What records can I find in The Mitchell: Glasgow City Archives, Special Collections and the Registrars?
Local authorities have been responsible for opening new cemeteries since the late 19th century and have also acquired the responsibility for earlier burial grounds.
Glasgow City Archives holds the records of those cemeteries and crematoria run by Glasgow City Council up to 1995, as well as records for other cemeteries which have never been under local authority control. The records mainly consist of burial, lair and crematoria registers:
Burial registers are arranged by the date of burial so you need to know when a person died in order to start looking through them. If you do not know the date of death, you should obtain a copy of the death certificate. The registers vary in the amount of detail but will always include the name of the deceased and the lair number. Special Collections hold microfilm copies of the burial registers for many of the Glasgow cemeteries.
Lair registers will generally give the name and address of the lair owner as well as details of all the interments. Once you have obtained a lair number, you can use the lair registers to find out who else is buried in the lair. Please note that there may be restrictions on access to the lair registers under the Data Protection Act (1988).
Cremation registers are arranged by the date of cremation and will show if the ashes have been dispersed or interred in the crematoria grounds, or if they were returned to the family.
Old Parish Registers (for pre-1855 burials) and church records can give details of those interred in churchyards, although these records do not always survive. The Old Parish Registers are among the many resources available as part of the ScotlandsPeople network which you can access in the Registrars on payment of a daily fee.
If you are unsure where to start looking, you may find clues in newspapers' death notices and obituaries or you may find a monumental inscription, which are often indexed, in Special Collections.