Stillborn FEMALE CHILD
On 21 September 1948, the burial records show that Marjorie Young was laid to rest in grave 2892b. She was not buried alone. Sharing her grave was a stillborn baby girl, whose name—if she was ever given one—is not recorded.
At the time, this was not unusual. Stillborn babies were often buried in the grave of another person whose funeral happened to be taking place, rather than being given a separate burial of their own. The arrangements were generally made by the hospital or institution, with little or no involvement from the baby’s parents. In many cases, parents were not even told where, or with whom, their child had been buried.
It was not until the mid-1980s that parents increasingly began to be consulted about funeral arrangements for babies who were stillborn or who died shortly after birth.
And so, in the records of Marjorie Young’s burial, this little girl appears only as a stillborn child sharing her grave. We do not know her name, who her parents were, or whether they ever knew that grave 2892b was where their daughter had been laid to rest. What survives is simply the record that she was there.