Cemeteries and Tombstones are spooky to some...to a Family Historian they often are a place of peace...With hidden treasure to be found..

As a family historian I spend hours everyday looking for my ancestors...The greatest finds are photo's people share. It is always wonderful when you can put a face to the names and dates you have collected in your family tree.

Finding photo's of people are few and far between...But one thing I've begun to collect is photo's of my Ancestors tombstones.

Tombstones come in all sizes and shapes...Some are simple like the one above...And some are elaborate...I even have a few ancestors who only had a pipe marking where they were buried...The above tombstone is that of Samuel Kimball, The picture at the top is of him.  To have the photo and tombstone what great luck for me.

Some Tombstones are slowly falling apart and others seem to last the test of time well....Many times the only information found on an ancestor comes from what is left of their tombstone...It is like being on a treasure hunt for a family historian when they walk into a cemetery... Finding that lost Ancestor and their vital information...When we lived on the east coast my husband and I spent many Sundays visiting cemeteries and photographing our ancestors tombstones.  It was hard with young children and if I could get back now I would be off on my own collecting information...

If I didn't have to worry about food and housing and caring for a family my dream job would be to travel the world photographing my ancestors or for that matter any one's ancestors tombstones....I would so enjoy going to Scotland and England and New England and walking through old Castles and finding hidden cemeteries out in the woods.  Then taking my photo's and information and putting together a giant family tree..( I hope when my children are finally out on their own to start to work towards this dream...To try to find a job with a Family History company....)

I'd like to find out their stories....I would like to see what traits I may have that they passed down to me..Did they have happy lives?  Were their dreams fulfilled?

I don't know why I feel compelled to find tombstones and the names of my ancestors...But it is a big part of who I am...I love to find any information and never feel that I have found everyone...Or that the work is done...Today as soon as I woke up I felt compelled to write this little blog...And spent my day doing other things and then a blogger I follow wrote a blog post about cemeteries and connecting with our Beloved Dead...Somehow even though I don't know this person we are on the same wave length today... I have thought a lot about Halloween this year and have spent more time thinking of the spirits of my Ancestors and how important they are to me than about goblins and creepy things...I think from what I have read this is what Halloween was really about...Remembering your Beloved dead.

I think if I met this ancestor of mine I might be a little scared though...  She looks pretty stern...
Have a Wonderful Halloween and take time to remember those who came before you.
G.G.

Books I read this summer part 2....

Here is a photo of the next bunch of books I read this summer or tried to read....

The book "Coastliners"  Is sitting on the back seat of my car waiting to be finished....I bought this book on my vacation in New Jersey from our old library....I am trying to collect books that have an ocean theme... I just can't get into this book....Maybe I'll finish it someday...at least it will look good with all my other books that have an ocean theme in my upstairs living room.

I really loved this book... "The Walk" is about a man who has everything and loses it and what he does after losing everything....If you are going through a tough time in life this is a book for you to read...It has some really great ideas on moving forward after a great loss...

I'm not sure why but this was the summer to read books about people dealing with a life crisis...."A Year by the Sea"  is a book I picked up on vacation in New Jersey...Another ocean themed book...This one is about a woman who leaves her husband for a year to live alone in a cabin by the ocean....She is trying to find herself and what is right for her life...I liked the book and can understand the desire to spend a year by the ocean....
What books have you read lately?
G.G.

5 Generations of Young Bowlby Men....Senior Photo's through the years.....

Being a Family Historian I'm always looking at photo's of family...Taking Photo's and collecting photo's...Here is my Son's school senior photo....He wants to be an animator...So he is showing some of his art...It's nice that in our times we can get a feel for the person in their senior photo.

Here he is in the standard photo pose...The school colors are purple and white...Which I think is cool because that was my high school colors too....and we are thousands of miles away from my home town...

The black and white version...Because all the rest of the photo's will be black and white...

Here is his fathers senior photo...I actually have it in color but it has faded and yellowed a little...What do you think do they look alike to you?  I'd like to have another photo of my son done where he is looking in the same direction as his dads photo....

His Grandfather Richard Bowlby....

His Great Grandfather John Bowlby.....

His Great Great Grandfather Lewis Bowlby....This one is probably a wedding photo and not a school photo but he still looks pretty young.... It is cool to see the generations of young Bowlby men...
G.G.