RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: molar on Sunday 23 July 06 15:54 BST (UK)
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Just thought I would share the tale of our successful outing. Hubby had to do a some jobs for his Dad so we decided to spend a couple of days in Northumberland.
On the first day, after completing the jobs we started asking about where relatives may be buried. Hubby's dad told us where hubby's maternal grandparents were buried. Ever the optimist, we set out early the following morning armed with flowers and bottles of water! We found the graveyard and proceeded to walk up and down the rows. After about 20 mins we found the grave of my husband's g.uncle. About an hour later we discovered the grandparents grave,we tidied the grave,put the flowers in water in the urn and took a photo. My husband who isn't very interested in family history was very moved. His maternal grandparents died before he was born, he felt that his mother(who died 8 years ago) would have been pleased.
We carried on walking around the churchyard and we took photos of other graves with names of people who could be related.Right at the very end we found the grave of his g.grandparents. Again we tidied and placed flowers.
At the pub next door to the graveyard we enjoyed a lovely drink and sandwich while we downloaded the pictures onto the laptop.
The weather was fantastic and we had both enjoyed our visit. When we returned to visit father-in-law in the afternoon he mentioned that he knew which cemetery other relatives were buried!!Why do they have to dripfeed info!!! So hopefully we will be able to explore again.
regards
Linda
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Good ides to take photos of all the other stones with family names on them Molar. You never know when they will come in handy
I ended up doing that in one of the cemeteries in Holyhead and then found I was searching for four different surnames. Still not finished there yet. It is so large and I don't get over to Anglesey that often now so by the time I get there I have forgotten exactly where I have been already. I now have over 300 photos from there already and still more to take.
Northumberland is one of our next areas to visit. Hubby's family are all over though we know his Grandparents and Great Grandparents are buried at Morpeth. Hopefully we can visit some "new" family while we are there as well
Carol
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I love Grave hunting. I don't know why, I haven't had a huge amount of success, just a few. But I find graveyards very beautiful and peaceful places.
Am I odd do you think?
I have been to Lingfield in Surrey now 3 times and each time I go and sit on the bench under the Yew by the gravestone of my great great grandparents. It almost feels in a strange way as if I knew them.
Kerry
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Kerry -
Not at all odd. I find most graveyards / cemeteries quiet, peaceful, calming and reflective. Some are very beautiful in the Spring with blooming flowers and the changing of the leaves in the fall.
Another sidelight is the cemetery office personnel usually have interesting facts and stories to relay and may even have additional information you didn't know or were aware of.
I take pictures of the graves, headstones and surrounding landmarks and keep them filed with my research paperwork. The more research I do and the more I find out about the relatives / family the more they come to life (no pun intended). :) :)
In fact two weeks ago I took my 26 year old niece on a cemetery / graveyard tour. Showed her where some of her gg and ggg grandparents were. Also relayed what I knew about them. A very moving day for us both.
yn9man
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i suppose grave hunting will seem a peculiar thing to some people but what do they know.A couple of years ago i decided to search the local churchyards and found the grave of my great grandfather,what a moment, i thought here is a grave no family member knew about. The next time i went there i scraped some moss off and there was my great grandmother as well!I took some photos of it as the writing is beginning to crumble away.We visit it often and knowing where they are makes the hours of searching worthwhile.
Steve
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Knowing where they are is the last link to the person you imagine them to be once you have collected all the census and bmd data on them.
I'm looking forward to visiting some more now I have just discovered two new lines!!!
Kerry
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Grave hunting is certainly one of those things now one else in my family shares with me. But my husband is a real mensch. I had him in a cemetery in Orange, NJ for hours searching for one of my gg grandmother's grave. It was an old cemetery and we never found it. I think the stone might have sunk, fallen, somthing. I did find another set of gggrandparents there, with a newer stone as gggrandfather died in 1943 and that was exciting. Did I mention a good hour of the searching was in the rain? It got to a point where my husband said, "Let's just look up this row again." I think we had invested so much time he didn't want to give up. :-*
I am off in a couple weeks to visit another set of gg grandparents graves, and hopefully a ggggrandfather as well, with one of my brothers. Should be fun, and my husband is glad he is being left out of this one.
Kathleen
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Kath
My partner who hates grave hunting and couldn't even tell me where his mum's grave was, wouldn't leave the graveyard the last time we went. I was looking for various Vigars and I got hot and was ready to give up. He kept saying have looked at those ones. We can't go till we've finished!!!!
I wonder if he has bitten by the bug at last!!!!
Kerry ::)
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Did I mention a good hour of the searching was in the rain?
Kathleen
Searching for gravestones in the rain is the best time for it. In my experience, a wet gravestone is often easier to read than a dry one.
I love it, some of the best times I remember from my trip to England in 2004 are wandering around country churchyards in the drizzle looking for souls.
Sue ;D
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Sue,
I hadn't thought of that. That's a good point. I wonder if my brother will feel that way in a few weeks. And I might actually drag my children to another cemetery about an hour away to see my paternal grandfather and his parents and siblings. It will be a nice lead in to the cemetery with my brother, as that is my grandfather's paternal side.
