One of our reasons for going back to the UK recently was to look up some Mayne family tree things, chief among them the last resting places of some of my relatives.

We visited three cemeteries in Leeds, all of which held the last mortal remains of a few of my direct ancestors. We started with Lawnswood, still very much a cemetery in use, and found my grandparents’ grave marker, as well as the grave of a Great-Uncle and his family. I didn’t know either of my Grandparents as they both died before I was born, but it was an interesting thing to do anyway.

Then we visited Beckett Street Cemetery (formerly known as Burmantofts), opposite the famous St. James’ Infirmary (sometimes known as Jimmy’s). Beckett Street was one of the big public cemeteries built in the nineteenth century to cope with the dead of a rapidly expanding population of Leeds. This cemetery is closed for new burials and is in a bit of an overgrown state, now that Leeds City Council have disowned it. The thing is that it is a wonderful place and absolutely stuffed full of Victorian grave markers and monuments. We didn’t have too long to look around but it would be a fantastic place to spend a day exploring. We found two more grave markers with my ancestors names inscribed upon them, which was excellent.

Beckett Street Cemetery

After that we visited the site of the old Leeds General Cemetery, now a park in the grounds of the university. Most of the marker stones have been cleared and the walled space is a wonderfully quiet place to visit. Some of the grave markers have been laid down to act as footpaths, but we didn’t find one with any of my family’s names one them, despite there being at least twenty of my ancestors recorded as having been buried there.

The former Leeds General Cemetery at St. George’s Field

We missed a few churches in Leeds where my ancestors lie, but the cemeteries were certainly worth us visiting.

Later on in the trip, we walked through Brompton Cemetery in west London and managed to find the family plot for yet another of my ancestors. Brompton is still in use and is run by the Royal Parks organisation. It’s the final resting place of a fair few famous people, and while the family plot we found was certainly quite grand, I don’t think the people laid to rest there count as famous. I have been past Brompton Cemetery many times, but I never knew of the family connection. I have no doubt that a bit more research would have me discover a few more graves in London, but I’d need months to look around them all.

The plot in Brompton Cemetery, London.

Cemeteries are such fascinating places to mooch around it, and there’s an added interest when you see your family name on the stones.

Next year it will be Huntington, Indiana, and it’s environs, as there are a whole heap of Mayne graves to find there.