Genealogy Chat

Hi, Is anyone able to do a look up for me in the newspaper archives. I have been trying to find out about the death of baby Christopher Griffin and there is a short notice in the Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser dated 6th April 1940. I am wondering if there might be a follow up or more to the story as we are still trying to find his burial place. Thank you

There is nothing on Findmypast. Do you have his death certificate? Is this his death?:-

England & Wales deaths 1837-2007 Transcription
Print transcription View image
First name(s) CHRISTOPHER R
Last name GRIFFIN
Gender Male
Birth day -
Birth month -
Birth year 1940
Age 0
Death quarter 2
Death year 1940
District Chippenham
County Wiltshire
Volume 5A
Page 137
Country England
Record set England & Wales Deaths 1837-2007
Category Birth, Marriage, Death & Parish Records
Subcategory Civil Deaths & Burials

Kath. x

Are these his parents in the 1939 register? :-

Griffin Household (3 People)
Lower Lodge Farm Pewsham , Calne and Chippenham R.D., Wiltshire, England

FIRST NAME(S) LAST NAME(S) DOB SEX OCCUPATION MARITAL STATUS SCHEDULE SCHEDULE SUB NUMBER

Betty Griffin 31 Mar 1914 Female Housewife Also Assist Husband With Farm Work Married 99 2
George H J Griffin 09 Sep 1910 Male Daity Farmerheavy Worker Married 99 1
Sorry, this record is officially closed. Check if you can open a closed record.

Have you checked with the nearest church or cemetery to this address?

Kath. x

Unfortunately I have searched the record office and we can still find no burial place for him. I have his death certificate and we have searched all possible places of burial to no avail. Both my husband and his sister would love to know where he is buried but no living relatives or records to tell us. I was hoping that the newspaper article might tell us where the burial took place. Yes this is his parents

If he was cremated the ashes may have been scattered so no grave, or as it was a small baby they were sometimes put into the coffin of another person who was being buried at the same time (although there should be a record of this somewhere).

Kath. x

Thanks for your help Kathleen, we have looked into cremation also on checking whether he was placed in a coffin with usually an adult at the time I have been assured that if this was the case then it would be recorded and the lovely people in the cemetary went through all there records during that time and still nothing. The records office got out every record they could find to try and help but thought we might never know. I was rather hoping that last hope would be a newspaper article that would give the detail we just cant find

Have just signed up to British Newspaper Archives and found the entry. I will type it out for you but may take ten minutes or so.

Kath. x

Thank you so much

Baby's Death.

Mr. and Mrs. Griffin of Lower Lodge Farm, Pewsham, have been bereaved by the death of their four-month old son, Christopher Robin who was found by his mother dead in his cot early on Friday morning. The circumstances of the child's death were reported to the Coroner, but a post mortem examination showed that death was due to natural causes, and no inquest will be necessary.

The article gives no more details so unfortunately no help to you.

Kath. x

Do the County Records Office in Trowbridge have the burial records for the nearest church to the farm address?

My husband had a baby brother born a year before him who only lived 12 hours. We found his burial record in the local church records at the county records office where we found he was buried in the same coffin as a 2 year old girl.

EDIT - apparently the record office is now in Chippenham and the Trowbridge Office is closed.

Kath. x

Thanks very much for trying anyhow x

You can sign up to the British Newspaper site and get 3 free page looks.

Kath. x

I spent the whole morning with the lovely helpful ladies in the records office looking at one church record then trying another till we ran out of options. We thought he might of been buried in a church yard in corsham but we found nothing. My husbands other brother who died is buried in Chippenham but Christopher not there. A real mystery x

This is a very long shot I know - but there is a funeral directors in Chippenham called Bewley and Merrett who have been in business for over 100 years (or so they say).

I don't really think they will have records from that far back, but it can't hurt to ask.

Kath. x

Will give them a try, Thank you

I have just emailed them so fingers crossed and thanks once again Kath x

Good luck. I can't think of any further avenues to pursue.

Kath. x

if Christopher had siblings would they know

Which Records Office did you check?

search online suggests Pewsham was known as Derryhill and..................

......The parish registers from 1840 (baptisms and burials) and 1842 (marriages), other than those in current use are held in the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre in Chippenham.

I can understand your frustration. I have still not managed to locate the resting place of someone who died in the 1980s.


Have you checked that the parish burial records are not still held by the parish?

Small parishes take a long time to fill the pages of one book, as I found when I researched a village in Herefordshire. Started in 1837, they were still using the same book for marriages into 2004.

Malyon, my husband and his sister are the only living relatives and Christopher was born before them and not talked about although we have always known he existed. They can not remember there parents ever visiting a grave. I spent a whole morning going through the records at the Wiltshire History centre in Chippenham and they held records from the church where parents were married. The church is no longer there but records didn't show up anything. I have emailed funeral people that might of been there in the 1940s but so far none have emailed me back x