Photo Monument 12/2/2010

Gifts For The Departed
by Gale Wall

As we enter the holiday season many things occupy our calendar. Many of those dates will involve spending time with family and exchanging gifts.

Some of us will also leave gifts on the graves of our loved ones. Why do we leave things on graves? Is it to share something with our loved one or tell those that pass by a little something about the one resting there?

I leave gifts to say "you are missed, you are loved, you are remembered". As I take cemetery walks I often take time to look at what others leave behind.

Do you leaves gifts? Flowers? Other items? Do they hold a special meaning? Please share your experience on this.

Photo Monument 10/7/2010

Memento Mori
by Gale Wall

I came across this red sandstone in the Old Dutch Church Cemetery in Westchester County, NY. Memento Mori - It is a Latin phrase translated as "remember you must die".

If you have visited the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery raise your hand. If not, it should be on your bucket list. I can't wait to visit again. On the same grounds, but separately owned, is the Old Dutch Church, a 3 acre colonial era burying ground. The Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow is the setting for Washington Irving's short story, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Irving is buried in the south end of the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, overlooking the grounds of the Old Dutch Church.

Did you know that the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery was orginally named Tarrytown Cemetery? Read this letter where Irving calls it a blunder that it was named Tarrytown Cemetery instead of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. A few years after his death the name was changed.

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Gale Wall
http://digitalcemeterywalk.blogspot.com/
Cemetery Walk: An afternoon of discovery.
Every stone has a story. And they are waiting to be told.

Photo Monument 8/12/2010

What Do You Want On Your Tombstone?
By Gale Wall

Recently I presented a program to my genealogical society on Cemetery Walks: Research, Beauty & Art. While preparing for the program I compiled 2 online albums on symbolism and art, one containing early day examples and the other modern day.

With the technology we have today we are only limited by our imagination and funds on what we would like to "say" about ourselves on our tombstone. I have an idea of what mine will look like and I plan to have it in place before I actually need it so that [1] I get what "I" want on it and [2] my son doesn't have that to worry with.

Have you thought about what you want on your tombstone? Have you shared that information with those that will be responsible for carrying out your wishes? Do you plan to have yours made before you need it?

Cemeteries...the subject we spend time blogging about. A place we [may] one day occupy. A need we should plan for.
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Gale Wall
http://digitalcemeterywalk.blogspot.com/
Every stone has a story. And they are waiting to be told.

Photo Monument 6/17/2010

Lettering in Marble

by Gale Wall

The next time you pass by a marble headstone take the time to really notice how the letters and words are carved. But do so after you read this booklet, Lettering in Marble, by the Vermont Marble Company from the 1920's. What size and style of letters did you read on the stone you saw?

It is available for download on the website of the Association of Gravestone Studies.

Photo Monument 5/6/2010

Cenotaphs
by Gale Wall

Definition: a sepulchral monument erected in memory of a deceased person whose body is buried elsewhere.

Source: cenotaph. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cenotaph (accessed: May 04, 2010).

Word history: A cenotaph is literally an ‘empty tomb’: the word comes, via French and Latin, from Greek kenotaphion, from kenos ‘empty’ and taphos ‘tomb’. The idea behind the name is that someone who had been killed far away from his or her home (for instance, in battle), and whose body could not be brought back, should be commemorated by a symbolic tomb.

Source: http://www.word-origins.com/definition/cenotaph.html

Sometimes it may be hard to determine if a stone is a cenotaph or headstone. The two examples shown for Field and Richardson need research to determine if the bodies were recovered.

I have only found one that actually notes “cenotaph” on the stone. [Ellis stone]. I can understand the need to remember a loved one lost or buried elsewhere. We all want to be remembered.

• Worthington – Haven Priest Cemetery, Reno Co., KS
• Kinnamon- Hazen Cemetery, Reno Co., KS
• Branaman – Hazen Cemetery, Reno Co., KS
• Demand – St. Paul Cemetery, Reno Co., KS
• Field – Eastside Cemetery, Reno Co., KS
• Ellis- Walnut Hill Cemetery, Kingman Co., KS
• Young – Lebanon Cemetery, Kingman Co., KS
• Richardson -  Murdock Cemetery, Kingman Co., KS
• Atherton – Gypsum Cemetery, Saline Co., KS
• Friesen – N. Inman Cemetery, McPherson Co., KS