Showing posts with label Bridgewater Cemeteries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bridgewater Cemeteries. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Tombstone Tuesday: Gravestone Maven
Midge Frazel at the Hillside Cemetery in Bridgewater, MA on 7/4/2010.
Monday, July 05, 2010
Teaching Cemetery Work
I love teaching others to use technology and to do "cemetery work". This is my friend Ragen, who is an educator and is the most successful student I have ever had. Ragen is what you call "a quick study". We used to team teach students in a junior high when we called it "Learning to Use the Computer"
Last July 4th we went to the oldest cemetery in Bridgewater where I have ancestors buried. Despite the noisy parade, we managed to take a lot of photos and have fun. This link is my friend Ragen sitting on the ground to read the gravestone of Thomas PERKINS.
She went in search of her own ancestors after only one lesson and was rewarded with the gravestone of her immigrant ancestor. Behind his gravestone, placed by descendants, was his original gravestone. It was a carved fieldstone. I was so excited for her! Good thing, I taught her to look all around the stone. I was yelling over the noise of the bands.
Today, we went to a small 19th century cemetery near my home. Since it was as silent as the dead, I could spend more time teaching her what to look for. She is going to a family reunion and is planning a trip back to the location where her ancestors lived.
The huge yellow bag she is carrying is to help her keep her cemetery "stuff" organized.
I have been thinking about the luncheon that I am helping with at NERGC and what I am going to prepare as a handout for the people who sit at my table.
Last July 4th we went to the oldest cemetery in Bridgewater where I have ancestors buried. Despite the noisy parade, we managed to take a lot of photos and have fun. This link is my friend Ragen sitting on the ground to read the gravestone of Thomas PERKINS.
She went in search of her own ancestors after only one lesson and was rewarded with the gravestone of her immigrant ancestor. Behind his gravestone, placed by descendants, was his original gravestone. It was a carved fieldstone. I was so excited for her! Good thing, I taught her to look all around the stone. I was yelling over the noise of the bands.
Today, we went to a small 19th century cemetery near my home. Since it was as silent as the dead, I could spend more time teaching her what to look for. She is going to a family reunion and is planning a trip back to the location where her ancestors lived.
The huge yellow bag she is carrying is to help her keep her cemetery "stuff" organized.
I have been thinking about the luncheon that I am helping with at NERGC and what I am going to prepare as a handout for the people who sit at my table.
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Conant St. Cemetery [1829]
Since last August, when I found out I was a PERKINS descendant of Abraham PERKINS [of Hampton, NH] through his son David PERKINS who married Elizabeth BROWN and moved to Bridgewater, MA, I have been on a cemetery quest to locate and photograph as many gravestones as I can of the Bridgewater branch of this family.
It is not a simple task and it requires the help of many other researchers. One who grew up here and still lives in Massachusetts and three or four others who live many states away. We are forming a 21st century collaborative team to work on this family. It is expected to take many more months of work. This is the lifeblood of the family historian!
One researcher named Ed Perkins, is compiling a book to be published, so we are all being very careful to document our work. I am insisting upon quality data and I am pleased to be getting it!
As it turns out, Ed's branch is the hardest to document even with the wonderful Vital Records of Bridgewater to 1850 available to me via my research membership at NEHGS. Ed's tree branch has a split in it and we are not able to prove who was the first wife of Nathan PERKINS (1710-1780)! Could it be a woman named Deborah?
Nathan married second, Sarah HARLOW , who was the widow of Nathan PRATT. This is a recorded event in the vital records. But, who was the first wife?
1752/PERKINS/Nathan and Sarah Pratt, April 2, 1752, Marriage/Bridgewater
We know from Mitchell's History of Bridgewater, that there were two children, Charles and Deborah from Nathan's first marriage. Ed Perkins, is descended from Charles (b. 1737). Since Nathan and Sarah didn't marry until 1752, these are clearly NOT their children together.
Charles's sister Deborah Perkins married John Conant and is buried in the Conant Cemetery on Conant St. in Bridgewater. I ventured out this morning to investigate this cemetery and found it to be delightfully well kept and easy to photograph.
It is not a simple task and it requires the help of many other researchers. One who grew up here and still lives in Massachusetts and three or four others who live many states away. We are forming a 21st century collaborative team to work on this family. It is expected to take many more months of work. This is the lifeblood of the family historian!
