Modern Monuments

My new Twitter pal, Chris Hill, tweets about funeral customs, modern technology in services and bereavement. Browsing around his Web site has been most informative and following his tweets is adding to my knowledge. I was quite taken with the modern mourning jewelry.

I spend most of my time working on ancient New England gravestones but as I have been working on researching more modern graves, I have been wondering about the names of some of the styles of headstones currently in use. I discovered this page which has good information some of which I summarize here.

Flush or Grass Makers are stones that are set in the ground on a level with the grass. [Photo]

Bevel Markers are angled at 6 to 8 inches higher [Photo]

I chose to write about this because I am noticing that the monument makers in the cemeteries I have visited must have favored a certain style of stone in particular years. My paternal grandparents chose the rough back to their stones and didn't opt for the raised lettering. I am trying to find out more about these later stones.

Markers, the journal of the AGS has put their back issues up [for members?] and it could be some help.

Working with Find a Grave

Although I have been a member of Find a Grave for 6 years and 7 months (they list that for you in your profile), I have not contributed many gravestones as I have been putting my photographs up at Flickr and working with this blog since June 2006. After the kindness of two or three people who have photos posted at Find a Grave, I decided today to really learn how to add my photos, information and relationship links.

I improved my profile, added a link to this blog, and uploaded my profile photo so people can contact me if they have a question or wish to have one of my photo for their collection.

Judging from the number of people who have looked at the gravestone of Capt. Samuel Fish, whose gravestone is in the Old Packer-Burrows Cemetery in Groton/West Mystic, Connecticut, both at Flickr, in my blog and attached it from my tree at Ancestry.com to their tree, I decided that my Fish ancestors are of the most important photographs to start with. Capt. Samuel Fish is the oldest gravestone in my personal collection. It is in quite good shape physically and it is very readable.

I find adding photos and information to Find a Grave quite easy except that I have to shrink down the photos in size to fit their requirements. As I put my photos up at Flickr, I found today that if I download my own photo in a smaller size, to my desktop and then upload it to Find a Grave that works nicely for me.

As I have been accessing the Fish genealogy through Genealogy.com, I decided today to buy a bound copy of it from Higginson Books. I don't know why Ancestery has not merged all their content from Genealogy.com to Ancestry.com but I wish they would.

Dead Poet Society Visits Poets Graves

One of my Flickr friends has had a cemetery adventure!

Phebe Greene Burrrows

DSC03025
Originally uploaded by midgefrazel

Second Row, Left Side [Grave #16 Photo #3035]

Thia gravestone is the reason I went in search of this private graveyard.

Phebe was someone I knew as she was a friend of my grandmother. Because of her, I listened to the family history story that a Denison woman had married a Burrows man and raised his children which made them "family" to my Denison line.

Phebe's husband William Elijah BURROWS is buried with his parents in Pocasset Cemetery in Cranston, RI as he chose to bury his wife with her family here in the Burrows Cemetery and as he lived to be 95, it looks like his name may have been added to his parents gravestone.

In my minds eye, I can see my grandmother and Phebe sitting side by side in their beach chairs, chatting endlessly while the waves pounded the nearby beach.

I'm planning to add more to this post as I have done more research.

In the News

Graveyard Rabbits: In the News [December 2009]

Article in local newspaper about a woman, a "ghost hunter", in East Bridgewater, MA leads me to another gravestone photographer. Who knew? I hope that she and I can get together and compare notes on local cemeteries. I located her on Face book and we have been exchanging a few messages.

Westerly's Villages are a Window to the Past [Boston.com] mentions the fine monuments in the River Bend Cemetery in Westerly, RI where many generations of my family are buried. It even mentions the tiny village of Bradford where my paternal grandparents lived. Since I used to go to Bradford when I was little I remember these mill houses clearly. The Bradford Dye Association is the local mill now. They dye cloth for the military. Many members of my family that mined the quarry also worked a second job in the various textile mills in Rhode Island.

That's all the news for today!

William Burrows Allen

William Burrows Allen and his wife Agnes
Originally uploaded by midgefrazel

Second Row, Left Side [Grave #15 Photo # 3024]

William Burrows ALLEN was the most recent person buried in this private cemetery. His family has not put his death year on the stone but it will read 2009.

Mr. Allen bore the name of his Burrows ancestors as he was the only child of William Elijah ALLEN and Phebe GREENE. His mother Phebe is buried beside him but his father, William Elijah BURROWS died first and he is buried with his parents in the Pocasset Cemetery in Warwick, RI. I used Find a Grave to locate that gravestone.

William Burrows ALLEN 10 (William Elijah9, Benjamin8, Benjamin7, Benjamin6, Nathan5, John4, John3, John2, Robert1) was born 5 Feb 1915 in Cranston, Rhode Island. This is the city where I grew up!

He graduated from Cranston High School [East] in Cranston, RI, attended Bowdoin College in Maine but graduated in 1939 from the University of Rhode Island with a BS in Biology [source of date: URI's alumni magazine Quadangles Fall 2009, p. 38 and his obituary] Mr. Allen held a Master's degree in geology from the University of Missouir at Columbia. He was a WWII vet and played tennis beyond his 80th birthday. [More information can be found in his obituary and on page 156-157 of the Burrows genealogy]

Mr. Allen married Agnes DROVER, who was born 27 May 1912, in St. John's, Newfoundland. She came to the United States in 1938 and lived in New Hampshire prior to her marriage. I see from her gravestone that she may have been called Ada. Agnes died in 2004.

William and Agnes were the parents of four children all of whom may still be living as they were about my age.

I remember Mr. Allen as his parents had a beach cabana near my grandparents.

He died 20 Apr 2009 [source: Obit from Tucker-Quinn Funeral Home]

The Sarcophagus

The Sarcophagus
Originally uploaded by midgefrazel

Bones of the Forefathers (Pilgrims) that were buried on the hill in Plymouth the first two winters washed down the hill in a storm in 1735 into the street.

They were placed in a metal box and set to rest in another location (Do you know where?) before being placed inside this stone sarcophagus.

William Williams

As part of my extensive Williams family, I discovered a Tombstone Tuesday post about the grave of William Williams. Great job!

Tombstone Tuesday

Elias BROWN
Originally uploaded by midgefrazel

Tombstone Tuesday, 3 Nov 2009

Elizabeth Denison Brown was a teacher. I knew I felt connected to this gravestone when I saw the name DENISON clearly on this stone! The 1880 census lists her occupation.

Elizabeth DENISON, was born and died in November. She was the daughter of Allen DENISON and Elizabeth PARKE. Lizzie married Elias BROWN on 6 Dec 1865 and had no children.

Denison Genealogy #3062 page 103-104
Elizabeth (Allen6, Robert5, Benadam4, William3, William2, George1) was born 27 Nov 1843 and died 8 Nov 1924.

Memorable Halloween

Midge at Halloween
Originally uploaded by midgefrazel

One of my favorite Halloween tales was when I dressed up in this outfit and went to my daughter's classroom party and taught my first computer lesson (yes, in this outfit). It was 1984 and the teacher who was my daughter's third grade classroom teacher just passed away this fall. Wasn't she brave to let such a creature into her classroom?

It took several days for me to wash out the orange in my hair. Blonde hair takes nicely to the stained color!