St Woolos Cemetery - If The Stones Could Talk...
Search for the stories behind the burials at St Woolos Cemetery as recorded on the Facebook platform "If The Stones Could Talk - Tales from St Woolos Cemetery". You will need a Facebook account to follow the links.
About This Project
photo Mark Hewinson
Mark Hewinson has always had an interest in the history of Newport and in the diverse lives and ancestries of the people who have lived here. His own family has been connected with Newport for more than 150 years, and he began researching his family history some 25 years ago.
This research involved frequent visits to the cemetery office at St Woolos, where, at the time, the burial registers were the only means available to him of locating family burial plots within the cemetery, as no electronic records existed.
His visits to the cemetery office soon developed into a wider interest in the registers themselves. They provide a fascinating record of the people who lived and died in Newport from the opening of St Woolos Cemetery on 1 July 1854, often offering glimpses into their occupations and the circumstances of their deaths, many of which were tragic. The registers are undoubtedly one of the most comprehensive sources of information about the people of Newport.
Nearly 20 years ago, he decided to begin transcribing the registers so that this information could be preserved in an electronic format. He completed the transcription from 1854 to 1956, which, according to the resulting database, amounts to some 92,861 entries, including stillbirth burials. The registers are estimated to contain around 130,000 burial records in total. They also include burials at Christchurch Cemetery, beginning with the first burial there on 13 June 1883.
As part of this work, thousands of cemetery plots were photographed and documented. This information, together with other genealogical resources, is now being used to produce the material that is gradually being added to his Facebook group, “If the Stones Could Talk – Tales from St Woolos Cemetery”.
Fortunately, advances in computer technology mean that the cemetery records are now held electronically on the council’s servers. This has also allowed the more than 30 large register volumes to be safely archived for posterity.
There is currently a further project underway to GPS-locate, document and photograph the cemetery plots. Mark hopes that some of the work he has undertaken over the years has contributed to this process.
Rather than publish his findings in book form, Mark has chosen to share them on Facebook under the title If the Stones Could Talk – Tales from St Woolos Cemetery. For each individual he records, where available:
- the location of the burial plot;
- dates of birth, death and burial;
- a portrait photograph;
- a photograph of the headstone or burial plot; and
- his research notes.
How to use the records
Use the link above left to go to the search page. There you can search for a particular surname or browse through all the records beginning with a chosen letter.
The Facebook page will open in a new browser tab. This means that you can explore the records while keeping one foot in the Newport Past website.
When you have finished exploring the Facebook page, simply close the browser tab that opened it. You will then be returned to the Newport Past website.