So many cemeteries, so little time. ::)
Kath
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I agree with you all. Standing in front of my GG grandmother and GG grandfather's grave, reading the words, seeing where in the churchyard they were buried and how grand the stone was (middling) gave me more of a feel for the sort of people they were. It did bring them more to life (metaphorically).
Nearby is the plaque to those of the parish that fell in WW1. Their grandson (my grand uncle) is there and they were still alive when he was killed. I knew he was killed 1st day of the Somme but seeing his name on the plaque it became personal, and I started to think about what they felt and how the news reached them. Now a trip to the Somme and Thiepval Memorial is being planned.
Graham
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I love grave hunting!!!!! and my husband thinks I'm bonkers ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Most (if not all) of my father's ancestors are buried in the Dolhafren Cemetery in Llanidloes, Powys. I have been there so many times with my digital camera and taken lots of ancestor's graves, and found it all very exciting :D
I am in the middle of planning my next vist.....and I am getting rather excited ;D ;D
Jan
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I enjoy grave hunting, dosnt matter if its for my research or to help someone else out. I cant do a lot of look ups for people because I dont have the resources so I guess its my way of helping to visit a local graveyard for someone who wont get the chance to visit themselves.
Got one to do for a Rootschatter this week and I am really looking forward to it.
Linda.
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I'm looking forward to eventually one day getting up to Lincolnshire and checking the graveyards out up there. I had a photo sent to me of one of my lots in a small village in Lincs and it was a very grand grave so I am sure there must be more just waiting for me and my digital camera!
Kerry
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Hi Kerry,
I have to say I have never found a single grave apart from the later ones that I already knew about.
I was really upset when I visited a village churchyard in Beds and didnt find a single stone though I knew that dozens of my family are buried there. I guess they just didnt have that sort of money. Dont know the relative price of a gravestone then but I guess it would have been more than the average Ag Lab could afford.
Think thats why I go and look for other peoples. What a sad soul I am. ::)
Linda.
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I know what you mean Linmey, I have visited loads of graveyards locally and only found a small handful of graves of my lot. I wonder if they were poor, might they have had wooden crosses which presumably would have been cheaper but would not last as long.
It doesn't stop the thrill of the search and the occasional find though!
Kerry
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Limney, I was reading your post saying how much you enjoyed gravehunting, and was a bit disturbed by your picture. Aren't you taking thing to extremes? ;)
meles
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Oh no, you are right. Dosnt spoil the thrill of the chace. Will carry on having a go.
I guess you are right and wooden crosses would have been used.
Hi meles, I have since my teenage years been keen on archaeology so you are right, I have been digging people up for a long time now. However, if I get a request from a Rootschatter to grave hunt, I promise I dont go that far. REALLY. ::)
Linda.
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Phew! ;D
meles
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Double phew!!!!
Kerry ;D ;D
At work the other day one of our Interpretation Officers was involved in producing a DVD of various historical fictional characters in the High Weald and one of them was talking about the black death and they filmed a quick shot around a graveyard.
When I said that would not have been correct for the black death, because generally the current stones we have are dated from round about the 1700s and in a black death situation they wouldn't have bothered anyway, it sparked an interesting discussion. I have now become the office authority on all things dead and buried!!!!! :o :o :o
Kerry
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The ONLY grave I have found in England was a gguncle - died 1935, buried in Wolvercote cemetery, Oxford. He was a C of E priest - only had a wooden cross with a strange little triangular "hat" on top of it - don't know what that means. But any inscription had long since disappeared from the cross, which is decaying and will fall sometime, and the grave is very overgrown by bushes. Sad, really. But I am not there to preserve it.
Still, suppose I shouldn't complain - I know where many family graves are, here in Oz, both locally and in other cities, and even found a great-grandfather's grave in the bush way out West, in good order, so I suppose I haven't done too badly!
MarieC
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A very unusual claim to fame Kerry. 8)
Linda
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Hmm
Especially as I thought it would be obvious to these professionals!!!!!
Kerry
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I went out searching today. It was a beautiful day, the cemetery was almost deserted, we got lots of help from the office & found both graves I was looking for despite there being no headstones.
My husband is an absolute wiz at finding the right grave. I'm a hopeless navigator in the car & very similar in the cemetery. He is good at both! Although he is not a family researcher he loves photography - so I let him take the photos too ;D ;D
I go along for the ride!
Trish
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Goodonya, Trish!!!
You've got a good partnership there!!! :D :D :D :D :D
MarieC
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Hi Marie - Guess I can't complain - bless him! Little does he know he is one day going to do a Cemetery Tour of the United kingdom.
:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D
Trish
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Trish
Have you told him he coming to visit relatives and photograph them??
Kerry ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
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Hi Kerry
He knows me too well - would want to know if they were "living" relatives ;D
He's a plant man - I have to investigate the plants of the counties I want to visit & work out a good story as to why he wants to visit - then again, I keep suggesting we should write a story of "Graveyards and Ferns" - He often photographs the plants growing on the tombstones that we visit - today was no exception. :D :D
Trish
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Captain (Graham,) if you are planning a visit to Battlefields, War Graves, etc, try to get the brochure from the British Legion. They do the most fantastic trips. They are a bit pricey, but the Dearly Beloved has gone on several, following his fathers last known stopping off points before he was taken prisoner and finally died. You have experts with these trips who really know what they are talking about and are ready to answer questions.
