On 23 January 2012 00:51, Richard Farmbrough <richard@farmbrough.co.uk> wrote:

I will also add that while I was visiting South Mimms graveyard (in the village, not the service station) many years ago, I happened across a gentleman recording the details of the graves, of which (other than the organization for which he was volunteering) there was no central record.

That's a whole big area, properly called "monumental inscriptions". Many graveyards and cemeteries have groups who record what is on the monuments, and/or maintain the place, and sometimes they keep a database of information about who is buried there. There is no centralisation, though, at present. It is a microcosm of the whole area, really.

Charles