My great great great grandfather, Eusebius
Coles married in London, baptised his children in
London, is on the 1841 census in London, and also
appeared in several street directories as the
owner of a soap-making factory in Lambeth, London.
As he clearly died after the start of civil
registration in 1837 he should appear in the
General Registrar's Office indexes to death
certificates. Hours and hours of searching for
all known variations (Coal(e)(s), Col(e)(s), Kol(e)(s),
Koal(e)(s)), and many lesser known combinations
failed to turn up an entry so it seemed his death
was missing, although it might appear on a local
registrar's office index - but which one?
I found his marriage on the International
Genealogical Index but burials have been omitted,
as they are not necessary for members of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to
complete their temple ordinances. The IGI has now
been supplemented by the first edition of the
National Burial Index (NBI) published in May by
the Federation of Family History Societies.
Fortunately, I was able to help with the beta
testing of an earlier version of the software (yes,
it does work with A3 size printers) and, of
course, Eusebius Coles was one of the various
names I tried. I didn't expect to find him, as
London is not well covered in the first edition
of the NBI. Imagine my glee when I found the
death of a Eusebius Coles in 1852 at Woodford by
Thrapston in Northamptonshire.
After finding the burial I checked the parish
register at the Northamptonshire Record Office. I
also found the monumental inscriptions for the
church with a map of the churchyard. At Easter I
was able to visit the churchyard, take a
photograph of Eusebius's gravestone and that of
his daughter, Mary, together with one of the
Church. I had a tingly feeling having finally
found the grave of my great great great
grandfather.
St
Mary's Church, Woodford, nr Thrapston,
Northamptonshire.
In the Northamptonshire 1851 census, I found
the retired Eusebius was living at Rose Cottage,
Woodford, with a different wife, and this
prompted me to find his first wife's death in
London. This had previously been an impossible
task as her name was Jane and I had no idea of
the likely date. From his 1848 marriage
certificate I was able to find the name of
Eusebius's father, Joseph Coles, a vital piece of
information not recorded for the first marriage
in 1808. I was hot on the trail again.
You may not be as lucky as I was. The first
edition of the NBI contains five million or so
records on two CDROMS, mainly from the period
1800 to 1850. That represents a substantial
number of burials and work continues, by members
of this Society amongst others, to make the
second edition more comprehensive. Stephen
Archer's search program is very easy to use,
although it is limited to Windows PCs. Not all
family history societies have contributed
extracts from their burial indexes, so you would
be wise to cheek the coverage before buying your
own copy. But, then again, are you sure you know
where your ancestor was buried? I thought I had a
good idea where Mr. Coles might be found.
The first edition of the NBI is available,
price £30, from the Society Bookstall. If you'd
like to contribute to the next edition (currently
planned for 2004) please contact David Wright,
the Berkshire Family History Society co-ordinator,
or the coordinator for your local family
history society.
