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The Common Room / Re: Visiting a Cemetery
« on: Wednesday 31 December 08 21:09 GMT (UK) »
I was given a tip by someone which really helped decipher a gravestone which was over 80 years old. When I found it, after checking with the local council for the position, the sun was shining and I couldn't read any of it. I went back at a different time of day and the sun was at a different angle, but it still didn't make sense.
My miraculous success was from lightly sprinkling the stone from above with talcum powder, so the face of the stone caught the powder but it didn't go into the carvings. It was quite an amazing thing to read it so clearly after that. No damage to the stone, no scraping, and it would all blow or wash away without trace after.
I could have been the first person in 80 years to have visited the grave and was very moved reading the words and name of my ancestor.
My miraculous success was from lightly sprinkling the stone from above with talcum powder, so the face of the stone caught the powder but it didn't go into the carvings. It was quite an amazing thing to read it so clearly after that. No damage to the stone, no scraping, and it would all blow or wash away without trace after.
I could have been the first person in 80 years to have visited the grave and was very moved reading the words and name of my ancestor.