Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Carved Names and Dates over Time

The Barber Monument
River Bend Cemetery, Westerly, Washington, Rhode Island

Photos by Midge Frazel, 2002-2009

My maternal great grandparents have this lovely granite monument in Lot 60 at River Bend Cemetery in Westerly, Rhode Island. As a child, I always thought it was odd that, in this huge and well tended cemetery, my maternal great grandparents chose to be buried in the same small lot at my paternal grandparents!  

As you can see, the stone is deteriorating in just the time that I have been taking photographs. I took the top two (front and back) photos on the day, we buried my mother (20 June 2002) When I revisited this lot on 6 July 2009, I took this additional photo because I realized the lettering and the numbers were blurring and I hoped that I had a clear shot from before. 

Taking cemetery photos on the day you bury a parent is risky because you don't have a clear head and there is so much to do to clean out a house and prepare to sell it that you need a good plan of photo management.


2002


2009

There is one more gravestone in this lot and it is of a child and now that I analyze the situation and the dates, I find that sadly, she was the first person to be buried in 1933 and then family decided to erect the stone and add names to it. I am sure my maternal grandparents arranged this and I am grateful to them for doing so.

Not too much time can pass before I must know full birth, marriage and death date for those people on the stone and for months that is exactly what I have been doing. I couldn't do it without my friend Barbara Fallon who helps me with my Westerly research. 

Find a Grave is offering some new options and so I looked up Harold S. Barber to see if he was listed there. I shared it with my tree at Ancestry and then used the "copy to clipboard" feature to see what could be done. I thought my readers might like to see what is available. 

From the "new" Find a grave", this screenshot

"Copy to Clipboard" pasted here:

Harold S Barber
Birth: 1890
Death: 1944
Burial: River Bend CemeteryWesterly, Washington County, Rhode Island, USA
Memorial #: 129033394
Family Members
Spouse
Martha Blanchard Barber*                1879-1968
Created by: T.V.F.T.H. (46496806)
Added: 2 May 2014
URL: https://new.findagrave.com/memorial/129033394/harold-s-barber#share_email

Citation: Find A Grave, database and images (https://new.findagrave.com : accessed 27 September 2017), memorial page for Harold S Barber (1890–1944), Find A Grave Memorial no. 129033394, citing River Bend Cemetery, Westerly, Washington County, Rhode Island, USA ; Maintained by T.V.F.T.H. (contributor 46496806) .

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