One researcher named Ed Perkins, is compiling a book to be published, so we are all being very careful to document our work. I am insisting upon quality data and I am pleased to be getting it!
As it turns out, Ed's branch is the hardest to document even with the wonderful Vital Records of Bridgewater to 1850 available to me via my research membership at NEHGS. Ed's tree branch has a split in it and we are not able to prove who was the first wife of Nathan PERKINS (1710-1780)! Could it be a woman named Deborah?
Nathan married second, Sarah HARLOW , who was the widow of Nathan PRATT. This is a recorded event in the vital records. But, who was the first wife?
1752/PERKINS/Nathan and Sarah Pratt, April 2, 1752, Marriage/Bridgewater
We know from Mitchell's History of Bridgewater, that there were two children, Charles and Deborah from Nathan's first marriage. Ed Perkins, is descended from Charles (b. 1737). Since Nathan and Sarah didn't marry until 1752, these are clearly NOT their children together.
Charles's sister Deborah Perkins married John Conant and is buried in the Conant Cemetery on Conant St. in Bridgewater. I ventured out this morning to investigate this cemetery and found it to be delightfully well kept and easy to photograph.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Williams LATHAM
Carnival of Genealogy 71st ed. "Local History"
This very humble granite gravestone is double-sided with the husband's information on one side and the wife's information on the other.
It is faded and worn with not much information other than their first and last names and the full dates of their birth and death.
If it wasn't for the person I was "gravestone hopping" with, I might not have given it a second look and that would have been a terrible oversight. [This grave is in Mount Prospect Cemetery in Bridgewater, MA.]
Williams LATHAM was a lawyer and the author of Epitaphs in Old Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Illustrated with Plans and Views published in 1882 by Henry T. Pratt in Bridgewater, MA.
Latham's work is revered by all those who work with family members who lived in Bridgewater as he recorded gravestones and made plot maps for the oldest resting places in Bridgewater, East Bridgewater, and West Bridgewater. Without his work, it would have been impossible for me to find all of the Perkins gravestones in my current project.
Sources:
Massachusetts Vital Records to 1850, Massachusetts Vital Records 1841-1910 and Federal Census Records of Bridgewater, MA 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880.
This very humble granite gravestone is double-sided with the husband's information on one side and the wife's information on the other.
It is faded and worn with not much information other than their first and last names and the full dates of their birth and death.
If it wasn't for the person I was "gravestone hopping" with, I might not have given it a second look and that would have been a terrible oversight. [This grave is in Mount Prospect Cemetery in Bridgewater, MA.]
Williams LATHAM was a lawyer and the author of Epitaphs in Old Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Illustrated with Plans and Views published in 1882 by Henry T. Pratt in Bridgewater, MA.
Latham's work is revered by all those who work with family members who lived in Bridgewater as he recorded gravestones and made plot maps for the oldest resting places in Bridgewater, East Bridgewater, and West Bridgewater. Without his work, it would have been impossible for me to find all of the Perkins gravestones in my current project.
Sources:
Massachusetts Vital Records to 1850, Massachusetts Vital Records 1841-1910 and Federal Census Records of Bridgewater, MA 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Trinity Church Cemetery [1756]
Perkins Adventure Post 5
This is the sign for the Trinity Church Cemetery. Notice that it is dated 1756. Since the deed for the land (see description) is dated 1747 and the first burial was in 1763, I have no idea why this bears this date of 1756.
David Allen Lambert's newest edition of A Guide to Massachusetts Cemeteries (2009) lists this cemetery date as 1748 which is probably most correct as it must be based on the recorded deed.
The Vital Records of Bridgewater call this resting place "GR #10", which stands for grave records #10. It is also known as the Episcopal Cemetery.
Bridgewater cemeteries seem to have many names but at least they are marked with these white signs which must have been a Scout project some time ago.
This is the sign for the Trinity Church Cemetery. Notice that it is dated 1756. Since the deed for the land (see description) is dated 1747 and the first burial was in 1763, I have no idea why this bears this date of 1756.
David Allen Lambert's newest edition of A Guide to Massachusetts Cemeteries (2009) lists this cemetery date as 1748 which is probably most correct as it must be based on the recorded deed.
The Vital Records of Bridgewater call this resting place "GR #10", which stands for grave records #10. It is also known as the Episcopal Cemetery.
Bridgewater cemeteries seem to have many names but at least they are marked with these white signs which must have been a Scout project some time ago.
