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Dundee

CEMETERIES & GRAVEYARDS

Dundee City Archives
Guide to death/burial records
Dundee & Its Environs

Records of death and burial can be found in many places. This is a rough guide. Please note that you should make a prior appointment to view records in Dundee City Archives, the Registrars or the Cemeteries Section. Fees may be payable. Before the introduction of civil registration of deaths in 1855 records may be patchy, basic, or may simply not have survived.

References:

Baldovan Institution see Strathmartine

Balgay Cemetery see Western Necropolis

Barnhill Cemetery opened in 1871.
CEM, SGS (4)

Benvie Kirkyard (A) Kirk on this site was first dedicated in 1243. Parish joined to Liff in 1753. No registers survive, except for some outline records in Kirk Session records in DCA
CH 2/497/1 Kirk Session minutes 1667-1689 DCA, SGS (3)

Birkhill Cemetery opened in 1989.
CEM

Broughty Ferry see Barnhill, Broughty Ferry Old, St Aidan's.

Broughty Ferry Old/ Howff of Broughty Ferry, Church Street, Broughty Ferry. Pre Reformation chapel site, with earliest memorial 1689. Originally under the parish of Monifieth. Closed after St Aidan's opened in 1831. No registers survive.
L, OPR, SGS (4)

Caird Park, near, see Old Mains

Constitution Road see Howff

Cremations. Dundee Crematorium Ltd., Macalpine Road, Dundee DD3 8SD. 1936 to date

Deaths, registration, see Registrar

Eastern Necropolis 'City of the Dead', Arbroath Road, opened as a civic burial ground in 1863 and is now known as Eastern Cemetery. (Also Jewish section)
CEM, SGS (4), DCL (Jewish)

Guildry/merchant mortcloths. Fine embroidered mortcloths were hired to cover, during the funeral, the rough wooden boxes which were then used as coffins. Most merchants would then have been buried in The Howff. The following account books of the Guildry give very basic information that still, however, predates the main Howff registers, e.g.
'Michael-masse [29th September] 1699 to Michael-masse 1700…
Money Received for the use of the great Mort-cloath
Alexander Morison's Relict [widow] [and] William Watt's wife £4'
GD/GRW/G1/1. 'Guildry Book' includes accounts 1645-1695
GD/GRW/G3/1-2. Account books [2 vols.] 1696-1817
Other account books, deposited in the City Archives, of the Nine Incorporated Trades, the Three United Trades, the Fraternity of Seamen and the Maltmen [Brewer] Incorporation may give mortcloth accounts and/or first payments to widows for these occupations.
DCA

Hospital Burying Ground see Howff.

Howff [Old] Burial Ground register and index of monuments (1567-1832) compiled 1832
(the burial ground was extensively restored at this time)
DCA
'Book of the Howff' contains 19th c. photographs and memorial transcriptions.
DCL
The Howff; A Guide To An Old Graveyard, by N Davey (1980) ISBN 0 900344 56 3 is available from McManus Galleries, Albert Square.

Howff registers of burials [8 volumes] 1772-1925
The [Old] Howff, now a protected monument in Ward Road, was formerly an orchard of the Greyfriars' monastery, and was licensed to the burgh to be used as a burial ground by Mary Queen of Scots in 1564. It was closed to further burials in 1857. The New Howff, or New Burial Ground, or Constitution Road Burial Ground, or Hospital Burial Ground, was opened in 1836, closed to new lairs in 1882, and demolished in 1962 to make way for the inner ring road and multi-storey car park. Abertay University Library has also now been built on the south part of the site. The registers are latterly common to both grounds, the entries being marked 'Old' or 'New' as appropriate. Before 1820 and after 1855 information is very basic. In effect these registers serve as the OPR burials for Dundee. Volunteers from the Friends of Dundee City Archives have been indexing these registers, and work in progress is viewable at www.fdca.org.uk
DCA, MR, SGS (4), TVFHS

Howff of Broughty Ferry see Broughty Ferry Old

Invergowrie Kirkyard (P; formerly A). Reputed to be the oldest Christian foundation north of the Tay. Dating from Boniface landing in the 7th c. mediaeval church dedicated to St Peter. Now a roofless mausoleum of Clayhills family. In 1613 the parishes of Liff, Invergowrie and Logie were united, joined by Benvie in 1753, and Invergowrie was disjoined in 1916 to become a new parish with Longforgan.
SGS (3)

Liff Kirkyard (A). Mediaeval church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. United with Benvie in 1753. New Kirk built 1838. Disjoined from Logie-Dundee 1877. Some outline records in Kirk Session records in DCA.
CH2/497/2, 3. Minutes and accounts (incomplete) 1673-1892
DCA, OPR, SGS (3)

