Not much success with gravestones

[celia]

Hi Roobarb
i cant really comment on grave yard headstone because we don't have many where i live. I can however say that just because you cant see a grave stone from where you standing doesn't mean there isn't one.In our local council cemetery a lovely husband and wife team.(whom i met yesterday in the cemetery) Have for  the last four years been uncovering or de-Grassing as i call it. hundreds Headstones for monumental inscriptions,that had Fallen years ago and dissapeared from sight. There first books were published this year.More will be available next year i was told.They de-grass them turn them over if they fell  face down.Hubby then cuts the the grass around the stone brushed the dirt of takes a photo. While his wife writes a description of the stone and other things They have for there use, a grave map so they know exactly where the gravestones are.The map shows if there was a gravestone.
The one that was uncovered yesterday was old,the  inscription was as it was the day it was made ,protected from the elements..So do not despair be it graveyard or council cemetery.Grave maps are used by the grave diggers and other workers of the cemetery.As far as i know are not freely available to the public,but they can be obtained I have looked for 4 graves this week i know the plot but there are no stones and they are not even old. But they might be underground if i can find the exact place.I sometimes take a long knitting needle with me and stick in the ground

Celia

[Jayson]

In the old churchyard in Wybunbury in Cheshire one has the opportunity to peer (not that one would want to of course!) inside some of the old brick vaults as the area has suffered from subsidence. Jayson

[Comosus]

I haven't been able to find any at all, and I doubt I ever will.  One great grandfather died in 1965, but I'm told there's no gravestone.  Many other great grandparents, and 3 grandparents were cremated (one still alive).  Once I go back to GG Grandparents they just get even poorer - even less of a chance.  I do have one side that had a boat building business, but the church any of them would have been buried at was demolished to make way for a ring road, and any money there was all went to the second wife rather than to GG Grandfather's children

I'm off to look around a couple of graveyards next month, but I'm realistic in expecting to find nothing at all, because they really were poor: Living in back to back terraced housing that was demolished in slum clearances.

Andrew

[MarieC]

One can at least look for burial records, I suppose?  A London researcher has found for me, at the LMA, the burial records of the ones buried in Old St Pancras churchyard.  This had two advantages:

1.  It confirmed that they are buried there (I wasn't sure);
2.  It gave me the approx. year of birth of ggggrandfather, which I didn't have (because the burial records include age at death).

If you can't find gravestones, this is better than nothing!

Reminds me.  I must ask the researcher what are the chances of finding burial records for my poor East Enders.

MarieC

[deeiluka]

I've been very fortunate in having some friends I have made online hunt for gravestones in English cemeteries for me. Although most of my ancestors were ag. labs and shoe makers, some gravestones have been discovered, and I have been sent some great photographs of them. Usually I have received a photograph of the Church as well, and I am very grateful to these kind people who do acts of genealogical kindness.

I hope I help the wheel keep revolving by returning the favour to others.

......dee

[linmey]

I remember when I was planning to visit the `family` village in Bedfordshire I had a clear picture in my mind of neat little rows of gravestones, all clearly bearing the Reynolds name and giving me heaps of extra information. Never really crossed my mind it would be any different! WRONG!! Never found a single solitary stone!!

Lets just say I am much more realistic these days!! Its still enormous fun looking though and helping other people with their search is very rewarding.

Linda.

[kerryb]

One can at least look for burial records, I suppose?  A London researcher has found for me, at the LMA, the burial records of the ones buried in Old St Pancras churchyard.  This had two advantages:

1.  It confirmed that they are buried there (I wasn't sure);
2.  It gave me the approx. year of birth of ggggrandfather, which I didn't have (because the burial records include age at death).

If you can't find gravestones, this is better than nothing!
MarieC

I agree with Marie, burial records to me, are quite important, it is that last bit of necessary information about an ancestor and I don't think things are tidy until I can put a burial to each of them.  In fact I think it is becoming a bit of an obsession.

Kerry

[Guy Etchells]

Graves used to be marked with a mound, but over the years these mounds have been levelled. They were then marked with wooden crosses, some still survive but most don't. Stone and iron were chosen for longevity but eventually these too will surrender to the march of time.
Cheers
Guy

[stonechat]

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