As you may already know, I visit a lot of cemeteries and I read a lot of grave markers. I try not to make assumptions about the deceased based on the information on their headstones. For example, sometimes the memorial lists more than one person. I never assume a relationship between the people listed unless the marker clearly states…
A necklace around the top of Ella’s memorial caught my eye the first time I visited her at Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis. And the second time. And every time thereafter. Who, I wonder, it adding this piece of jewelry to a monument erected in 1888? And 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…
A weather-worn obelisk stands proudly in section 7 of Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis Minnesota. On one side, a plaque pays tribute to a Revolutionary War soldier’s descendants. To all those who fought, and continue to fight for our independence – thank you.
Another darling girl rests a few steps from Edna Miriam Paul‘s final resting place in Chicago’s St Luke Cemetery. Isabel Moenke was born 31 July 1899, just in time to be recorded in the 1900 census. It was the only one in which she would appear. Her parents, Leo and Emma (nee Kaeding) were married in Chicago 01…
The epitaph on this headstone took my breath away. In the still morning air, the the loss this family endured was almost palpable. Frank’s headstone is surrounded by large trees in a lovely section of Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis. May he rest in peace.
Monuments do more than just mark spaces in cemeteries. In Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis, Olaf, Christine and Effie Olsson rest near a large family monument with several meanings. The style itself – a stone that is half carved and half uncarved – symbolizes the transition from life to death. Closer inspection reveals a complete pillar with leaves and…
Discovering new-to-me cemeteries is high on my list of favorite things to do. Especially when I stumble upon something as lovely as The Little Chapel in Mount Olivet Cemetery, Janesville Wisconsin.
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…
It was a little disconcerting, but I was impressed. While I was photographing headstones for Find A Grave at Riverside Cemetery in Black River Falls Wisconsin, I was being watched. Not from afar, mind you. The same pickup truck meandered through the very sections I was in at least a dozen times in two hours. I didn’t…
where2look4ancestors 