Trinity Church Graveyard
Perkins Adventure Post 4
This church graveyard, located on Main St. in Bridgewater, MA is typical of the numerous small and medium sized graveyards sprinkled throughout the town of Bridgewater.
Bridgewater today was once South Bridgewater as "Bridgewater" geographically encompassed Brockton (North Bridgewater) and the towns of East, West and South Bridgewater. This makes reading old books on Bridgewater a challenge!
It has a description, numbered map of the gravestones, an index (two pages), and transcriptions [click on the gravenumber in the index] which are in Thatcher's gravestone inscriptions. This book by Charles Thatcher is in the public domain.
We are grateful for these documents which Dale H. Cook and his team have posted online because the New England weather and time are really making the gravestones unreadable.
I took this angled photo to show that the church is no longer next to the graveyard [despite the description given]. The stone wall is only on two side which makes the gate seem out of place. The church is now located down the street and the house you see in this photo obviously has been here some time.
I determined that this cemetery is where some of the Perkins family members were buried after the oldest cemetery in town. Some of the family became Episcopalians. (Their religion is important to part of the story and that is why it is reported here.)
This church graveyard, located on Main St. in Bridgewater, MA is typical of the numerous small and medium sized graveyards sprinkled throughout the town of Bridgewater.
Bridgewater today was once South Bridgewater as "Bridgewater" geographically encompassed Brockton (North Bridgewater) and the towns of East, West and South Bridgewater. This makes reading old books on Bridgewater a challenge!
It has a description, numbered map of the gravestones, an index (two pages), and transcriptions [click on the gravenumber in the index] which are in Thatcher's gravestone inscriptions. This book by Charles Thatcher is in the public domain.
We are grateful for these documents which Dale H. Cook and his team have posted online because the New England weather and time are really making the gravestones unreadable.
I took this angled photo to show that the church is no longer next to the graveyard [despite the description given]. The stone wall is only on two side which makes the gate seem out of place. The church is now located down the street and the house you see in this photo obviously has been here some time.
I determined that this cemetery is where some of the Perkins family members were buried after the oldest cemetery in town. Some of the family became Episcopalians. (Their religion is important to part of the story and that is why it is reported here.)
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Christmas in the Cemetery II
As you saw in the earlier posting, this is a photo of a gravestone in one of my local Bridgewater Cemeteries which has been decorated for the Christmas holiday with a weatherproof plastic potted decoration.
In the cemeteries where many of my own ancestors are buried, decorations and flowers (or items of mourning) are only allowed at burial. Many cemeteries are struggling with the costs of maintaining the grass, shrubs, trees and the walkways.
Families who paid for burials used to pay a fee for perpetual care. This was supposed to cover the expenses forever. I am sure no one anticipated the extreme costs of today. Most graves are not visited by later generations. Just try asking people if they visit graves even at Memorial (or Decoration Day as it used to be called).
I hope this family named Pease rests in peace.
In the cemeteries where many of my own ancestors are buried, decorations and flowers (or items of mourning) are only allowed at burial. Many cemeteries are struggling with the costs of maintaining the grass, shrubs, trees and the walkways.
Families who paid for burials used to pay a fee for perpetual care. This was supposed to cover the expenses forever. I am sure no one anticipated the extreme costs of today. Most graves are not visited by later generations. Just try asking people if they visit graves even at Memorial (or Decoration Day as it used to be called).
I hope this family named Pease rests in peace.
Christmas in the Cemetery I
As this small country cemetery is at the end of my street, I drive by it daily and have visited it many times. It is a bit unusual in that the newer stones face one way and the older stones face another.
It is written in many books on cemeteries that New England cemeteries face all in the direction of the inscriptions facing West so that on the day of Judgment (as many Christians believe), when the angel Gabriel blows his horn for the second coming of Christ, those buried will rise up to face the East. [Source: Carmack page 158]
Personally, I think it was a matter of space in later years that caused burials in different positions but this cemetery is an unusual case in my town.
Orange St. Cemetery has two gate openings, this one shown here from Walnut St. and one on Orange St. As you can see, this one is missing a gate.
One Christmas season, my husband and I were driving by this cemetery and got a big surprise! An elderly lady had driven her car through the opening here and right up to the graves. Talk about getting close to your loved ones at Christmastime!
