Grave Hunting

[molar]

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

[CarolBurns]

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

[kerryb]

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

[yn9man]

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

[nort]

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

[kerryb]

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

[KathMc]

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

[kerryb]

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

[SusanBuck]

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