Records of Burial

The Leeds General Cemetery Company Ltd Archive contains a set of 25 burial registers listing details for each person interred at the cemetery, between 1835 and 1992. Burials ceased in 1969; the few entries recorded after this date were either for the burial or scattering of ashes. These registers have been digitised and transcribed, and the information is available to search on our Leeds General Cemetery Burial Registers Index. Please see our guidance document About the data for further details.

In addition, there is a set of four burial plot registers in the archive containing information on persons buried in each grave plot in the cemetery, listed in order of plot number. Other available records include a register of plot owners, and copies of a map of the cemetery showing each numbered plot. A digital copy of one of the plot maps is available.

You can find more detailed information in this guide on the typical type of plots found in the Leeds General Cemetery, on the causes of death that are recorded in the registers, on the cemetery war graves, and information on some of the notable people buried at the cemetery.

Current research

The burial registers and the history of the Leeds General Cemetery have recently been the focus of two student internships, as part of the research project Living with Dying: Everyday Cultures of Dying within Family Life in Britain, 1900-50s. at the University of Leeds. To find out more about the results of their research, please visit the project website and blog.

A glossary of some of the most commonly-recorded causes of death in the registers was produced as part of the internships. Please see the Causes of Death guide for more information.

Image credit: Page from Burial Register, 18 Feb 1861-4 Jan 1864 [Ref: MS 421/3/1/6]