BURIALS - ST ANDREWS KIRK SYDNEY

 
 
The first burial was performed at St Andrews on 3rd October 1833 by the 
Rev. John McGarvie. There were 444 further burials performed during 
this decade. On average above five burials every month. 
 
The information recorded for each burial is as follows:
 burial date
 Christian name
 family name
 age
 abode
 civil status at time of death
 year and ship of arrival
 quality or profession
 officiating minister
 reference number
 
Various miscellaneous remarks in the register have been recorded as 
'end-notes' at the bottom of the list.
 
The burials are listed in chronological order. The records in the register 
are not always in strict chronological order but this has been corrected 
in this work.
 
The Rev.John McGarvie was chaplain from its beginning until his death 
in 1853. During the decade he was assisted by the Reverends James Allan, 
John Cleland & - Wickham on several occasions.
 
The Rev.John Cleland's burial was recorded at St Andrews in 1839 but he 
was in fact interned at his own parish at Ebenezer Portland Head.
 
At the time of commencement of St Andrews the information to be recorded 
on the official government supplied forms for each burial was; reference 
number, date of burial, Christian name of the deceased, family name of 
the deceased, age, abode, ship or arrival, quality or profession and 
officiating minister. The year and ship of arrival have been heavily 
researched outside the parish register.
 
For the colonial born their year of birth and parents names are recorded 
in the 'Ship of Arrival' column.
 
Unfortunately Rev. McGarvie did not continue his practice from Scots 
Kirk Sydney of regularly recording the date of death and foe some reason 
he did not use the new printed forms in 1839 and 1840 where there 
was a separate column for  the 'Date of Death'.
 
Likewise his practice of routinely recording the cause of death was only 
occasionally followed at St Andrews.
 
The ages of the deceased ranged from three days for James Knox (there 
were eight stillborn burials) to 86 years for David Brown. The number of 
infants who did not live past their fifth birthday was the staggering number 
of 231, just over half of all burials, being the highest proportions 
of any parish. It would be interesting to know why the Presbyterians 
had the highest rate of infant mortality of all denominations.
 
Another distinguishing feature of the burials of St Andrew, along with 
Scots Kirk was the very low number of convicts and former convicts recorded. 
There were only 37 (8%) (admittedly some of the unidentified entries may 
also have been convicts).
 
The identity of the deceased at St Andrews has been discovered in 354 (or 80% of) 
cases during this decade.
 
There were four duplicate entries in  St Andrews register; 
Rev.John Cleland is a duplicate of Ebenezer Kirks entry, 
Alexander Johnston is a duplicate of St James Sydney entry and 
Elizabeth Miller is a duplicate of St Phillips entry. The 
duplicate entry of Mary Livingstone in Scots Kirk Sydney is a 
mystery for why would she be recorded on the same day, in two 
different kirks by two different chaplains ?
 
There was one burial in the State Archives Pioneer Series file which 
has no entry on this parish register. It is very likely that this results 
from a typographical error and relates to a post 1840 burial.
 
The reference number would direct the reader to the relevant entry 
in the original source document. The reference numbers for St Andrews 
run sequentially from 0001 to 0445 at the end of the decade. 
 
To locate an entry on this list; firstly an alphabetical search on the 
name would be made on List 5 using code "SAKS" from which the date of 
burial would be retrieved, secondly  using the appropriate date, the 
burial would then be located on this list.

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