmother's grave is?

I never knew her as she passed away when my own mother was very young. My mother is also gone and we never knew anybody from her mother's side of the family at all. The only aunt I know from my mother's father's side of the family doesn't have any information as she never knew anything about the other side of the family either. All I know about her is her first name, her maiden name and the town she was born in. I live 150 miles away from her birthplace, which is why I'm unsure what steps to take.

Hope someone can point me in the right direction.

[La Diva]

You know her name, maiden name (and presumably her married name, which is probably your mum's maiden name).

So finding her death certificate is the first step.

Once you have that, you�ll know when and where she died, and you should be able to trace her grave - if she has one (she may have been cremated).

Do you know what religion she was? RC, CofE, Jewish etc? This information will also narrow down her place of burial.

[dot.hawkes]

It is searches like this that Family history Societies are very good for. No matter where in the UK your maternal grandmother was buried, there will be a local family history society branch covering that area, Family History Societies are registered charities, and they retain their charity status by various projects to record and publish the Monumental Inscriptions of cemetaries and graveyards.
In the first instance I suggest you write to the secretary of the society that covers the area you find your grandma died in, and give them as much info as possible taken from the death certificate. they will be able to check their recorded inscriptions and if they do not find anything, they could then offer the services of one of their local researchers to perhaps track down the grave in the cenetaries or graveyards they have not recorded.
It would also be possible to check burial registers in the local churches that were performing burials at the time she died, this is one way of eliminating possibe burial sites. This can be done by post once you have the info from the GRO death certificate. It is probaqbly not going to be a quick search but it will eventually be successful i would guess.
This is the addy for the federation of family history societies:
http://www.ffhs.org.uk/
you will find the contact details for the county societies on there.

[gallapunk]

Thank you both so much, at least I know where I can make a start now.

[spudqueen]

If you can find out when she died then you may be able to find out details by looking in the archives of the local newspaper. These are often held in the local library or family history centre. If there was an obituary there very likely (though not always) would have been details of the funeral.