Question about the year on a gravestone

[LWLen]

Hi folks,

I recently found a grave listed in an MI booklet which I think belongs to a family line that I am researching but I'm a little unsure about something. Although it's about a specific grave/location I think it belongs here rather than the Lanarkshire board since it's more about the practice of inscribing graves. Forgive my ignorance if this is an easy question as I've not done too much research in this particular area of family history research before.

In a booklet of MI for Cambuslang, I found this inscription:
"This is the burying place of Andrew Arbuckle and Mary Shaw, his wife, and their family 1844"

I am assuming that these are the people I am researching since both names match exactly, the location is the same and the time period is right. However, neither of the people listed died until after 1844. I'm just wondering what this date implies - I am assuming it's not one of their parents since I'd have expected them to be named; it could be that perhaps a child died then, although I've not found any evidence of it in the records.

Just wondering if this sort of thing is common? I am 99.9% certain these are my people but I'm just curious about the origin of the date and whether this sort of thing is something that other people are familiar with?

Thanks,
Alan

[Chris in 1066Land]

Hi Alan

I think your first task is to establish if that date is correct - after all you are working from a transcription of the stone.

Try to see the stone for yourself or get someone to take a picture of it for you and confirm that the date is correct - what information is in the burial register, does it list any of the Arbuckle family

Thats the way I would tackle it

Chris in 1066

[LWLen]

Hi Chris,

Thank you so much for your reply. By coincidence I happened to be in that part of the world today so I went and checked it out and the date is definitely 1844.

I've checked the death/burial records from the Scotlands People to no avail, but I think there is still investigation to be done there as I have not yet ruled out the possibility of it being the result of a child's death (there seems to have been a lot of them).

On the other hand I still intend to investigate Mary's death further. The reason I said it was after 1844 is that I've found a few other people who have an exact date in 1849 in their family trees, however there doesn't appear to be any source for this. I know that she definitely died between the 1841 and 1851 censuses, but I can't find a death record in her name for any time between those dates at all (1849 or otherwise). I'm still trying to find the source of that. The investigation continues!

Thanks again for your response, I appreciate all help I can get.

Regards
Alan

[wilcoxon]

There`s always the chance that whoever supplied the information to the stonemason got it wrong, it could have been erected years after the burials.
I have one that has got two wrong ages on it, and the name of a mans  wife who isn`t even buried there with him.

[Redroger]

Perhaps this is way out, but I wonder whether it could be a date that the plot was purchased or reserved? I know little of Scottish memorials but the inscription seems a little strange if it refers to a burial or series of burials.

[Chris in 1066Land]

Hi

In my experience of transcribing tombstones (and I have done a few thousand) and if it is a family vault, somewhere and usually on the surround it will say something like "Arbuckle Family Vault" and "Opened 1844 - Closed 1880"

I think it is more on the above lines than just a a single or double grave

Chris in 1066

[liverbird09]

We visited my OH's ancestors churchyard in Chryston Cadder Lanarkshire and found a gravestone that bore the family names but we also were dumbfounded by the date as it didn't relate. I am asking all the same questions.
Here is the gravestone, no further inscriptions at all.

[LWLen]

This is great, thank you all for your responses. Not sure if I'm closer to the truth or not, but it's certainly given me a lot to think about and hopefully investigate! It's also made me more determined to track down that elusive date of death... somehow.

Glad to know I'm not the only one either!

Thanks again.