Death and burial

[Katie]

I have found large gaps in the date of death and the burial date. I can understand if it was a case of drowning where the date of death would be the last time they saw the person alive and then the date of burial could be several months later. I have one relative that died from pneumonia on 23 Mar 1811 and was buried 12 Jan 1812. This is Pahl Jurmu of Kuusamo and found the information in Hiski. I tried to verify here in sukuhistoria but found the writing too hard to read.
What is the common reason for such a gap in death ad burial.
Thank You
Janice

[taltta]

Are you sure that the "Mar" you refer to is not the Finnish word marraskuu (November)? At least that would explain it. BRs TapioH

[JaskaS]

Original burial record: http://www.sukuhistoria.fi/sshy/kirjat/ ... 233/14.htm
There's plenty of burial dates long after death and especially many on 13 January 1812 as well as on 14 January 1812.
The same can be seen in HisKi - all dates given in numbers, no confusion possibility.
Cannot think of any possible explanation

Jaska

[taltta]

I replied before, but the post was lost somewhere. Is there some time-out period?

Anyway, the date of death was 26.3.1811 and burial was 13th of January next year. For *many* of those died in the same year.
http://digi.narc.fi/digi/view.ka?kuid=5585463 (this page shows it)

"Hautasaaria on aikaisemmin pidetty pääosin suhteellisen nuorina 1700- ja 1800-lukujen väliaikaisina hautapaikkoina, joihin syrjäkulmien kuolleet olisi kesäkuuman ja kelirikon aikana haudattu odottamaan talvista kuljetusta pitäjän kirkkomaalle."
(source: http://kalmistopiiri.wordpress.com/2011 ... avaintoja/)

Basically people who died in remote locations (during hot summer periods or when traveling was especially difficult/impossible) were temporarily buried to a nearby a graveyard island and transported to actual places of burial in the winter. Please see the narc page for dates of burials and lots of people buried on the same day (a lot of dittos for the 13th of January in this case).
Was this also the case with Kuusamo and beginning of the 19th century? BRs TapioH

[JaskaS]

Tapio, you got it!
Kuusamo is rather large in area, and that procedure could have been used there.
I've read about that practice ages ago, but old brains didn't respond quickly enough

Jaska

[Katie]

Thank you all for informing me of what may have been the case for the gaps between date of death and date of burial. I learned that Mar is Finnish for November but I assumed March because for other ancestors I saw Dec or Oct and I think they are December and October and thought "this is great with the months being in English." Another thing I learned about was the temporary burials and a final burial would be in the winter. Here, in America in the Northern states, we would not have burials in the winter because of the frozen ground and the cemetery would store the remains until a Spring burial could be done. Then in the 1960's came machinery that could thaw the ground and a winter burial could be made but there would be no graveside attendance because of the snow. Instead the graveside service would be in a chapel on the cemetery grounds. So, you would go to your church for service then go to the cemetery chapel for the final burial service with actual burial done soon after but no attendance.
Thanks for helping and teaching me something new.
Hope you had a nice weekend.
Janice