Visiting a Cemetery

[Nick29]

I wish you luck, and I hope you have success, but I followed the same path when I first got interested in my family history, and I thought it would be so easy, because all my ancestors on my maternal grandmother's side came from the same small village in Suffolk.  So, off I went, camera and notebook in hand, expecting to see the generations laid out before me,  and I found ONE person with my grandmother's family name, and even she wasn't quite who I thought she was.  Of course, the reason I didn't find anyone was because most of my ancestors were too poor to buy gravestones.   In the end I photographed most of the gravestones in the cemetary (it didn't take too long, because my wife took her camera too, and we shared the task), and many of them turned out to be connected with the family, even thugh I didn't know it at the time. 

What I would suggest is to take photos at maximum resolution (if it's a digital camera) and from different angles if the text looks hard to read, because you stand a much better chance of decyphering it 

[Siamese Girl]

Basically, you could be lucky but don't hope for too much.

Years ago I visited Hampstead Cemetery hoping to find the grave of the artist Frank Dicksee - if I'd have had a computer then and had looked at a satellite photo I would have realised how huge it was and how little chance I had of finding it and wouldn't have gone. As it was I arrived,  wandered around for 10 minutes and found it.

Carole

[coombs]

Hi

I have relatives in Suffolk and have often found gravestones and other times in other cemeteries I havent found gravestones. Some are illegible, some are readable. It can be luck of the draw.

My paternal grandfathers dad was from a small village in mid Suffolk. His dad committed suicide in 1894 and hasnt got a headstone either due to the suicide burial or lack of money yet his parents before him were still alive in 1894 and were quite well off.

Ben

[pipkim]

Wow, thanks All for you for your advice.

I can see I'll be making a few visits in the future.
I have sat at home over the last couple of years and thought I must visit and never got around to it. I don't mind if I don't find anything at first, as Odiham is only 20 miles away from where I live and have visited it a few times in the past - without knowing my ancestors had been resident there, one of those coincidences of family research.

There are also places I want to take photographs of for my records, so any trip will be useful.

Now I have just got to make the effort.

Thanks again
Pipkim

[Jebber]

If you are looking for graves in Odiham, don't just look in All Saints Churchyard, be sure to look in the Municipal Cemetery in Kings Street, I have found plenty of my ancestors in both.

Jebber

[coombs]

Hi

Visiting cemeteries can really bring your ancestors to life. It did for me. 4 of my London ancestors who died in the 1880s are buried in public graves in the same cemetery namely the St Pnacras & Islington Cemetery and it all came to life.

Ben

[Rossdal3]

I wish you the best of luck Pipkim, but please do manage your expectations. I came home from Australia last August and visited grave yards in Pudsey, Idle and Calverley, it took me days of looking around and I found nothing at all.  I was so sad to see such neglect, goats in the grave yard trying to keep the grass down to knee height, fences around the older part of the grave yard because the head stones were crumbling and dangerous.

I have a very kind Rootschatter friend who lives across the road from one of the cemeteries that my ancestors would be most likely buried in and so far she has only located positions for 2 of them after about 4 months. Many people were buried without headstones for a variety of reasons, mine were just too poor.

Jill

[Calverley Lad]

Even with a plan of the churchyard its still sometimes hard to find one grave. (local graveyard)
Been looking for 3 years for one, only nettles and brambles 6feet high stopping me.
In contrast found my grandfathers grave in 10 minutes. (150 mile round trip)
 Brian

[Jean McGurn]

I went to Huyton graveyard a couple of years ago to visit a relatives grave and was unable to find it although I knew exactly where it should have been.

The graveyard had been renovated and a dividing wall had been removed except for a few top stones which gave an indication on the line of separation.

 Fortunately the pathway was still in place so I could virtually identify which area my relatives were buried in. 

Some headstones still standing faced one way whilst the next line those still standing faced the opposite way, confirmed I had found the right part of the graveyard.

I was able to identify that the grave was one of three mounds from the number of visits I had made prior to leaving Liverpool in 1964. I took a long shot photo from the side so have all three mounds in view.

A letter from Knowsley Council confirmed why there was no stones left. It appeared that as the wall collapsed a lot of the graves next to the wall had their stones completely destroyed. There were a few graves that had bits of stone that still had identifying names left with them. Unfortunately not mine.

Jean