BURIALS - SCOTS KIRK SYDNEY

 
 
There were 109 burials performed at Scots Kirk during this decade, 
but with no burials recorded for 1840 and only one for 1834 and 1837. 
On average around one burial every month. 
 
The information recorded for each burial is as follows:
 burial date
 death date
 Christian name
 family name
 age
 abode
 civil status at time of death
  year and ship of arrival
 quality or profession
 cause of death
 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 continued as chaplain from the previous decade 
but only for the first ten months of 1831 when the Rev.John Dunmore Lang 
retured to the parish. The Rev. William McIntyre was working in the 
parish in 1838 and 1839.
 
The Rev.William Pinkerton was buried at Scots Kirk in 1834 and the ceremony 
was performed by Rev.John Cleland.
 
At the beginning of this decade 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 of arrival, quality or profession and officiating 
minister. 
 
Regrettably in 1839 the 'Ship of Arrival' column was removed from the 
official forms altogether but it was still occasionally recorded by 
nothing like as often as previously. The year and ship of arrival have 
been heavily researched outside the parish register.
 
The 'Ship of Arrival' column was replaced by a 'Date of Death' column,
making identification much more difficult.
 
For  the colonial born their year of birth and parents names are recorded 
in the 'Ship of Arrival' column.
 
All the chaplains at Scots Kirk diligently recorded the 'Date of Death' 
(it was included in the 'Date of Burial' column). For some reason however 
they did no use the new printed forms in 1839 where there was a separate 
column for this information.
 
Another commendable feature of the chaplains in this parish was the regular 
recording of the 'Cause of Death' (it was included in the 'Officiating 
Minister' column) so for this reason a additional column has been 
created to record these.
 
The ages of the deceased ranged from two hours for Sarah Mackneal (there 
was one stillborn burial and nine infants who did not have their exact 
ages recorded) to 73 years for Grace Davidson. The number of infants who 
did not live past their fifth birthday was 46 being one of the highest 
proportions of 42% of all burials. 
 
Another distinguishing feature of the burials of Scots Kirk was the very 
low number of convicts and former convicts recorded. There were only five 
(admittedly some of the unidentified entries may also have been convicts).
 
Despite extensive research the identity of the deceased at Scots Kirk has 
only been discovered in 67 (or 62% of) cases during this decade.
 
The reference number would direct the reader to the relevant entry 
in the original source document. The reference numbers for Scots Kirk 
run sequentially from 0043 to 0151 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 "SKS" 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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