Genealogy Chat

Hi Irene - Nice to communicate with another Slatter!! As far as I know, my Slatters didn't have a connection with Woodstock. It is quite a common name in Oxfordshire. Both of his wives and all the rest of the family were buried in Watlington, but I guess that there could be a family grave somewhere that I haven't discovered yet.

I couldn't find my grandfather's details in parish register either, even though details from the cemetery department showed that the vicar took the service. Have you tried surrounding parishes records? I have known of nearby priests covering for another's illness. Is there a grave plan of the churchyard anywhere? This might find him as that would surely be kept up to date.

I was researching SLATTER's because one of my ancestors married a SLATTER in WOODSTOCK. Oxford. Did not return to go in family grave there did he???Just a thought. Irene

He ran a local business as did his son, so I don't think that there would have been a problem with being able to pay to get him buried. I checked the parish registers for both Watlington and Oxford St Aldates. St Aldates was the parish where he was married and possibly also christened so I thought that perhaps the family had some connection with the church there. Nothing in either. I can't imagine why he would possibly have been buried anywhere else. He had been living in Watlington for about 40 years.

Could his family afford to bury him? If not, I guess that in those days if he was living in Watlington but not 'settled' there his body could have been returned to the parish he originated from.

Seems a bit lax to me. My great-grandfather died 1879 and his inquest was less than a week after his death, the death cert was issued the same day. nell

Brenda has a point there and it's jogged my memory about one of hubby's ancestors. The situation was similar, though the time frame not so long - about six weeks, but in his case we have his burial record that shows he was buried within five days of his death and weeks before the coroner got around to the death cert etc. So it could be a paperwork problem. Hubby's ancestor, above, needed to live another two days to have been on the 1841 census to tell us if he was born in county!! As it was, his body was probably in the coffin on the kitchen table when the enumerator called. Pity they didn't include him anyway........ Sarah

His wife and son were certainly still alive and living in the town at the time. I had thought that they would be not too impressed if he had gone missing. I think that his death was probably just sudden, not suspicious. Perhaps as you say he was buried in the churchyard after all, but the parish clerk and coroner were a bit lax in their paperwork. After all, the coroner had put a date four months later on his certificate as the date of registering the death.

As Thomas Slatter is a direct ancestor, he must have had direct descendants alive..... who presumably would not be too impressed if Daddy's corpse was just kicking around. If his death was not suspicious, merely sudden, is it possible that he was buried relatively quickly, but they caught up with the paperwork later, eg if they needed a certificate to prove a will? Any form of preservation of the body must have involved embalming, rather than freezing at that period, I should have thought. Most early inquests involved doing no more than looking at the body for outward signs of death.

Thanks for your replies Will and Sarah. I think that the next step will be to have a look at the local Oxfordshire newspaper and see if he gets a mention. Hope they didn't sell him to Sweeney Todd!!!

Sounds like time to try the local newspapers of the day! I have access to The Times archives, but there was nothing in that (they did report ''interesting'' inquests, but depended on what else was going on in the news at the time...) Sarah

I had wondered whether the coroner was a bit crooked and had sold him to Oxford University for medical experiments!!! He could have claimed that the body had been stolen by bodysnatchers which I think was quite common at the time. I just don't like to think of the poor old bloke having such a gruesome end!!

Hi Angela I don't want to apper morbid.but it could be that like my mother they kept him on ice for a few months awaiting an autopsy and he may have been used for medical research and lost by the hospital.I also cannot find my mothers grave. Bill

My 4x great grandfather Thomas Slatter died 'at 2 0'clock in the afternoon of November 11th 1846 of an appoplexy in Watlington Town Hall, Oxfordshire' according to his death certificate. The coroner was the informant, and for some reason the date of registration was not until the following March. I have only just managed to search the Watlington parish registers, and there is no record of his burial!!! What does anyone think happened to him?