She was busily attaching a Christmas wreath to one of the larger stones to the left out of range of this photo. Naturally, I was wondering if she could navigate her car back out through the granite posts. When we returned home, driving by again, she was gone so evidently she was quite used to doing this yearly! I have been looking for a car that is scraped on both sides...
I have been waiting for her to come this year so that I could take a picture of the grave with the wreath on it. She did not come back, at least not yet.
The wreath used to get brown and ugly as the winter wore on. She didn't come back to take it down. I often wish I had stopped to find out if she lived far away and could I help her take it down after Christmas. It made the winter cemetery scene look sad and lonely.
As I live in a town with a prison, the town has made an arrangement with the state to have our cemeteries cleaned several times a year by prison work crews. They can be seen in orange jumpsuits busily raking and taking away debris.
Sometime ago, a Boy Scout made the wooden signs of all of the small cemeteries here with the date and the name the cemetery is called in this era. If you look closely, you will see it says "Pratt Town Cemetery 1828" which is the date for this newer section.
This cemetery has been recorded and transcribed and that information can be found here.
It is written in many books on cemeteries that New England cemeteries face all in the direction of the inscriptions facing West so that on the day of Judgment (as many Christians believe), when the angel Gabriel blows his horn for the second coming of Christ, those buried will rise up to face the East. [Source: Carmack page 158]
Personally, I think it was a matter of space in later years that caused burials in different positions but this cemetery is an unusual case in my town.
Orange St. Cemetery has two gate openings, this one shown here from Walnut St. and one on Orange St. As you can see, this one is missing a gate.
One Christmas season, my husband and I were driving by this cemetery and got a big surprise! An elderly lady had driven her car through the opening here and right up to the graves. Talk about getting close to your loved ones at Christmastime!
She was busily attaching a Christmas wreath to one of the larger stones to the left out of range of this photo. Naturally, I was wondering if she could navigate her car back out through the granite posts. When we returned home, driving by again, she was gone so evidently she was quite used to doing this yearly! I have been looking for a car that is scraped on both sides...
I have been waiting for her to come this year so that I could take a picture of the grave with the wreath on it. She did not come back, at least not yet.
The wreath used to get brown and ugly as the winter wore on. She didn't come back to take it down. I often wish I had stopped to find out if she lived far away and could I help her take it down after Christmas. It made the winter cemetery scene look sad and lonely.
As I live in a town with a prison, the town has made an arrangement with the state to have our cemeteries cleaned several times a year by prison work crews. They can be seen in orange jumpsuits busily raking and taking away debris.
Sometime ago, a Boy Scout made the wooden signs of all of the small cemeteries here with the date and the name the cemetery is called in this era. If you look closely, you will see it says "Pratt Town Cemetery 1828" which is the date for this newer section.
This cemetery has been recorded and transcribed and that information can be found here.
Sunday, November 09, 2008
Numbered Graves
Yesterday, my husband and I went to a nearly street to see if there really was three cemeteries in one location! I looked them up on the Web and in David Lambert's Guide to Massachusetts Cemeteries. I checked Google Maps and discovered that the word "cemetery" has been added to the online map. This is great news, well, maybe not for the dead but at least to me.
One resting place is completely normal. It is clearly marked and has been transcribed. The second cemetery is oddly placed. It looks like a small family plot but contains graves of those who died from smallpox. The third is behind the "smallpox cemetery' and consists, as you see here, of bricks with numbers on them. One grave has a brick with a number and a military marker and flag. [Assuming this was a man who served and the family wanted a marker for his service.] Another section, has a stone with Hebrew lettering placed with the numbered bricks.
It is the cemetery where over the years, prisoners have been buried. The ground must be consecrated for Christian burials and so those who were Jewish were placed in a different area. It is not marked with a name. It feels sad and lonely.
One resting place is completely normal. It is clearly marked and has been transcribed. The second cemetery is oddly placed. It looks like a small family plot but contains graves of those who died from smallpox. The third is behind the "smallpox cemetery' and consists, as you see here, of bricks with numbers on them. One grave has a brick with a number and a military marker and flag. [Assuming this was a man who served and the family wanted a marker for his service.] Another section, has a stone with Hebrew lettering placed with the numbered bricks.
It is the cemetery where over the years, prisoners have been buried. The ground must be consecrated for Christian burials and so those who were Jewish were placed in a different area. It is not marked with a name. It feels sad and lonely.
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