General Chat

Do your ancestors call to you?

On our short trip away we visited several grave yards where I knew my ancestors were buried. There were no plans available but several times their names leapt out at me as we wandered around. I think they are glad that we are looking for them. I'm sure I've seen here that this has happened to other people as well. Gwynne

I KNOW ONE GRAVEYARD IN KENT AND TWO IN OXFORD BUT ALL PAUPERS,ABOUT THIRTY AY LEAST

When I go round the graveyards I bring flowers to lay if I find any ancestors. I feel once I have found them I should tend to them. Jax xx

I remember kneeling in a puddle beside a grave cleaning it only to find,,,,,,,,,,,not mine

And I remember getting very excited at finding my ancestors in one cemetery, only to find out from the cemetery office that it was a very common name for the area, and they then kindly produced 19 pages of A4 with my names on (sob). Still sifting through!

There is at least one deliberately hiding from me........

When I visited England 10 yrs ago I went to the graveyard in Dilhorne and was thrilled to find my 3X gt grandparents grave. Didnt get to visit any other graveyards as I was touring with sis and her OH and they are not into such things.

They don't know what they're missing! I was once trying to take a photo of an ancestor's grave and as I moved further backwards to get the whole gravestone in I literally tripped over another, which happened to be another of mine!

Wish I could find my Grandfathers I know he was buried in a paupers grave and the records for that time were burn in a fire and though the council were very helpful they couldn't find him thre are two little boys too all missing. Germaine x

Found my GGrandparents grave, thanks to the Cemetary offices who had a fantastic map. Unmarked grave but plot located. Wonder if there are any tricky rules about putting a headstone on there? Bit expensive now though. We too put tulips on them, they are 120 miles away, but more importantly they were the key to unlocking our Family Tree. WWll was about to kick off when they died so I guess it wasn't a priority. At least we found them, I couldn't rest until we had...........

Yes definately--and I think they have the same thrill at being found and remembered that we get from finding them. I can 'feel' the connection. And isn't it funny how when you meet 'cousins' no matter how distant how you can feel that connection of family too? One of my best friend is my 4th cousin who's GG grandad was my GG grandads brother, we are so alike in many ways and we became instant friends when we met Carol

My brother literally fell over the grave of one of ours after looking for him for hours. On another occasion, he visited a churchyard where we knew lots of ours were buried, only to find that most of the headstones had gone. He was stood admiring the view, in particular a beautiful farmhouse on the other side of the hill and got chatting to some old farmer bloke. Turned out the farmhouse he could see was our 'ancestral home' which we had never been able to find on any map! OC

twice while hunting through villages in Yorkshire i have pointed houses out to my husband and both times it turned out they were built by my family my husband says he knew i was a witch i like your idea jax of tending to them once you have found them xxx

I feel that! Especially the children that died young, they want to be acknowledged and remembered.

Matchless, my mum is in the process of doing just that. My grandad is buried with his parents but my grandma never really tended to the grave - she herself was cremated, and I think it was a convenience marriage rather than a love match. What she did was to get the reference number of the grave, then apply to the local council to take on ownership of the grave, stating that she was the only surviving relative - the grave had originally been bought by my great-grandad in 1941. She is now recognised at the owner of the grave, as it were, and is therefore entitled to place a memorial stone there.

Spent Thursday with Mum and Dad and went to where my dads grandparents are buried, when I went up with my sister a couple of years ago the churchyard was so overgrown but they have been clearing it although they have used a lot of the stones as pathways. Guy that was clearing it said an old vicar decided it was to become a wildlife place which meant leave it but at last they are clearing it. Didnt find the four we were looking for but found others we may be able to tie in. Hopefully dad will be able to find where they are as there are four graves, two uncles and an aunt who all died young and his grnadfather and then his grandmother was put in with him. Dads first trip to find graves and he was so disappointed we couldnt find anything.

I think it depends how 'witchy' you are lol. My sister and her family had searched for hours for our gt gt grandparents grave in overgrown Abney Park Cemetary. When I went with her, I found it in about 3 minutes!!! The weirdest thing about it was that the verse on the stone was the same one we had printed in Dad's memorial cards over a year before!! Maz. XX

N!

I dont know but I get a little upset for them when I find a new name connected to my tree then do some searches and nobody else has been searching for them If that makes any sense at all.