RootsChat.Com
Family History Documents and Artefacts => Graveyards and Gravestones => Topic started by: Roobarb on Sunday 09 September 07 00:13 BST (UK)
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Well despite my reservations, and exercising any necessary caution, I have visited several graveyards in the search for my ancestors. So far I've had very little luck. Obviously some of the gravestones are too weathered to read and some have fallen/been pushed over. However, you would think that the law of averages would mean that I'd find a few ancestors. How common was it for burials to take place without there being some sort of marker? Most of my ancestors were poverty-stricken Ag Labs etc, :'( but surely it wasn't only the landed gentry who had gravestones! If so, I'm wasting my time!
I was very disappointed that even my gt grandparents who had been in business, had no gravestone. I know it was the correct place as the cemeteries officer gave me the layout of exactly where it was.
Have other Rootschatters been luckier?
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Hi Roobarb
Lots of people didnt have head stones, they couldn't afford them in them days. We spent hours walking around cemetery's, where are loved ones are buried.
Some only had wooden crosses that have now gone, or if there is a headstone like you say are totally unreadable. Only graves I have found are my grandparents, but I do know where one of my great grandparents are buried but no marker when I first looked, but there is now ;)
ricky
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I did find the gravestone for my gt grandparents but that was after my cousin told me where it was! And my brother and his wife found one for our 3 x gt grandparents for me! Personally - zilch! ::)
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Hi Roobarb
I wouldnt give up, as its a nice feeling when you find a loved one that you didnt know personally except on a census sheet :) Just cos there is no headstone it dont matter as long as you find the grave site
ricky
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Some of the tombstones relating to my family were fortunately recorded by a distant cousin in the late 19century, however they haven't survived . . . the church was demolished and some of the stones cleared away - including mine :'(
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I have been lucky and found a few but I walked round one churchyard one day where there should be at least 30 of my Cruse family buried and I couldn't find any of them. They were all Ag Labs and Farmers and I guess they had wooden crosses that have disappeared, either that or I was in the wrong churchyard completely! ::) ::) ::)
Kerry
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I've been totally out of luck in England. Two 3xggrandparents were buried in Old St Pancras churchyard, which of course was largely cleared away so that the railway could go through. I've been told that the cemetery for other ancestors near Hull has been totally cleared and grassed over, so nothing there to find. Have no idea where my East End watermen and lightermen were buried, and they probably were too poor to have headstones anyway. Only one I've ever found was a gguncle in a cemetery in Oxford, and the wooden memorial had no writing left and was rotting away!! :( :'(
But a kind Rootschatter found me a family grave in Co. Dublin!
Here in Oz we are much better off. Have family graves in very good order in the local cemetery, which I have tended. And found a ggrandfather's grave "outback" in a very remote spot, all by itself, with the monument and inscription in excellent order, despite not having been tended since his death in 1928!
MarieC
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I havnt searched many churchyards for my own ancestors but I have done quite a few searches locally for other people and I cant say I have been hugely successful. Mostly the stones are very weathered and only a few letters if any are clear enough to read so usually its quite disheartening but on the other hand when I do actually have a success it makes all the dissapointment worth while. I do think its important to look at as many as we can and record them when possible though because they are disappearing very fast.
Linda.
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A few of Mine or Buried In Toxteth Park Cem..I have the Numbers of the Graves But Sadly there are No Headstones.. :-[The only one i have is the One of My Nan Grandad and Dad who are Buried in the Same Plot
I when it comes to My ancesters they where Just too Poor to have a Headstone Layed..
Regards
Iria
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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 ;D
Celia
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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 :o
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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. :)
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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
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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