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Thoughts of mortality

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  • Thoughts of mortality

    Went out for a walk round the roads this morning, and on the way back had one of my occasional wanders around our small village cemetery, as it was looking very pretty with lots of daffodils and bright artificial flowers on the graves. I love to try to read the really old, eroded headstones and imagine who the people were. There are quite a number that died in 1919, and it occurred to me that perhaps it was in the 'flu epidemic.

    Going further back into the 1800's, there are several graves of men who died young, in their 20's and 30's, and I suspect they may have been killed in quarry accidents. No such thing as H&S back then. There was a quarry to my village and the next one, so I suppose the young men either worked on the land or went to work in the quarries.

    Then there are three young men who died in the Great War, buried in France but with their names added below those of their parents.

    I'm also fascinated simply by the names on the stones. If anyone lacked ideas for naming a child, a stroll around the local cemetery provides a huge choice of names familiar or rare. Where the wife's maiden name is included, you can see how the village families intermarried and changed. Then reaching the 1950's and onwards, the surnames become more varied, an indication of how people started moving around, and not spending their whole life in the same village. Such a shame it was not the custom to add a profession to the stone, what a social insight that would give to a simple stroll.

    Location - Leicestershire - Chisit-land
    Endless wonder.

  • #2
    You might want to have a read of Gray's Elegy, if you don't already know it.

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    • #3
      I sporadically explore my ancestry and add to my family tree. My more recent ancestors lived in a relatively close area of Yorkshire, they probably always did but I’ve only gone back about 150 years so far. I have this tendency to go off in a tangent and was exploring where some of them lived. The area was taken for a reservoir and their farms were covered with water. During a recent drought the farmhouses reappeared and have been documented. What was really interesting was that cousins would go and work for the family cousins, uncles etc. And they intermarried.
      Last edited by JanieB; 08-03-2021, 06:56 PM.
      "I prefer rogues to imbeciles as they sometimes take a rest" (Alexander Dumas)
      "It is neccessary to have wished for death in order to know how good it is to live" (also Alexandre Dumas)
      Oxfordshire

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      • #4
        Originally posted by nickdub View Post
        You might want to have a read of Gray's Elegy, if you don't already know it.
        I bet he was a joy to spend an evening in the Pub with!
        My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
        to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

        Diversify & prosper


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        • #5
          For my money it's a great poem which I have learnt from, but I will admit it's not the cheeriest ever written :-)

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          • #6
            There are people who are intimidated by cemeteries (especially old ones). Although in fact there is nothing terrible in them, because death is the logical outcome of everyone's life. Unfortunately, 100-150 years ago, medicine was much worse and because of this, people died prematurely, in the prime of life. When I see the graves of people who died before the age of 50, I imagine how many people could live even further if medicine were better. Although today young people are dying, because medicine is not omnipotent. This makes life even more valuable.

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            • #7
              Last Spring I was looking to see if there was any evidence of my Marsh ancestors being buried in Alstonfield cemetery in Derbyshire( sadly not )
              I did however stumble across this one! Dated 1518

              https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3112970

              Can you imagine what life must have been like back then?

              "Nicos, Queen of Gooooogle" and... GYO's own Miss Marple

              Location....Normandy France

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              • #8
                Originally posted by Nicos View Post
                Last Spring I was looking to see if there was any evidence of my Marsh ancestors being buried in Alstonfield cemetery in Derbyshire( sadly not )
                I did however stumble across this one! Dated 1518

                https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3112970

                Can you imagine what life must have been like back then?
                Yeah, I can imagine it would have been pretty grim, especially for the lower classes.


                My Majesty made for him a garden anew in order
                to present to him vegetables and all beautiful flowers.- Offerings of Thutmose III to Amon-Ra (1500 BCE)

                Diversify & prosper


                Comment


                • #9


                  I have been doing my ancestry too, alot of mine are from Salford slums basically. Pretty awful conditions for living and working in the coal mines. Some are Yorkshire too and Isle of Man and Ireland. The Isle of Man link we know via another type of test came from Norway (viking).
                  I find it all very interesting.
                  Last edited by Containergardener; 26-03-2021, 11:57 AM.
                  Northern England.

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                  • #10
                    Something I found really interesting was that someone very recently came from a very small island off the coast of Norway. My most difficult research is into my fathers family. I know other members of his family have him on their family trees but have the names and dates slightly wrong. I can only correct their mistakes if I pay.
                    "I prefer rogues to imbeciles as they sometimes take a rest" (Alexander Dumas)
                    "It is neccessary to have wished for death in order to know how good it is to live" (also Alexandre Dumas)
                    Oxfordshire

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      I've seen alot about people wanting to correct others, they've even sent messages etc but been ignored.
                      I would just concentrate on your own , others will continue to have errors.
                      Northern England.

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                      • #12
                        My pet hate on several sites ( such as Ancestry and Genes reunited etc) is that people create their tree from other people’s without triple checking if it truly is their tree.
                        They have literally thousands of names and you suddenly realise they’ve just grabbed names and approximate locations and dates and smudged them all together. No links to proof.
                        Makes hard work for those of us wanting to pick out accurate contacts.
                        I do wonder if they just do it just for show , or worse, to make things harder for genuine researchers

                        I have corrected a few spelling errors of those in my tree in the past if they have been mistranscribed....but I wouldn’t dream of altering anything else unless I had documents to show otherwise!

                        Last edited by Nicos; 27-03-2021, 12:30 PM.
                        "Nicos, Queen of Gooooogle" and... GYO's own Miss Marple

                        Location....Normandy France

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                        • #13
                          I found it very difficult to find my paternal grandfather. The census record was handwritten and whoever wrote it originally had put a “ posh” curlicue at the end which was then translated as an “s”. To add to the confusion, he lied about his age to join the army in 1909 and swapped his Christian names round.

                          I have now been sent my fathers family papers by my stepmother which has helped my research enormously. I now need to visit Arnos Cemetery in Bristol but have been unable to do so due to the pandemic.
                          "I prefer rogues to imbeciles as they sometimes take a rest" (Alexander Dumas)
                          "It is neccessary to have wished for death in order to know how good it is to live" (also Alexandre Dumas)
                          Oxfordshire

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            I've spent over a year on and off on my family tree, lots of farmers in Lincolnshire/Derbyshire/Leicestershire, but one Great Great Grandmother came from Devon, through her I am linked to several Kings of Wessex and Owain Glendower of Wales, seems I share a Grandfather with Queen Elizabeth 11 too, not had an invite for tea yet though!!

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                            • #15
                              my husband can't trace many generations of his family, even though(or because) Ring is a pretty unusual surname. Frustrated with his own, he started working o n my family tree and found that my greatgrandfather was head gardener to a Duchess - so he must have been good at gardening

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