Memorial Inscriptions from Toxteth Park Cemetery, Liverpool
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This site contains files of memorial inscriptions for all 57 sections at Toxteth Park Cemetery. There are two files, one for the 38 Consecrated sections and one for the 19 General sections. For some reason there are no Roman Catholic sections in this cemetery. In simple terms Consecrated Ground covers Church of England burials and General Ground covers all the rest. Each inscription has a unique entry number, and shows the section number and grave number as well as a transcription of the inscription. (Entry number is a serial number created for these transcriptions which starts at 1 on Consecrated Section 1 and runs through to the last entry, number 18141 which is on General Section O). The inscriptions are in entry number order. These files replicate the contents of hard copy files which have been provided to records offices.
There is also an index of all surnames which appear in inscriptions. This includes section number, grave number and the unique entry number. On this site the index has been split into separate files by first letter of surname. There is also an index file for ‘no name’ for entries where it has not been possible to allocate a surname or a surname in English.
To search for a memorial inscription, first open the relevant index file and scroll down or use your browser's search facility to access the entries for the surname of interest. Note the denomination, section and entry numbers. Then open each relevant denomination file in turn and scroll down or use your browser's search facility to access the inscription(s) - note that these are in entry number sequence.
How do you interpret the index? The first interment in the Consecrated Sections according to the registers took place on 17th June 1856. This was of an Elizabeth WATLING who was a seventy year old widow. Her headstone is still there in Consecrated Section C Left, plot 111. Her entry in the index will appear as:-
WATLING C.C.Lt 111 6369
The first entry obviously enough is the surname. There is a separate entry for every different surname that appears on the headstone. The full index contains some 24181 surname entries.
The index is big enough already and it would just not be practicable to start trying to record every person by their first name so more than one WATLING may be buried in this particular grave. Do remember that just because a name appears on a headstone the person may not necessarily be buried there. The entry might commemorate a death overseas, at sea or, of course, a war death.
The remaining entries in the index refer to the section, in this case C.C.Lt. means Consecrated Section C Left. The number 111 is the official grave number which appears on the section plan and will help you establish where the grave is. The final number, i.e. 6369, is the consecutive entry number in the transcriptions.
The index is big enough already and it would just not be practicable to start trying to record every person by their first name so more than one WATLING may be buried in this particular grave. Do remember that just because a name appears on a headstone the person may not necessarily be buried there. The entry might commemorate a death overseas, at sea or, of course, a war death.
The remaining entries in the index refer to the section, in this case C.C.Lt. means Consecrated Section C Left. The number 111 is the official grave number which appears on the section plan and will help you establish where the grave is. The final number, i.e. 6369, is the consecutive entry number in the transcriptions.
Almost all the inscriptions are in upper case. However, for presentational purposes, they have all been recorded in lower case with the exception that the surnames appear in upper case to make them stand out. A change to a new line on a headstone is indicated by a single angled line thus / and where you find two lines // this means that a substantial change has taken place. It is generally on a tiered stone where the next part is on the side or rear. On an upright stone it might indicate that it is much lower down or another part of the stone.
