Custom Search
|
|
Memorials
Beyond paper records, people's lives are also recorded in stone. We all die, and, until the relatively recent fashion for cremation (recent in the UK, that is) most people were buried, often, but not always, with some form of monument. Apart from the poorest classes who may have had 'pauper burials', those buried at sea, and those with wooden crosses that rotted away, many people were commemorated with some kind of 'permanent' memorials.
Unfortunately, the stone used for external memorials varies considerably in its weatherability. While some monuments may remain almost intact for centuries, with legible inscriptions, others may last only a hundred to a hundred and fifty years before being worn away or obscured with moss and lichen. Cemetery authorities, religious and secular, have often not helped by clearing away less stable or broken memorials - usually to save money on cemetery maintenance but also for supposed health and safety reasons. Thousands of crucial pieces of family history have been unceremoniously dumped at the sides of ancient graveyards. In Victorian times many churches were rebuilt and wall plaques and floor slabs were discarded. Even earlier, funerary monuments within churches were defaced for religious reasons.
Previous page: Family History Information.
Next page: Organising Family History.
 Wills and Probate Records: A Guide for Family Historians  Tracing Your Ancestors from 1066 to 1837  The Genealogist's Internet: The Essential Guide to Researching Your Family History Online  Family Photographs 1860-1945 (Public Record Office Genealogist's Guides)  Family Photographs and How to Date Them  Writing Your Family History: A Practical Guide |
Copyright © 2009-2024 Alan Price and IslandGuide.co.uk contributors. All rights reserved. Island Guide makes minimal use of cookies, including some placed to facilitate features such as Google Search. By continuing to use the site you are agreeing to the use of cookies. Learn more here