The research into our family’s genealogy has taken me on a ride with surprising twists and turns. Part of the process is finding places and dates where ancestors were born and died.
Which led me to graves and gravestones.
Grave of my great X 6 grandfather, Stephen R. Bradley and great X 5 grandfather William Czar Bradly in Westminster, Vermont
Find A Grave is a wonderful resource and where I found this picture. To put it in perspective, Stephen R. Bradley, a patriot in the Revolutionary War and Senator from Vermont, was born in 1754 and died in 1830.
Two of my children think this is so very interesting and important. I was mildly interested when I was younger. Now I’m profoundly moved by this knowledge.
I have gone back to the 1600’s on the maternal side of my family here in the US, and to 1851 on my paternal side.
So how does this fit into my summer cemetery tour? We can read about our ancestors, travel or search documents, but while important, that is dry information.
But not cemeteries.
Gravestones and what lies beneath them, are tangible connections to our past. This summer, when I stand at the Bradley family vault in Vermont, I will be reminded that the bones interred here are the people whose DNA I share, whose stories are past down through our generations. Who, if a moment in history was changed centuries ago, would not have had a connection to me, to my children, to my grandchildren. We would not have existed.
I am awed by the gravestones of my ancestors and what they represent.
Hence, I am looking forward to my cemetery tour this summer.
saneteachers 
This sounds very interesting to me. Our ancestors deserve to be remembered and memorialized with stories. I hope someone will remember me when I’m gone. It’s part of the reason I write.
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Thank you. One of the reasons that I write is that I want my children to remember family stories. When my parents died I could have kicked myself for not asking them more questions.
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My mother left a memoir of her childhood, for which I’m grateful. I know very little about my dad’s side of the family. He didn’t talk much about it. I think maybe he had an unhappy childhood.
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I’m working on a memoir now. Trying to maintain some distance is the challenge.
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Sounds like this should be very interesting and fun. Hope you will post pictures of interesting things you find!
As a horror writing is my hobby, I have spent a lot of time in cemeteries for the atmosphere. (My childhood home was across the street from a 1700s-era cemetery; maybe that is also part of it.) They can be beautiful and fascinating places.
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I totally agree. But also I think they bring poignant memories of what occurred as well as thoughts of what was or could have been.
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Oh, yes; absolutely.
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Great idea, I’d do the same but my ancestors are buried in the most far-flung places I probably won’t ever get a chance to visit. Cemeteries are only morbid in horror films, in some places they’re full of families with kids out for Sunday walks, like in Moscow 🙂
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Maybe you could visit one or two. Far-flung sounds interesting
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Just as an example, I discovered a few years ago that my father’s mother is buried in Bogotà – hadn’t a clue, apparently she remarried a Swiss doctor who got the itch to move there. She left her four children behind in Europe! Can’t imagine following that one up, nor most of the others on all continents except Oceania 🙂
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Wow. What interesting stories, though.
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Yes, but I should have got interested years ago before life started happening and getting in the way 🙂
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I have always thought there is something almost sacred about cemeteries. There’s so much history there, and they’re such a visible reminder of the people who have come before us.
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You’ve stated it perfectly.
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When I was in campus a friend taught me to drive in the local cemetery, every so often we used to take a walk through the tombstones and google anyone interesting. I actually ended up finding a cousin that passed away before I was born, it was so eerie.
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That was a real find! I find tombstones so interesting. Such history.
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My love has some interest in cemeteries. Part of it is for the peace and tranquility and beauty the places often have. And the sense of history one can glean from them.
There’s also that one of my love’s favorite hobbies is letterboxing. This is the planting of boxes in secret locations; the boxes contain rubber stamps and a logbook. The letterboxer also has a stamp and a logbook, and follows clues to locate something and trade stamps in books. (It’s much like geocaching, though is an older hobby.) Cemeteries are a great spot for letterboxes, as they’re often in attractive or interesting places and will have some link to the history of a town, which is often the theme for a stamp or a box’s clues.
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What a great idea! I do rubber stamping and make my own cards. So interesting!
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