Tombstone Tuesday; Janet McKechnie Craig

Fearless Female Ancestors Series by Lisa Alzo

Tombstone Tuesday: Janet McKechnie Craig

Photo of Janet McKechnie Craig's Headstone by Glenn Russell, 2002, used with permission

Janet Craig (1842-1918)

My husband's maternal family are buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Fall River, MA (or in Mt. Hope Cemetery) in Swansea, MA). Since we now live a good distance from this location and both cemeteries are massive, I decided to turn to Find-a-Grave volunteer, Glenn Russell for help.

Even through he was moving, he has been very helpful locating and posting his finds to Find-a-Grave. 

This small headstone was probably placed here by her son, James Craig, my husband's grandfather. Then, he buried his 1st wife Hannah Wilde Craig in the same plot. He married again and his buried in Mt. Hope Cemetery in Swansea, MA with his second wife, Ella LANG.

Janet Craig is a VERY common name to research and it doesn't help that her husband's name was George. Many records list Scottish women named Janet, as Jean and Jennie. It depended in many cases what was heard when this name was pronounced.
It has taken a long time to find out more about her. Before she died, my mother-in-law encouraged us to keep researching her because she was a "Fearless Female". I promised to keep looking.

It would have helped if they had put her full name on the gravestone. Her maiden name was McKechnie and because that is not as common as Craig, and Scottish women often included their maiden name on records, I have been able to move ahead to tell her story.

She is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Fall River, Bristol, Massachusetts. Her husband, George Craig is buried in Scotland.

Entwistle Gravestone

Entwistle Gravestone, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Oak Grove Cemetery, Fall River, Bristol, MA

Much to our surprise, this black and white photo (dated 1954) of a gravestone was found in the pile of unsorted photos of my husband's family.

This is the gravestone of my husband's Aunt Jane E. Craig and her husband James H. Entwistle. Jane was my mother-in-law's oldest sibling. When she died at the age of almost 102, we helped with her funeral and her burial. It was my first ride in a limo.

This photo makes this area of the graveyard look empty. I can assure you that there is NO empty space around this gravestone. When we stood there in the rain, I wished I could take a photograph of both sides of the stone. I need to go back to this massive cemetery in Fall River, Massachusetts and find the gravestones of my mother-in-law's family. It is really not that far away. 

While building her page at my tree at Ancestry.com, I thought how amazing it is to live to be almost 102. I know that her photo collection has been mixed in my the rest of my husband's family photos so I have begun organizing and scanning them. It is best to start with Aunt Jane. As the oldest child, she told us stories that no one else can. This is the photo that was on display at her service.