Burials at All Saints Church Handley - a work in progress

The attached spreadsheet shows the work to date of PCC member Robert Evans, who has carried out an audit of the gravestones in Handley churchyard.

He writes 'Research so far has focused on the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries ... with records sourced from the Chester archives office 1800 - 1948 and the current burials register held in Church........ 

Parishioners' surnames, as far as possible, have then been referenced with 10 yearly online census returns (1841 - 1921) as well as the pre-war 1939 return. This has yielded further details including profession, trade or occupation as well as abode and family relation (spouse, son, daughter etc). Historical baptism and marriage records have also been used to confirm family connections.

A map has then been sketched out using a reference location system to index names with headstones. Location references are noted on the graveyard burial charts (copies deposited in Church) as well as the alphabetical chart lists.'

Robert now plans to revisit 'difficult to read' headstones where inscriptions have been eroded by time and weather, and for which Reflectance Transformation Imaging' (RTI) may be a useful tool.