#52 ANCESTORS WEEK 17 - CEMETERY

This week’s prompt is cemetery. Our Co-Ordinator wrote the following….going to a cemetery is one of my favourite things to do. Cemetery visiting has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. When I was little, we would take a day trip to where different relatives were buried; sometimes, we'd even have a little picnic there. (It wasn't until I was older that I realised that not everyone did that!)

Do you have a favourite tombstone of one of your ancestors? Maybe you could share how you found where an ancestor is buried or a clue that you got from a tombstone or cemetery records.

Cemetery

I can’t ever remember visiting a cemetery when I was young.

I guess I was a deprived child! 

My experience of cemeteries when I grew up, were of places of sadness. I went there to bury a loved one. I didn’t realised until much later that there is a wealth of information to be found in them. 

My Family History journey began later in my life once I was retired. It was then that I felt this great need to know about my ancestors. 

It wasn’t until two years ago that I went on my first cemetery visit, without attending a funeral first. 

I was studying a Diploma of Family History with the Tasmanian University. My husband and I were going on a holiday to see sisters in a different state. I checked my research and low and behold… some of the towns we were travelling through had ancestors buried in them. 

So with my trusty list we stopped on the way and had our first Cemetery Discovery Experience. The first one proved to be a disappointment as the ancestor I was looking for, either never had a headstone or it was long gone.  

The next town cemetery took some finding. But we eventually succeeded and I took photos of four of the headstones we discovered. These were not of anyone I had as yet researched, but were collateral relatives in a line that is on my back burner for now. But when their time comes I will have photos of their graves, if nothing else! 

After the above trip I created a database of “Possible Cemeteries to visit.” As I research and find death certificates, I now add the burial place to my database. So now when travelling I can do a search by town and if I have someone buried there, we can have a Cemetery Experience.