Deaths and Burials

Deaths

This key explains how to interpret the index on deaths for the Chubut Colony.

Inexplicably, there are almost no records for 1875-90, and in most cases, data for the whole year is missing.  This index should be supplemented by information in the burials index (which itself has limitations).

 

Column 1 Surname of person
Column 2 First names of person
Column 3 Age
Column 4 Date of death
Column 5 Reference to original sources which are in most cases the civil registers (unless otherwise stated):

ES = Esquel 1900

G = Gaiman 1900

GM = Gaiman 1891-1899

MG = from records held at Gaiman Museum “Libro de defunciones en la Municipalidad del Chubut y de la Municipalidad de Gaiman”

PM = Puerto Madryn 1899-1902

RJB = Richard J Berwyn’s first diary 1865-1875 (photocopy in the Museum, Gaiman)

RW = Rawson 1892-1899

RS = Rawson 1900-1901

TR = Trelew 1899

TW = Trelew 1899-1902

T = Trelew 1900

Column 6 Name of parents, their ages, and names or number of the property
Column 7 Names of other relatives
Column 8 Chacra or property number, where given

 

BURIALS

This key explains how to interpret the index on burial for the Chubut Colony.The information was obtained mainly from the Municipal Office at Gaiman, and sightings at the Gaiman cemetery. For the Trelew cemetery, records are scarce.  There is an on-site card index of names, but there are just a handful of cards indexing those interred before 1900. For Puerto Madryn, records start at 1911 only.  For Rawson, records start at 1925 only.  These were little records kept for Esquel too.

Some of the problems with a lack of records is that some of the cemeteries used today are not original – indeed the Gaiman cemetery was relocated twice, once following a flood.  There are references to other sources of information on burials in Professor Glyn Williams book “The Desert and the Dream” 1975 (available form the University of Wales Press).  Additionally perusal of the local newspaper in the Chubut Valley, “Y Draford” would reveal more information (available at the National Library of Wales, and in the Gaiman Museum).

Column 1 Surname of person listed as buried.  Where people are buried separately, there is a space between surnames; where two or more people were buried together, there is no space between entries.
Column 2 First names of the dead
Column 3 Age of person, but was not always recorded
Column 4 Date the person was buried
Column 5 Lists the other people with whom the person is buried
Column 6 Lists other relatives named, usually in the headstone or in the entry
Column 7 Group – those with the same number are buried together
Column 8 Ref= refers to the official registers used:

·       EA Gaiman = refers to …..

·       G = records of the Municipal office in Gaiman

Column 9 Section number of the plot in the cemetery

·       CO = refers to the communal plot in which the bodies of the dead were moved to following the flood and relocation of the cemetery.  Today the communal plot has numerous headstones lying on it

·       Where the plot and section number are the same, it indicates that the people listed were buried together.

Column 10 Plot number in the cemetery

·       1 = refers to one half of the cemetery

·       2 = refers to the second half of the cemetery where the communal plot is located