Southern Cemetery: Main South Road, Dunedin. Located at the southern end of the city on a rise overlooking the south end of the "Oval" playing fields and bounded by the roads, Main South Road and Eglinton Road and the southern end of the "Town Belt". This cemetery is now closed [1998]. The next burial will be in a new cemetery on Brighton Road, 10 miles south of Dunedin. {xxxxx} The 600 names from Dunedin were submitted to IAJGS before 2000 for one or both cemeteries.
Southern Cemetery has a total of 23,000 burials. The Jewish portion of the non-denominational cemetery has approximately 179 burials. (164 burials are recorded in the burial register that does not record the location of each burial. The Jewish Community holds a book entitled Register of Burials Dunedin, Jewish Congregation that presently is in the care of Mr. E. Friedlander, 5 Burwood Ave, Maori Hill, Dunedin. The first two entries in the burial register are dated May l864, then followed by entries beginning in April, l863. Information is brief, giving the name of deceased, burial date, age (not always), sex, and parents names (not always). This applies to the years 1863 to 1893. Some entries have an additional line written in Hebrew that are difficult to read. A gap then exists to one death each in 1942, 1945 and 1946. After that, the book probably is complete. From 1946 onwards, no parents names are given. That column instead gives the place of burial. Thus, the burial register becomes that of the Jewish Congregation, rather than that of the Jewish Portion Southern Cemetery. Burials since 1946 take place at Andersons Bay Cemetery, Dunedin, Invercargill, Christchurch and cremations. Hugh Gourley Funeral Directors, 407 Hillside Rd., South Dunedin have records of burials 1893-1943 in Dunedin, Invercargill, Christchurch as well as cremations.
The cemetery's main entrance is on the Main South Road. A rather narrow roadway leads to the caretaker's cottage and car park. On the Main South Road, just slightly uphill from the main entrance, tall wrought iron gates form the entrance to the Jewish portion of the cemetery. The visitor would find it convenient to park on the Main South Road and use this foot access. (The Dunedin City Council, Parks and Recreation Dept, Civic Centre Building, George Street Dunedin.) There is an occupied caretaker's cottage within the grounds of Southern cemetery. The caretaker, who has a copy of this transcript, could assist a visitor to locate a particular gravesite. However, the Dunedin City Council has no official burial records for the Jewish ground. These are in the hands of the Jewish Congregation.
This transcription was completed November 1982. A transcription made in 1934, a copy of which can be seen at The Early Settlers Association Museum, 220 Cumberland St Dunedin. Some headstone records, which were visible and transcribed in 1934, have either deteriorated or are missing now. I am also aware of a transcription undertaken in 1979 by a Mr. and Mrs. Davis John and Beverley on behalf of the Australian Jewish Historical Society, Victoria Branch, c/o 3 Alma Road, Camberwell Victoria 3124, Australia. Though I think the researcher will find this present transcript a substantially complete record of what is now available, I mention the other known transcripts that may prove helpful.
Headstone Dates: The earliest date on a headstone is that of Adliner Symons, 8 Mar 1864, Entry Number 26. However, the earliest date in the burial register is that of Louis Woolf, 6 Mar 1863. The Southern Cemetery was opened in 1857. The first burial in the main portion of the cemetery was in March 1858. Though the cemetery has been "closed" in the sense that it has been many years since the last plot was sold, burials still take place today in unfilled family plots. Dunedin Jewish Congregation is a Liberal Community part of the Anzupt with about 50 members. To the researcher interested in deaths between 1893 and 1946, the following may be of interest. Hugh Gourley, Funeral Director Dunedin, was engaged to arrange many of these burials. His records survive, but are brief and do not record in which cemetery a burial took place. (Hugh Gourley Ltd, Funeral Director, 407 Hillside Road, South Dunedin) (or Gillions and Sons Ltd, Funeral Directors of the same address) Both funeral homes hold these early records and have indexed them for easy reference. They are sympathetic toward genealogists and given a name and date (approximate) of a death, may be able to confirm same, which leads the researcher more confidently to a death registration enquiry and death certificate.
Source for Dunedin: E.M. Friedlander; 5 Burnwood Ave. Dunedin (letter to Claire G. Bruell) Most of the Jewish early settlers in NZ are in the Southern Cemetery Dunedin, many via the Andersons Bay Crematorium. Source: Pamela Broadbent, Wellington, New Zealand: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
UPDATE: Normal 0 Register of burials: "Dunedin Jewish Congregation is a Liberal Community part of the ANZUPJ". Source: 'This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.' July 2009]