Hello - I like old cemeteries

It’s interesting to take down names and look them up later. I have met some of the most fascinating people I know in cemeteries.

When I’m traveling , I’ll often visit old graveyards.

I love Find-A-Grave and put some family on it

I've used it hundreds of times. There are many on-line sites from cemeteries around the world. Of course, the greatest collection of genealogical information are the records of the Mormon Church. You have to have special permission to access those though.

We got to visit that library. I was a librarian

We got to visit that library. I was a librarian

I use Family Search, which is free, but I also log in to my local public library and access some gen. sites for free. I'm in Ohio. I like Find a Grave, too.

although I haven't been to one in years. I especially like the ones that have a lot of statues and other decorations on the tombs. There are old graves around here that have headstones written in French or Spanish. Those graves date back into the 1700s.

One thing you notice in those older cemeteries is how many children's graves there are. Diseases like flu and polio and smallpox killed a lot of them. A lot of women died young, too, back then. Many died from childbirth. And that's what too many people in this country want to go back to.

The one grave that we always visited was "Little Lulu Cooper," an only child who died young in the 1800s and is buried between her parents.

My grandmother also took me to see her "family plot" where her own grandmother's children who died young are buried. Her grandmother gave birth to 14 children, but only six lived to grow up, all boys. And the eldest was my grandmother's father. The saddest ones were Robert and Leroy who were twins, they shared the same stone.

My grandmother's mother died young so she spent a lot of time with her paternal grandmother and her "job" was trimming the grass in that cemetery. My grandmother also took me to the cemetery to practice driving... I think she just wanted to check on things there.

and we have learned a lot by spending time in cemetaries. We found out who my great grandfather was, for instance, by asking for help in the office of the cemetary my grandfather was buried in. The gentleman working there went up into an attic and brought down a very dusty old book containing documents. He found my grandfathere's death certificate which included his father'e name. This was the first real proof we had.

We thanked him and asked if we could pay him for his time and effort. He said my family paid for that when my grandfather was buried. He was buried in 1957.

way to help you.

Winifried Scott and George Armstrong Custer among many military greats. Here in nearby Fort Huachuca's
Bonny Blink Cemetary are many old Apache scouts' graves and some of young children dead from disease.
My dad's grave is there as well. A beautiful spot with large oaks.
I also liked the one in the old ghost town of White Oaks, New Mexico, with graves from some of the
Lincoln County War folks. One is a deputy who was shot by Billy the Kid when he escaped from the jail
in Lincoln. My mom loved this place with it's No Scum Allowed saloon where, if the bartender isn't there,
you just help yourself and leave the money on the bar. Her ashes are in the hills overlooking the ghost town.

love to visit churchyards when we travel, particularly in England. The earliest gravesite we've bagged was mid-16th century, which is unusual since usually they don't survive - this one was a small above-ground entombment which had part of a tree growing through it.

Skulls and skull/crossbones relief carvings were common in older headstones.

But the most instructive I ever saw was visiting relations at the local veterans cemetery where we go every year. This time I ran across a small headstone that said "Whatever you want to do, do it now" - I've never forgotten that vet for his wisdom beyond the grave.

Oldest church entombment was an unnamed knight in a late viking-era tomb in a cathedral in England - it was in the back of the enormous church all by himself and I stood by there for along time, looking into the startled eyes that seems to typify Viking/anglo-saxon carving wondering who this brave individual was, buried with his shield and sword a thousand years ago but now forgotten.

of children - sometimes all of the same surname and died in succession. In really old cemeteries you can trace the progression of various plagues that swept through the town by the dates on especially these little stones.

Most eerie cemetery was outside Alice Springs in Australia - it was desert dusty and had funerary details I'd not seem before. Many of the graves were very humble, some with a small wooden cross where someone had hand-carved just a name. There was a little area that was just children - some didn't even have names. It was silent and I'd been camping in the outback for a while by then - I swear I could hear the spirits whispering on the wind.

for two large cemeteries in Upstate New York. As such, I had free reign over all the family crypts (keys included), all records and gravesites - which dated back to the late 18th century - and yes, I enjoyed it thoroughly. I'd do genealogical research for people who requested information from all over the world. I met quite a few amazing people and was more than happy to help all who requested it.

It got to be too much for me as I grew older, and grandchildren entered the picture. It was a voluntary position, and through the association that ran the cemeteries it wasn't difficult to find someone else from within who volunteered their time to the endeavor.

My favorite headstones were the ones crafted from zinc. They still look as new as they did the day they were first placed there, some dating back to the late 1800s. They were erroneously sold as "white bronze" but were made of cast zinc, and many were sold in the Northeast. They're rather rare outside of the New England states.

Due to acid rain (people from Midwestern and New England states will know what I'm talking about) many headstones made of sandstone and softer minerals are impossible to read anymore. Even some marble and granite headstones sustained a lot of damage from the smoke from Midwestern factories mixing with rainwater to form a dilute sulfuric acid. It almost killed hundreds of Adirondack Mountain lakes (and the fish within). A bad time in our country's history.

Yeah, I could go on all day with stories, but the answer to your question is, YES!

Old granite headstones worn almost smooth from being so close the ocean and hundreds of years of weather. The oldest I ever found was early 1600s. Used to walk the dogs over there all the time. Allowed and encouraged by our town. Clean up after yourself and others was the rule.

https://www.npr.org › 2022 › 10 › 25 › 1131279310 › finding-and-baking-tombstone-recipes-has-become-a-hobby-for-rosie-grant

Finding and baking tombstone recipes has become a hobby for Rosie Grant ...

Oct 25, 2022 A year ago, Rosie Grant discovered a recipe for spritz cookies on a gravestone in New York. So she did as any baker would - she made them. And they were heavenly. Since then, finding and...

Gravestone Recipes Baked by Rosie Grant

https://m.

I never knew about recipes on gravestones, nice to learn something new!

Some of them dating from the 1600's, many of them unreadable.

And if you find yourself in Paris, the massive Pere Lachaise is a must-see. Lots of notable folks planted there, besides Jim Morrison.

Of the dozens I took, this one, with my grand-daughter Sofia, has just the right amount of everything:

I'm originally from Tennessee and there are some unusual cemeteries in the state. There's one area, the Cumberland Plateau, that has unusual cemeteries consisting of tent graves. I used to love walking around those graveyards and reading the headstones:

https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/tennessee/comb-graves-tn/

Thanks for posting that. I've seen the tent graves down south, but never knew the official name for them.

I try to learn something new each day, and tent graves are today's nugget of learning.

some people think I'm weird but I don't care. I'm a history buff and find old cemeteries so interesting!

One Million Dubliners
Documentary
Every plot has a story…

Glasnevin Cemetery is the final resting place of 1.5 million souls; it is Ireland’s national necropolis. ONE MILLION DUBLINERS reveals the often unspoken stories of ritual, loss, love, redemption, emotion, history – and the business of death.
​
But this is really a film about life: the Saint Valentine’s Day rush in the florists; the American visitors eagerly searching for Irish ancestors; lost and longed for love; discovery and bereavement; earthy gravediggers and musicians in celebration. Above all, it’s the story of an immensely engaging Tour Guide shepherding his charges – and us – through the headstones and monuments, through opinions and beliefs. Filled with the familiar and the fascinating, this is a documentary that offers a glimpse into the unknown, into a world we will all come to share. Often humorous, always affecting, ONE MILLION DUBLINERS explores life, death and the afterlife, and ends in a way that will stay with you forever. Even in a cemetery you never quite get used to death.

https://www.undergroundfilms.ie/onemilliondubliners