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Trish
I can appreciate that one, my partner is a plant man. Many a walk I have spent standing waiting for him to identify a plant and then photograph it!!!
Tombstones - he must have investigated every lichen and fern in some of the graveyards we've been to!!
Kerry
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hi Linda
i don't think you're a sad soul at all,it's very good of you searching for other people's graves and good luck to you in that.
I've managed to find a few graves myself but some are in a poor state the writing nearly gone.Does anyone think they should be repaired or get the writing re-cut or would it cost too much?Just wondered that's all.
By the way why's this topic on the lighter side?? :) :) :)
Steve
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HI Steve,
I think inscriptions on graves should be preserved some of them look like they have no inscription at all and if ppl are doing grave searching it would make it much easier if you could read them.
Regards Billa
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Hi Steve
I do alot of looking for other folks, so visit our local cemeteries quite often (Australia) - with the navigator and photographer - ;D ;D
Earlier this year we saw a number of graves being repaired - some were having the engravings professionally restored - I talked to the tradesman doing the job - and he told me he gets more work than he has time to do.
I enjoy knowing that folks look after the graves. One of my ancestors left 5 pounds in his will - the interest from same was for the upkeep of his family grave. I'm not sure who ended up with the five pounds but I visited the grave last year (in a different state). It's over 100 years old and in immaculate condition.
Trish
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I visited North Marston quite a while back. It was a chance visit and we didn't have the camera. The place was a bit of a mess, but we soon found Great Grandfather Denchfield's grave, which was nice, as his was the name that started me on the hunt. The stone was at the tilt, but easy to read. On the wall of the church was a plaque to one of the Denchfield vicars. Up to then I had no idea of this. Outside, son and heir and I found a row of crumbling pink gravestones. Tracing our fingers in what we could find of the names we thought we had probably found a whole load of Denchfields.
Then we went away to Scotland, and came back only a few years ago. One of our first trips was to North Marston. This time we had the camera. The graveyard was in the process of being tidied up which was a relief. BUT the stone to Great Grandfather had been shortened, I suppose to make it more stable, so that his wife Emily's name is almost buried along with her. The pink stones that could have been the ancestors were no longer there.
Please, PRESERVE and conserve. It's so nice to know where someone's grave is, so that you can walk round it, not over it. That's one of my shudders. I do hate to see people walking carelessly over graves and letting children run wild, 'just because they are bored.' Show respect. I'll be down there one day.
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hi
I thought if we don't get the graves or the inscriptions restored,who will do it because they will be gone for good.If they were restored they should last for maybe another hundred years.I have'nt come across any repaired graves locally i suppose after a certain length of time relatives die off and the graves are then left.its a shame but these things happen.
Steve
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Nort I agree,
is it too much to ask for the councils to preserve the grave sites. Let's face it they seem to spend a lot of money on unnecessary things surely these sites must come under some type of heritage protection.!
Regards Billa
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Had a wonderful afternoon grave hunting for a Rootschatter. Have just posted all the information and was able to enlist the help of an elderly resident of the village who remembers the family and pointed a grave out to me that I would otherwise never have found.
I find it very interesting and rewarding and almost as exciting as looking for my own lot. Its also something that I can drag my Mum and 8 years old daughter along to and enlist their help.
Linda.
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Linda
Sounds like a lovely afternoon out!
Kerry
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Well, not exactly a mainstream leisure activity I guess but as my mother has been dragging me around various churchyards since I was small and I am now doing the same with my daughter I hope the family tradition will continue.
Linda.
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Sometimes I wish I had someone to take with me. I limit the amount of time I
bore drag my partner along.
Although my sister has shown signs of being interested so perhaps I shall drag her along next time!
Kerry
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In regard to the councils preserving Grave Sites, these are called plots for Rake lane cemetery. Have you seen the size of them ??? I have "doing" Rake lane for a few years now.So i know the men work hard trying to keep the plots free of Grass.Unfortunately i myself don't think they have enough staff for such a large cemetery.So in the summer by the time they get to one end of the cemetery.The Grass is three foot high on the other. The main concern of the council is Safety,the cemetery staff are continually Staking unsafe head stones with large warning on them, i have noticed recently that some have actually been dug out and buried deeper. As Mentioned it is up to any remaining family to visit occasionally to check family graves. If they find the Head stone has fallen or the inscription has almost dissapeared. In the case of it being a council cemetery,they can be contacted with a request to make it safe. It is up to the family to hire a stone mason to re- engrave and add anything else.My brother,sister, and myself have, a few weeks ago paid nearly £400 out between us. To add my grandmothers name to a blank space on the stone. She died in the 197?,mum couldn't afford it. Mum Died a couple of years ago. She was cremated so we had a memorial Tablet fixed to the base of the grave. Which hopefully will last for another 100 years ;D A Church Yard is a different kettle of fish altogether.
Celia