Information Headings

The *asterisked headings will appear for all burial grounds; other headings will be included only if there is relevant data available

aka: 'Also Known As' - Any alternative name for the burial ground.

*parish: The Kirk of Scotland parish in which the burial ground lies, and (in brackets) the GROS code for that parish. Many important records are catalogued by the parish name or number.

nmrs: The catalogue number in the National Monuments Record of Scotland, held by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) and made available online via the CANMORE database. Nearly all 'ancient' bural grounds are included in the NMRS, and many 'new' ones. Some cemeteries are not old enough to qualify.

*gridref: The unique UK National Grid Reference which will locate the burial ground on maps published by the Ordnance Survey. Instructions on using these references are printed in the margin of OS maps.
Depending on the availability of data, the precision of the references quoted will range between 100-metres ('AB 123 456') and 1-metre ('AB 12345 67890').

*gps: The decimal Latitude and Longitude (on the WGS84 datum) of the burial ground. These can be used with GPS receivers (although many also 'understand' OS Grid References).

location: Some burial grounds are quite tricky to find, and sometimes old and new burial grounds could be confused. An entry here should help identify the correct one.

opr deaths: Before 1855, some (though not all) parishes maintained some sort of record of deaths. These are very variable in nature, including mortcloth records and gravediggers' notebooks, and many note no more than the name of the deceased. Those that exist are found on the OPR films, but have not been included in either the Scotland's People indexes or the IGI. Those for northeast Scotland have been indexed by ANESFHS. An entry here shows the dates for which death records exist (and in brackets the GROS reference number).

burial records: There are various sorts of lair or burial records, mostly dating from the later 19th century. These can record the name of whoever purchased a lair or burial plot, or the names of who is interred in such plots, or both. In many instances there are also lair plans showing the location of the lairs. An entry here will give the dates for which such records are held (with an indication as to whether there are plans) and a note of which authority holds the records.

published MIs: Aberdeen and Northeast Scotland Family History Society (ANESFHS) have published over 80 MI booklets, including inscriptions from around 100 burial grounds. These are generally included in the MI Index Online. The Scottish Genealogy Society (SGS) have published a number of books of pre-1855 MIs, each covering a number of burial grounds in a county or geographical region.

unpublished MIs: ANESFHS hold a number of draft or unpublished MIs. Those shown as having a name index or plan are probably reasonably complete. Others may be 'work in progress' or mere fragments. A few of the unpublished MIs are included in the MI Index Online.

antiquarian MIs: Burial grounds attracted the attention of Victorian and Edwardian antiquarians, and some volumes of inscriptions were published. Many of these early graveyarders confined their attention to those monuments they considered picturesque, or those families they deemed important, and simply omitted the majority of inscriptions. However, they were able to see stones which have become unreadable, or have disappeared entirely, so to that extent, they can sometimes be useful. These books are long out of print, but major libraries may hold copies.

One deliberate omission from the Information Categories is any indication as to when a particular burial ground came into use, or ceased to be used. In the case of the 'ancient' burial grounds, the various lists of start dates can be little more than speculation, and even in the case of 'new' burial grounds or cemeteries, quoted 'start' dates may represent the earliest documentary record, rather than the earliest burial. And it is equally hard to say with certainty when any site ceased to be used - burials in 'ancient' and 'new' burial grounds or cemeteries often continued in parallel over many years.