Genealogy Chat

Just a simple tip. Many but not all families may be buried close to each other. If you find one name on a tomb stone have a look who's next door. some places expand by date so people who died in the same year are all close together. Finally don't be afraid to ask, the elderly lady tending a grave may well be a sourse of local knowledge.

Anthony Not really relevant but this tip reminded me! My brother went to the graveyard where our ancestors were buried, but most of the older stones have now gone and he was mooching around a bit aimlessly. An old farmer chappie was eying him a bit suspiciously, so my bro said Are you local? Yes. Ah! Do you know where Mollards Farm is, please? Yes. Erm, is it near, then? Yes. Erm, where is it then? Over there (flapping hand vaguely) Thanks. Don't suppose you have heard of the Green family who used to live there? Yes. Oooh, do you know anything about them? Yes. Do you know if they have any descendants still around here? No. Off gos bro to find the farm, approaches door to ask if it is ok to take a photo - owner opens door and lets the dogs out! OC

A similar thing happened to me, me and my cousin were scrambling around some grave stones and talking out loud as usual when an old bloke who was tending a grave heard what we were saying and said ' there a load of graves round there with that name on' We thanked him very much and went to investigate, as we walked by the grave he was tending we saw it belonged to a member of the family we were researching, so we asked him ' Are you Local?' 'NO' was his reply. So we asked 'Are you related to this person' (who's grave he was at) 'NO' was his reply, on seeing our blank faces he let out a smile and said '....but my wife is!!!!!!' Turned out he made the twice yearly visit to the grave from his home 90 odd miles away and his wife was a distant cousin of my Grandmothers!! They were very interested to hear of our research and his wife who was not with him that day wrote me a lovely letter!!