1/ Hello! I’m Anna, an archaeology PhD student @LivUni studying C19th cemeteries in #Liverpool. This is a presentation of research on St James’ Cemetery and the dissemination of mortuary archaeology online that I conducted for my MA #DigiDeath

2/ Huge increased interest in historic burial grounds, but many of Britain’s cemeteries still at risk. Can we use archaeology and the internet to encourage community interest? Need to demonstrate gravestones’ value by showing what they can tell us & present it online #DigiDeath

3/ Two main types of website – worldwide resources (usually genealogical) & local (usually by historians or Friends groups). I analysed 73 British cemetery websites, paying attention to pages relating to archaeology – inscriptions, motifs, & material culture analysis #DigiDeath

4/ Most common subjects are cemetery history (92%) & notable burials (65%). Archaeological components are rare (material culture analysis on only 3 websites), as is spatial analysis. 20 cemeteries chosen have no website. Cost is a major factor in limitation of data #DigiDeath

5/ Mill Road #Cambridge and Northwood #Cowes discuss largest number of elements & contain educational resources on memorials. Northwood also demonstrates the value of oral history. @YorkCemetery and @StSepulchresOx are among the few to contain info on material culture #DigiDeath

6/ Now to #Liverpool: St James’ was one of Britain’s earliest garden cemeteries. Located in a former quarry, now alongside @LivCathedral. Consecrated in 1829 it was an immediate success. Usage declined from end of C19th, closed in 1936 after 57,839 recorded burials #DigiDeath

7/ After closure the site was neglected. In the 1960s the Corporation cleared most monuments & the site continued to deteriorate. In 2001 the Friends of St James’ was established and in 2002 was grade I listed. Despite this there are still serious preservation issues #DigiDeath

8/ Around 1,150 memorials remain, mostly sandstone headstones & ledgers, but there are some larger monuments. Catacombs are bricked over w/little text remaining. I created a map & recorded key info. I also accessed the archived burial statistics @Lpoolcentlib #DigiDeath

9/ So what can we learn? When looking at age-at-death, we see children under 5y/o are greatly underrepresented on memorials. Were C19th children undervalued? Far more likely, higher infant death rate among poor meant memorials were unaffordable #DigiDeath

10/ In C19th Britain only 2 genders were socially accepted & a strict divide between was expected. Memorials can give us an indication of social positions - e.g. 45% of men are referred to in relation to another person (father/son) compared with 85% of equivalent women #DigiDeath

11/ Let’s put this online! In 1998 a local historian set up a website for St James’. I acquired the site in late 2017 shortly before he was to take it down. I updated the design, digitised my memorial map and the partial names database, and added new research #DigiDeath