Author Topic: Not much success with gravestones  (Read 12543 times)

Offline Les de B

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Re: Not much success with gravestones
« Reply #18 on: Monday 10 September 07 12:14 BST (UK) »
Success with gravestones? I've gone from one extreme to the other my ancestors' gravestones. Some still standing in all their glory (and granduer), some just very mundane. Others, I've found the grave site, and no headstone. One drowned, and body not recovered, so no grave whatsoever. One a stonemason - found 20 gravestones he built in the 1840's, but he hasn't got one himself. There's even one ancestor where I can't any record of his death anywhere, but have found his gravestone!

Yep, I've just about got every catergory of "success with gravestones" covered.

Les
de Belin, Swindail, Willcock, Williams, Moore, Watts, Searjeant, Watson, McCready, Reid, Spink, de Lancey, Van Cortland, and of course, Smith!

Online Roobarb

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Re: Not much success with gravestones
« Reply #19 on: Monday 10 September 07 12:24 BST (UK) »
It's reassuring to know it's not just me!
I did actually have some success yesterday, although it was a little bit of a 'cheat'. I had been in touch with a Genes Reunited member who told me where some of our common ancestors were buried. When I walked into the churchyard, lo and behold, the gravestone for several family members was the first one in there, complete with lots of details, all completely legible. So I was well satisfied with that.  :)
Bell, Salter, Street - Devon, Middlesbrough.
Lickess- North Yorkshire, Middlesbrough.
Etherington - North Yorks and Durham.
Barker- North Yorks
Crooks- Durham
Forster- North Yorks/Durham
Newsam, Pattison, Proud - North Yorks.
Timothy, Griffiths, Jones - South Wales

Offline Siamese Girl

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Re: Not much success with gravestones
« Reply #20 on: Monday 10 September 07 15:33 BST (UK) »
The gravestone of my 4x gt grandparents John Alford 1728-1794 and his wife Elizabeth are perfectly preserved in the churchyard of Kirkby Underwood in Lincs.  The magic answer to perfect preservation was good quality slate - and you can still see the scribed line that the mason made first to get the letters straight.

Carole
CHILD Glos/London, BONUS London, DIMSDALE London, HODD and TUTT Sussex,  BONNER and PATTEN Essex, BOWLER and HOLLIER Oxfordshire, HUGH Lincolnshire, LEEDOM all.

Offline Guy Etchells

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Re: Not much success with gravestones
« Reply #21 on: Monday 10 September 07 20:33 BST (UK) »
On my first attempt at Family history research I visited the Churchyard in Winkfield, where my gt 4x grtanparents were buried - Rev George Boyce and his wife Mary. Rev George was 1824.
These were there in early seventies. Not now though. And there are no MI's for this site. However I did note down the Boyces I could find at the time (and at that time I did not even know the exact relationship of George Boyce to me, just that he was an ancestor)

Bob

Try the County Record Office there may be transcripts there.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s Women's Institutes up and down the land sketched and transcribed headstones in many of the countries churchyards.
Cheers
Guy
http://anguline.co.uk/Framland/index.htm   The site that gives you facts not promises!
http://burial-inscriptions.co.uk Tombstones & Monumental Inscriptions.

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