Do you get really excited?

[Davedrave]

I have had a few moments during my research which have made me almost jump for joy! I've found very useful things which have unlocked puzzles, but I was wondering what had been my most exciting find to date.

I think it is definitely the "discovery" of old family headstones in the place where my father's line was settled for generations. I can't lay claim to discovering them in fact. They were referred to in work already done by relatives. In fact, at that time I was interested in old gravestones rather than long-gone relatives. But reading of the age of the headstones, I thought they'd be worth a look.

I drove to the hamlet and found the church, a bit disappointing, because though its nice enough, it is a later C19th re-build. And no sign of a headstone as old as the early C19th. I was about to leave when I spotted an old slate largely hidden in the turf, then I found several more, but none to my family. Searching further, I spotted some suspicious flattish patches under a huge cedar tree. After clearing masses if cedar needles I uncovered seven superb slates, one of which dates from 1721. Being made from Leicestershire's excellent Swithland slate, they are still pristine and carry superb calligraphy. One of them reveals that two daughters died of consumption, another that a widowed sister was buried with her brother when she died, aged 99 in 1835.

Since seeing the headstones I have found out a great deal about this part of the family tree and I probably wouldn't have pursued my research without this find.

[C_W]

When I find old family headstones it often fills me with sadness as well.
When you read of the little children who died, I think of the pain their parents must have felt. I have found the grave of one ancestor who's  work in St Georges Chapel can be seen today, but his grave was broken in half and covered in ivy (had it not been pointed out to me I would never have found it). Then there others I have found that were deliberately vandalised one night and pushed over by some very stupid bored youths.

[Andrew Tarr]

.... Then there others I have found that were deliberately vandalised one night and pushed over by some very stupid bored youths.

Quite a few gravestones are 'pushed over' by a local authority which has decided that they are a hazard under all-pervasive H&S rules.

[jaybelnz]

Yes Davedrave - it is very exciting making finds like that. If we get lucky there is so much information   on a headstone, and even luckier if we find several in one location.

I had a similar experience in Scotland when I visited a cemetery in Ayrshire to visit the grave of my great grandparents.  I had previously discovered a small photograph of the grave amongst my grandmothers photos in NZ a few years earlier, and while in Scotland, wanted to visit the cemetery in a little coal mining village.  While walking around looking for the grave, I noticed many more of my family names, both maternal and paternal!  I didn't know who they were, but knew they must have been related somehow!  (Have since been able to find where they fitted). My grandparents were both born in that village, and so were my great grandparents, so that wasn't really surprising, but it wasn't something I'd expected, or even thought of.  That was exciting! 3 or 4 generations!

I walked all around with my notebook, jotting down all the names and details!  Took me ages! After a good few hours writing them all in my notebook, I remembered I had my camera with me, so decided to go back the next day and take photos of them all.  I was there for the whole day!  The weather was great as well, and it was all in all a great find, exciting - and quite emotional!

I also have a grave to visit in Australia later on this year, one that was found for me in Australia by another Rootschatter.   It's the grave of a relative who was an Archdeacon in the Anglican Church in Melbourne.  His wife and daughter are also in the grave.  Such a shame though, it's quite a prominent monument, but in an awful condition, all there, but in several pieces, which is very sad.  This couple had 8 children, but only one who survived, and that's the daughter who's in the same grave.

The other ones I have, are all local, I  knew where they were too, as they are those of my parents, their parents, and other relatives from both families, in two different locations.  It used to be a tradition of my grandparents to visit the cemetery on Sunday's after church, and as a child when staying with them, I was the water girl, collecting water in the watering can from a nearby tap and watering the little gardens that my Nan had made in the big family plot!

So yes, definitely a degree of sadness with young deaths, and vandalism,  but moments too of joy to treasure!

Jeanne

[coombs]

It is annoying when H&S jobsworths decide to push over centuries old gravestones, tamper with our history just to keep up with the pansies who like to complain about the slightest thing.

When I visit a church of a village where ancestors lived I tend to look at every name on every headstone that is legible and it can produce wonders. Many surnames I see I think "Ah yes I have come across them in my travels".

[Davedrave]

It is good to hear that others have had some fortunate finds in graveyards etc. I agree that it is sometimes sad though in my case, the headstones are of people who'd mostly led pretty full lives. The saddest thing in my earlier family history was what I learnt of reading newspaper reports of the death of my 3x great grandfather's grandson, aged 6, whose skull was crushed, in a farm accident in 1846. One can only imagine the anguish as someone galloped to the neighbouring town to fetch the surgeon.
There is also the case of the lady who lived to be 99. Her husband appears to have died before her first and only child was born and then the child died about a year later. She seems to have returned to her home village shortly afterwards and was eventually buried in her brother's grave.

I hate to see toppled headstones and agree that H and S often seems over the top. In the case of my half-buried headstones, they were certainly like that by the late C19th and I think they were possibly laid flat to protect them during the rebuilding of the church.

[Andrew Tarr]

And of course as a rule only families prepared to spend on a headstone will do so.  I have found very few memorials to any of my ancestors, but my grandfather has one, carved by his son (my father) in Prestbury churchyard, Gloucestershire.  I guess that is one way to do it on the cheap ... 

[coombs]

Dates on gravestones can lead straight to a birth or death cert if the event happened after 1837. (Providing it was not one of the 15% or so of non registered births before 1875). In March 1844 my ancestor Margaret Titshall died in rural Suffolk and that is given on her headstone. I have not ordered the cert and I found out her death in 2004. One of her sons who is my direct ancestor married in July 1845, over a year after his mums death.

They are buried in a lovely quiet churchyard in mid Suffolk.

Sometimes DOBs are given on headstones for pre July 1837 births. Maybe noted in a family bible.

[Guy Etchells]

.... Then there others I have found that were deliberately vandalised one night and pushed over by some very stupid bored youths.

Quite a few gravestones are 'pushed over' by a local authority which has decided that they are a hazard under all-pervasive H&S rules.

If they are for you family make a claim against the local authority which had them pushed over, this was deemed illegal by the courts.
The local authority is responsible for re-instating any they have vandalised in this way.

The correct procedure is for them to make the memorial safe by use of a temporary support.

Cheers
Guy

Cheers
Guy