Lochee see Liff & Benvie, Logie, Western Necropolis

Logie Kirkyard, Lochee Road. Originally the site of a small parish church in 1243, it was used as burial ground until its closure in 1870. The area has been extensively landscaped and only a small proportion of monuments still survives. No registers survive except for a few late entries in the Miscellaneous Volume.
DCA, OPR, SGS (4)

Mains Kirkyard, Trottick. A new kirk was opened at the crossroads at Trottick for the united parishes of Mains and Strathmartine in 1800. No registers survive, except for some outline details in the Kirk Session records
CH2/256/1. Minutes and accounts 1711-1800
CH2/256/2. 1826-1851
CH2/256/3. 1851-1915
DCA, OPR, SGS (4)

Mains, Old, see Old Mains

Maps (of cemeteries/graveyards) TVFHS hold maps of the following cemeteries: Balgay, Constitution Road, Eastern, Western. Graveyard maps are also included in the SGS volumes.

Merchant see Guildry

Miscellaneous volume of late interments in New Howff, Roodyards, Logie and Old Mains burying grounds. Very basic information. 1864-1938
DCA

Monifieth, old parish of, see Broughty Ferry Old

Monikie Kirkyard (A) register of burials 1842-1854
in the records of the Presbytery of Dundee CH2/499/6
DCA, DCL, SGS (3)

Mortcloths see Guildry

New Howff see Howff

Old Broughty Ferry see Broughty Ferry

Old Howff see Howff

Old Mains Kirkyard, near Caird Park.
Originally the site of the kirk of Strathdichty in 1242, renamed Mains from the 15th c.
United with Strathmartine in 1794 and a new parish church built 1800 at Trottick.
No registers survive except for a few late entries in the Miscellaneous Volume.
DCA, SGS (4)

OPR's. [Old Parochial Records] of baptisms, marriages and funerals in the Church of Scotland before 1855, when civil registration of births, marriages and deaths was introduced. Irregularly recorded, often with very basic information and with many gaps. Even then they probably will not include details of 'Nonconformists' such as Episcopalian, Roman Catholic, Methodist, Free Church or Baptist. Originals gathered into New Register House in 1855. Microfilms available locally in DCL, TVFHS and Registrar.

Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages, 89 Commercial Street, Dundee.
OPR's pre 1855 [except Dundee Howff] and statutory registers 1855 to date.

Roodyards cemetery, Broughty Ferry Road. No registers survive except for a few late entries in the Miscellaneous Volume.
DCA, L, SGS (4)

Rolls of Honour WWI, WWII.
DCA, DCL.

Roman Catholic Records see St Andrew's RC Cathedral, Diocese of Dunkeld

St. Aidan's Kirkyard/ Broughty Ferry New, Brook Street, Broughty Ferry. A chapel of ease was opened in 1826, and the burial ground was in use until Barnhill was established.
Register of burials c.1821-c.1943
DCA, SGS (4)

St Andrew's Kirkyard, King Street St Andrews Kirk, popularly known as 'The Trades Kirk', was originally built as a chapel of ease in 1772.
Register of burials 1794-1953
DCA, SGS (4)

St Andrew's Roman Catholic Cathedral, Nethergate
Register of deaths RH21/39/1 1804-1816
NAS
Transcript of NAS RH21/39/1 in microfilm box 19
DCL

St Peter's Kirkyard, Perth Road
Built in 1836 when the quoad sacra church was detached from St John's, it was kept by its congregation in 1843 when they 'came out' as St Peter's Free Church. Renamed St Peter's in 1929, combined with McCheyne Memorial and the kirk building was sold to a congregation of the Free Church in 1982.
Registers of burials [2 vols.] 1837-1907
DCA, SGS (4)

Strathdichty see Old Mains

Strathmartine see also Mains, Old Mains

Strathmartine Burying Ground
Register of burials 1882-1942
[contains many entries for Baldovan Institution/Asylum/Strathmartine Hospital]
DCA, SGS (3)

Tay Bridge Disaster. 28 December 1879 - Official register of bodies recovered in Tayside Police Museum. Transcript in DCA, DCL

Trades mortcloths see Guildry, notes on

'Trades Kirk' see St. Andrew's

Testaments held by NAS

Trottick, see Mains

War, World, I & II, see Rolls of Honour

Western Cemetery, Perth Road, originally opened by a commercial company in 1845 and then purchased by the City of Dundee District Council in 1979.
CEM, SGS (4)

Western Necropolis ('City of the Dead'), Balgay Hill, opened as a civic burial ground in 1870 and is now known as Balgay Cemetery to avoid confusion with Western Cemetery.
CEM, SGS (4)

Wills see Testaments