Friday, October 14, 2011

Martha

Martha by midgefrazel
Martha, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Old Southborough Burying Ground, Southborough, Worcester, MA 
 
This marble gravestone marks the resting place of a female person named Martha. It is probably a young girl or an unmarried woman. I have encountered graves of teenagers before and they were about this size.

Sadly, baby graves are usually smaller.

The Southborough Historical Society thinks they have a list or lists(s) of the persons buried here. I have sent an email to Dave Lambert of NEHGS, a fellow gravestone lover because in his book there is a reference to this cemetery with transcriptions.

I am fairly sure that Martha's gravestone has no dates. With that in mind, she might have been an infant. What do you think?

Martha is my "real" name, so this makes me sad.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

It's sad but intimate at the same time. A "first name basis" sort of thing.

Let us know if you discover Martha's full name!

Molly said...

Hi Midge,
If we could pin down when the carver was working in this area it would help narrow down the time span of when she died. The carver's initials "J. O'C." are on the bottom left corner of the stone.I've tried to find him before but no luck. I found him listed on another stone in the burial ground as "J. O'Connor".
Molly

Anonymous said...

Hi Midge, It could be that Martha was a slave or it also could be that the stone's inscription wore off. Who can say? Just my ideas and speculation.

Anonymous said...

Hi Again Midge, I really looked at this picture under magnification and using different photo-editing tools. I think that there was a surname there on the stone at some point but it has worn off. I see what looks like an S as the first letter and maybe an a as the third letter. Could also be an h as the second letter but that is really "iffy". Sorry that I could not do better but I really worked at it. Hope your cemetery contact is of help.