My family the Maxfields have been baptised, married and buried in the cathedral since it was a parish church in the 1600s and yet I discovered on a visit to Sheffield that my 3 times great grandmother Ann is buried in the non conformist section of the general cemetery along with 16 other people. What does this mean and why were non conformists buried separately? Did they have different records also where I might find missing ancestors? Thank you.
Yes its quite common for non conformist to be buried separately from the Church of England members.
When a new cemetery was opened the Bishop of Sheffield would (consecrate) an area say the left hand side of the main pathway for C of E folks and the rest of the cemetery would be available for other denominations.
They your relatives would be listed in the GRO/FreeBMD sites and then which every burial ground records of their choosing if non conformists.
The information on the General Cemetery site gives more details of when it opened etc. Originally set up as a non conformist cemetery.
If you give us a few names and dates we can maybe offer suggestions.
Elaine.
PS Sheffield Family History Society do have a cd of non conformist burials if I re member correctly.
I have found some apparently C of E people buried in the unconsecrated section of the General Cemetery. There is a catalogue of the registers available on microfilm here:
https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/catalog/444016
The first volume is unconsecrated 1836-56
The next four volumes are for consecrated ground 1850-1911
The remaining four volumes are unconsecrated 1857-1978
You can view the films by selecting the camera symbol on the RH side but you need to register with Family Search - there is no charge. Many of them seem to be in Findagrave, which may have been compiled from the monuments or from the registers. Does anyone know?
The burial records often say which minister performed the burial ceremony. If you search for the minister’s name using the directories on this site (see menu on LHS) that will tell you which church your family were using.