Greetings Sweet Friends...
Some may think I've been feeling rather morbid lately,
but really...I haven't! I just have a true
Love for Vintage Tombstones.
Whether you call them tombstones, headstones or
gravestones, to me they all have a
Sense of GRACE...
a Remembrance of Love & Mourning, Craved in Stone.
Living in Southern California, my local cemeteries
are nothing like the ones I've seen in Boston or
New Hampshire or Maine. Those are just
soooo historic & glorious, having stones
that are over 300 years old.
I can remember visiting Harvard in Cambridge Mass &
right across the street from one of the main
entrances was a tiny cemetery.
In that tiny cemetery, there was a stone of a sea
captains wife buried in the late 1600's,
I was instantly hooked.
But, So Cal still has some amazing tombstones...a stone craver
is an artisan, a Michelangelo in his own right.
There is beauty in these creations of sadness.
Find A Grave has been such a great help to me as I've been
doing genealogy work over the last 5 years.
Their volunteers & contributors have amassed an enormous
amount of valuable information that has allowed me
to find out vital stats that I might otherwise
have never known.
The images of tombstones I've gotten from Find A Grave,
has given me the ability to visually attach to my
ancestors. I then add all of that information
to Ancestry.com to hopefully help
someone else find their
story.
Just as I can't get to Illinois to take pictures of some
of my ancestors graves, there are other's who
can't get to California to take pictures
of their family's tombstones.
So, I have volunteered to take those photographs for them.
I'm excited walking through the cemetery, trying to find
a name that's been requested & I get a lot of joy
when I find one & know that someone
else will find joy in the
images I take.
These photos came from Pioneer Memorial Cemetery
in San Bernardino, it's right at the bottom
of the mountain that I live on.
It's one of the older cemeteries in my area & it is
filled with beautiful tombstones.
Look at the craving on this stone, so intricate & filled with
grace. Did I mention, I LOVE old tombstones.
XOXO
vintagesusie
