Most people when they go on vacation want to go to fun places, one place you most likely don't think about going to is the cemetery. Yet when my husband and I were offered a trip back to New Jersey I told my husband one place I really wanted to go was to the cemeteries where his ancestors are buried. In fact my love of family history makes me think if I had unlimited funds one thing I would do is travel to every cemetery that has an ancestor and photograph their tombstones. This tombstone was a great surprise, and gave me information I did not have before. I had the birth dates for these people but now I have the death dates too. So I now have all the information a family historian likes to have.
When I lived in New Jersey I didn't have as much time to go to these cemeteries and looking back I wish I could have found the time to go more often. My kids were young and it was hard to do much with them running around the tombstones. My father always thought it was wrong to bring my children to the cemetery. Yet there is so much information to be taken from a tombstone. Year of birth and death, and on this tombstone you can learn that they were parents. Sometimes you also get the wife's maiden name. All very important information in my search for a complete family pedigree chart.
Tombstone come and all sizes and shapes. The older ones can start to fall apart as this one has. I took a photo of this tombstone because my son has the same name. I'm going to see if I can find where in our family tree this Jacob is. I love a puzzle and family history is most often a giant puzzle.
Sometimes family history shows you the sad moments in life. A child who died young. If I had not found this tombstone I may never have known about this child as he was not born on a census year, and he died before the next census. Only by finding his tombstone next to his parents tombstones do I now know that he was their child. Sometimes you can only find family members by going to the cemetery.
I put these two tombstones together because my son's full name is Jacob Bartholomew Bowlby. It is interesting to find name connections. When we named our children I was not into family history at the time and did not name my children after anyone on the family tree. As I work on family history I find lots of ancestors with the name Jacob and James, there are not that many Gabrielle's or Kimberly's though.
One thing I wish was that I had had a cooler day to visit the cemetery. It was so hot and humid, I know I could have gotten so much more information if I had more time and a nicer day. I also wish the day was more over cast as then the photo's would have come out better.
One nice thing is that some cemeteries have been transcribed and posted to the Internet. So I can look for information on the people with out going. But there is something cool about having the photo's of the tombstone. I guess I just have to keep thinking positive thoughts about travelling.
My dream job would be working for a genealogist and going on trips to find family history information, and learning as much as I can about being a family historian.
Related sites:
Bowlby Cemetery sites
Visit to A Cemetery is a visit to family history
Visiting Cemeteries
How to prepare for a cemetery trip (wish I had read this article before my trip!)
Ancestors in the cemetery
Hope you learned something new about family history today. Our family is enjoying the last few weeks of summer. Looking to find a pool to swim at and to have a day at Lagoon. I've collected more flower photo's so I should have a new post soon. I have quiet a few new ideas. I'm also starting to learn about strategic shopping. Hope to put some tips on that in here too. I have a goal of reducing my grocery bill by 50%. So hope to see how that works. Have a great day.
G.G.
