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Family History Documents and Artefacts => Graveyards and Gravestones => Topic started by: diggerman2 on Tuesday 19 May 09 18:29 BST (UK)
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in my local cemetery , a lot of the earlier gravestones have the letter "P" on the bottom front.
this is accompanied by a number.
the number obviously is the number of the grave (in the row) , but the letter isn't the section or the row letter .
the only thing i can come up with is possibly the grave was pre-purchased and the base stone was erected before the grave was buried in , or possibly it could mean "perpetuity".
Any ideas anybody > thanks.
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could it be 'plot' ?
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cheers Heywood - i've worked in cemeteries for nearly 20 years and i haven't thought of that :-[. could well be you know.
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I hope so... and welcome to Rootschat - sorry didn't realise that it's early days for you ;)
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at first i thought its obvious its for pauper but then of course if they were poor they wouldnt have a headstone
so i tend to think it is the stone masons mark, every stone mason has one a litttle mark on their piece of work to identify who did it,
are the gravestones around the same time era? could they be made by the same stone mason?
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Hello diggaman,
and welcome to RootsChat from me too.
There is a Christian symbol called the Chi-Rho. It looks like a P with and x through the downstroke.
see this:
http://www.rootschat.com/links/06cl/
genie
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thank you for the welcome folks :)
geniecolgan: no , its definately a "p" - altho i had a look at the link - interesting stuff.
it's sometimes quite funny , cos when i'm locating a grave for somebody , when they notice these "p's" a lot of them think it's row p on a section , and some of em take some convincing thats its not !
always wondered about it tho , as i say i've worked in cemeteries a good while and nobody in the cemeteries team seems to know what it stands for.
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Hi there
Interesting thread!
My experience of Stonemasons marks are that they are usually on the back of the stone - i.e. the opposite side to the Inscription.
The P with a number I have found usually refers to the plot number as was suggested earlier - have you chatted with any 'local' stonemasons to verify this; or is there a plan of the churchyard that could show the burial plots.
Also, do the numbers run in any kind of sequence also indicating that they were plot numbers
Just a few thoughts
Chris in 1066
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Hi Chris
thanks for your comments.
the more i think about it , the more it makes sense that it IS the plot number.
The number is always correct on it , and instead of it having the section letter , or row letter , it just has a "P".
for example - if the grave number is say "D 45C" (section D , row C , number 45) , it would have "P 45" on it.
it only applies in the old area's of the cemetery , the modern day memorials have the correct grave numbers on them .
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I know nothing about this subject, but it occurs to me that if the P stands simply for plot, why did they bother with it at all? P103 would mean exactly the same thing as just 103, if you see what I mean.
Mike
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that makes sense Mike :D
What about asking at the cemetery, diggaman?
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well i work in the cemetery and no-one seems to know.
think i'll ring our bereavement services officer tomorrow and see if he has any ideas.
can see what you mean mike , but it has to stand for SOMETHING.
obviously some system they used , but if it wasn't logged anywhere in the office's then its not gonna be easy to find out , seeing as the people that came up with the idea are probably all IN the cemetery now.
its quite frustrating really , cos i've made a lot of studies into the cemetery , and pride myself with being able to answer most questions put to me by visitors etc ....
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do the older burial registers show anything
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Could P have been an indication of that particular cemetery? After all, the masons may have been supplying stones for several different ones.
Mike
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Had a look in the burial registers and there's no reference to it.
Mike - The cemetery starts with the letter "O" , but our local authority has 3 cemeteries that date from a similar period , and i've never noticed any of this in the others. Never thought of it in that way before.
i'm really intrigued now !!!
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Which cemetery is it Diggaman?
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Its "Oxbridge Lane" Cemetery in Stockton-on-Tees.
It dates from 1871 , and the graves in question are in the "older" areas.
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This has been puzzling me too. I recently visited Goole cemetery and there are several there with the P on them, sometimes alongside the stonemason's initials. I asked a local historian but she had no idea either. I shall keep an eye on this thread.
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Could it stand for Protestant?
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Could it stand for Protestant?
Or papist?