Jim, a fellow Find A Grave contributor and blogger jokingly suggested conducting a séance after reading my post about the elusive Lily Flower. Our conversation continued by sharing experiences with the departed during our frequent cemetery visits. Jim mentioned a cousin who had been spoken to by cemetery inhabitants who asked “Who are you?”, “Why…
Most of the headstones in Chicago’s Irving Park Cemetery are the run-of-the-mill variety one sees at many cemeteries. I took hundreds of photos for Find A Grave when I visited the cemetery in July of 2015. As I was leaving, the sun caught a large white headstone on my left. The feeling of deep loss captured in stone caused me to…
I stumbled upon a little headstone in Chicago’s Rosehill Cemetery in July 2015. I was surprised there wasn’t an existing memorial for this infant on Find A Grave. Because that little headstone is next to this: Who was Adam Schaaf? I wondered as I added a Find A Grave memorial for Baby Schaaf. A link on the baby’s…
You know what they say about assumptions, right? Guilty as charged. In July of last year I was in Chicago’s Rosehill Cemetery taking headstone photos for Find A Grave, when I stumbled upon this: Of course I assumed the overturned headstone belonged to Scott M. Jones. After all, written in stone – those very nearby…
In October I visited Calvary Cemetery in Evanston Illinois. It was my first trip to the predominantly Irish Catholic cemetery which was consecrated in 1859. It was also the first time I saw a bas-relief of the deceased on a headstone. Meet Grace O’Dwyer Ryan who was born in Ireland in 1824. Grace died in 1909. Grace has been added…
the photograph that remains provides a plethora of genealogical clues
I smiled as I took this picture for Find A Grace, imagining the conversation that may have taken place. “Is that really what you want on your headstone Mom?” Apparently Jewell’s wish came to fruition. Her milestone can be seen in Chicago’s Irving Park Cemetery:
Cubs fans have recently been on the edge of their seats with their eyes on the pennant. For some fans, hopes spring eternal.
Not far from the entrance to St. Luke Cemetery in Chicago stands a marble statue created in the likeness of Edna Miriam Paul (1897-1907). The phrase Many Hopes are Buried Here is carved at the base of the monument. Edna’s picture graces the front. Parents Charles and Augusta Paul are buried nearby. According to the 1900…
Cemetery art and architecture often takes my breath away. And makes me wonder about the lives of the people who commissioned it.
where2look4ancestors 