This lovely and sturdy four sided granite monument for the CHAMPLIN family tells us much about them. It also doesn't tell us the whole story. But, then, isn't that the fun of investigated gravestones as part of genealogy?
Let's look for a moment at what we know. This gravestone is located in Section 23 of River Bend Cemetery in Westerly, Rhode Island. The persons buried here are Christians and somebody is a veteran. This is clear from the clues on the gravestone.
It also looks as if they spelled their name CHAMPLIN consistently, not Champlain or Chapin.
It is possible that this gravestone was erected before some of the people passed away since one side has a missing death date.
I am thinking that the "owners" of the gravestone, that is the ones who paid for it, or where children or grandchildren who placed it here, inscribed their direct line ancestors on the front side where the family surname is carved. I look for this in this style of gravestone to give another piece of evidence about how the family is connected together.
This gravestone faces sideways (not toward the water) like the gravestone nearby which is my ancestor. It is on a slight hill. I noticed this when I walked around it before taking the photos. See the post for one side I have already blogged about)
With this gravestone, I needed both a photograph of the whole monument (to get the cross) and a closeup to try to read the part that is shaded by the top of the monument "roof". I have since purchased a digital voice recorder to record my thoughts and to read aloud the names and dates as I am going along photographing. I find transcribing at the gravesite annoyingly slow.
I took photos of this gravestone at a previous visit because I was trying to connect this family to my own. Remember these are my aunt's ancestors.
Going to my cemetery collection to see those previous photos...
1 comment:
It's a beautiful stone. How many names were inscribed on it?
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