Re: gotland cemeteries
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In reply to:
Re: gotland cemeteries
Judy Baouab 9/13/12
Grave, graves = grav, gravar
churchyard = kyrkogÄrd
cemetery = begravningsplats
Except for a tiny percentage of the population people were buried in the churchyard of their parish church. Exceptions were people who died at a hospital or while travelling; if very far away and if the family was very poor, the deceased person was buried where he/she died. Also, a very few people belonging to old, famous families were buried in crypts or mausoleums on their estate - but mainly such people were buried inside the parish church (the parish where the main estate was located), under the floor (forbidden after the mid 19th century).
Even today it is exceedingly rare not to be buried in your parish churchyard if you live in the countryside.
Since becoming a Christian nation in Medeaival times, there were no cremations in Sweden until 1887. Cremations didn't become really popular until after WW II; today 70 % of Swedes are cremated (well over 80 % in the cities).
But it doesn't matter if someone is cremated; only recently have the ashes been allowd to be spread (e.g. at sea), mostly urns are still buried in a churchyard or cemetery plot (cemeteries exist only in the larger cities) though it is increasingy popular to bury the urns in a "remembrance grove" (which is still in a churchyard or cemetery).
Gravestones were very, very rare for "normal" people before the mid 19th century. There could have been a wooden cross, and in some parts of the country (notably VĂ€rmland), there were iron crosses; the wooden crosses of course disappeared after a number of years).
Even important people were more likely to have a plaque in the church than a gravestone.
Before WW II graves were normally leased "in perpetuity" and such headstones aren't removed, unless the grave has been abandoned (no one cares for it anymore and after trying to contact descendants the churchyard/cemetery dministration comes to the conclusion that it is abandoned). After WW II graves were normally leased for 50 years, and from the 1960's for only 25 years; the lease can of course be renewed. The gravestones at graves where the lease hasn't been renewed will most places not be removed until the plot is actually needed.
Until about 1950 (yes, only about 60 years ago) the parishes didn't have to record exactly where someone was buried in the parish churchyard. Cemeteries had to keep track of wo was buried where, but cemeteries exist, as I sais, only in cities. City parish churchyards were replaced by cemeteries only from the latter part of the 19th century (when it was realized how unhygienic it was; the graves often contaminated the water people drew from wells...that were quite often situated in connection with the church/churchyard in cities.
So, very few grave registers exist before the last decade or so before the turn of the century 1900, and most go back only some 60 years. Some are still hand-written.
The CD "Begravda i Sverige" (Buried in Sweden) has just come out in a second edition; it has registers for 670 of the 800 churchyards/cemeteries that exist in Sweden - this corresponds to 95 % of the digitalized records, which means that a significant number of churchyards still don't use a computer for their grave registers...
To conclude - finding a registration for a grave anywhere in Sweden before the 1870's is rare, and finding one in a rural churchyard before WW II isn't too common either.
Ingela