Two burials: a mystery

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We held a charity auction at work yesterday. I donated 10 hours of genealogy research, which raised the second-highest amount of the day – I’m delighted and ready to get started.

This has me thinking about Jackie, a work colleague. I overheard her discussing a family history mystery and offered to see if I could help, but I’ve been unsuccessful and, with her permission, am blogging about it to see if anyone else has any suggestions.

Jackie’s sister, Joy Young, died on 28 August 1964 at Sutton Coldfield Hospital and was buried on 1 September at the Rectory Road Cemetery in Sutton Coldfield. She was just two months old. It was something the family didn’t discuss, and it was only a few years ago that Jackie decided that she wanted to find her sister’s grave. When she received details of the burial, she learned that the plot was bought privately for May Emily Young, who was also buried there. May Emily died from scarlet fever, aged 18, on 19 November 1910. She was a domestic servant and her mother, Ellinor J. Young, was the informant of the death.

Jackie wants to know how May and Joy are connected. More than fifty years separates their burials. 

Jackie’s family wasn’t originally from Sutton Coldfield, but from London. May was born after the 1891 census and died before the 1911 census: the 1901 census says that she was born in Hand Crawley, Sussex, although there is no matching birth registration in Sussex or anywhere. I have been able to trace her siblings, though, and her father’s occupation as a domestic gardener saw the family move all over England and Wales, so it could be that they had moved before May’s birth had been registered.

Using church records, vital registration indexes, censuses and...anything else I could find(!)...I’ve put together these two parallel families of Youngs, but I cannot find a link between them:

Jackie’s Family	The other family
Joy Young b. 25 June 1964, Sutton Coldfield d. 28 August 1964, Sutton Coldfield
James Henry Young b. 13 February 1916, Wandsworth, London d. 30 November 1977, Cambridge
Alfred Joseph Young Jr b. abt 1884, Battersea, Surrey m. Ethel Tilbury 25 July 1915, Battersea, London d. 14 October 1938 Mitcham, Surrey	May Emily Young b.  abt 1892 Hand Crawley, Sussex d. 19 November 1910 Sutton Coldfield, Staffordshire
Alfred Joseph Young Sr b. 1870 Deptford, Kent m. Catherine Nicholls, 6 August 1893, Battersea, London d.	Henry Young b. abt 1860 Shrivenham, Berkshire m. Eleanor Jane Butler 1886 Worcestershire d. between 1901 and 1911
Henry Young b. abt 1839 Hertford, Hertfordshire or Luton, Bedfordshire m. Mary Ann (--?--) d. between 1881 and 1891	George William Young b. 30 November 1828 Chelsea, Middlesex m. Elizabeth Brown, 1852, Kensington, Middlesex d. after 1881
	George Young of Duke Street, Chelsea m. Margaret (--?--)

The problem is, I cannot see a connection between these families, or between any of their descendants. If the fact that May, who died in 1910, and Joy, who died in 1964, were buried in the same grave is due to a family connection, then it’s reasonable to expect that it was a fairly close connection: something near enough that the family in 1964 would have known of May’s burial more than 50 years earlier. After going back a few generations, I still haven’t even find a common county of origin for them, much less any connection which would be close enough to lead to the two burials in the same plot.

Of course there are various laws about re-use of a burial plot, and if May’s plot had remained untended for a lengthy period of time, and her next-of-kin were unknown or unable to be contacted, the plot could have been re-used for Joy, and it is all a coincidence that they share the same surname. My husband suggested that it might even have been because the cemetery offered this plot because of the surname – either it was easier for them administratively, or because they thought there could be a distant relative already buried there.

I have to admit I’m stumped. Any ideas?