Picture this:

you’ve finally gotten your hands on a death record for your ancestor and you believe you have found the link to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, at least, in genealogy research terms anyway.

That ancestor’s burial record indicates they were buried in a tomb. A Tomb? That sounds impressive. Far cry from being buried in Potter’s field right? This must mean something incredible, or at least that there might be more about this ancestor written somewhere.

Well…as I recently learned, and honestly, I should have known this if I’d taken just two seconds to think about it, being buried in a tomb is not necessarily what you might think.

So what is it? What does it mean? I supposed it is technically called a receiving vault, they are nondescript stone structures in cemeteries for body storage prior to true burial. I’ve likely walked past hundreds of these and disregarded them as there were no personal names on the structures, just the name of the cemetery – and what could possibly be of interest in one of those?

It means it was very cold when your ancestor died. So cold that the ground was frozen and they had to put them in temporary storage until the ground thawed out.

I had NO IDEA this happened. Nor did I anticipate that the burial records might only record the transition space rather than the final intended burial plot. Like I said, now that I know it makes perfect sense, but at the time it was explained to me? Mind blown.

Again, in hindsight, an odd little stone structure anywhere should ignite some curiousity in any researcher. But we all have our off days.