Linda gave us a very engaging, illustrated talk about discovering our ancestor’s final resting place. She gave us a checklist of places to look and ways of investigating and then looked at each in much greater detail.
Initially Linda asked the question – Why look for gravestones in the first place? The answer was that in many cases you might find much more information on the gravestone than you would find in the burial record alone. You may find relationships to other family members (including spouses, children and grandchildren), birth and death dates, family members who died young and do not appear on a census, birthplaces, places of abode, occupations and military service. Many 18th century gravestones still exist and are legible so other relatives may be given on the stone, including family members left behind and details of remarriages. Often there may be family plots in a churchyard so other relatives may be buried nearby, including those you didn’t even know about! The place of birth may be given, possibly miles from where they lived or died, and this would provide another avenue of research. Occupations or death through an accident could allow you to follow up this information in a local newspaper. Sometimes a gravestone acts as a memorial and the person is buried elsewhere or died elsewhere, possibly abroad if involved in a military conflict. By just looking at the burial record, you could have missed so much more information.
On the downside, the grave may no longer exist, the cemetery may be long gone or the gravestone unreadable but it is well worth looking for our ancestor’s last resting place, if we know where to look. They may be buried where they lived or where the family lived or even buried with extended family – often an elderly parent will live with one of their children. Sometimes two or three generations may be buried in the same grave. Records are available to track down their final resting place and these include death certificates, probate records, wills or a coroner’s report. A local newspaper may give details of funeral arrangements and your family may have mass or prayer cards.
Cemeteries can exist as municipal cemeteries or graveyards around churches. They may also be memorial parks, military cemeteries or a burial ground associated with residential homes, prisons, hospitals or asylums. Locating a cemetery may involve looking at churches/chapels around a village or town and this may be helped by church websites, old OS maps, county histories, family history societies and local archives. You can search GENUKI for cemeteries, which has links to old maps and this may be a useful starting point. Many graveyards have already been indexed by the church itself, local family history societies or County archives. There are many websites with photographs of gravestones including ‘Find a grave’, ‘Billion graves’ ‘Deceased online’ or ‘Interment’ – some require a subscription and coverage varies across the world. Military graves should be available on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website and locally for Kent, KAS has recorded gravestones and memorials in churches.
When visiting a graveyard, there are a few sensible rules to follow, which include being very careful not to injure yourself, be respectful and never right a fallen stone. Gravestones must be treated with care and harsh chemicals or abrasives must not be used on them; don’t pull off ivy and only use water and wooden lollysticks to gently clean the surfaces. Digital photos of the gravestone, close-up and in its surroundings in bright sunlight produce the best records; a mirror or a torch may reflect sunlight onto the inscriptions to make them more legible. Spraying with water can make inscriptions stand out or covering a gravestone in aluminium foil (dull side outwards) and ‘pressing’ gently with a soft make-up brush may help with poorly defined words or phrases. Good advice can be accessed HERE
Linda gave a list of useful items to take with you to a graveyard when recording inscriptions and this included:
● Paper, several pencils, camera and batteries
● Mirror and torch
● Water, rags, soft brush
● Cheap aluminium foil and masking tape
● Scissors and secateurs for clearing brambles
This was a very constructive talk for anyone thinking of searching for a relative’s grave and for those with more experience, Linda gave some very useful tips and advice. Gravestones may be an under-utilised family history resource which could produce some fascinating information, not readily available elsewhere, and might point you towards unexplored areas.
Report by Lesley Smith