General Chat

Can anyone help with letters on my ...X great grandfather's gravestone, please?

I have asked the cathedral stonemasons, the Latin teachers in my family (one working in a convent school), clergy I know and the people in the church where the gravestone is situated.

It is a small, low upright rectangular stone, erected in 1711, with a straight top about two inches wide.

The wording on the front is clearly legible but along the top, beginning about a third of the way along is the following:

C + H

Because the letters are not equidistant along the top, I feel that there may have been something following the H but I can't be sure. The stonemasons do not think it is a mason's mark.

I have never seen anything like this but I hope someone can help.

Sorry - no idea.

Thanks anyway Dermot.

Still looking .....

Would the profession of your great grandfather have any bearing on it?

My several times grandfather was a farmer, Caroline, as were his descendants for several generations.

I am at a loss where to look next as I've found nothing online either. I was pinning my hopes on someone on Genes having come across it before.

Sorry can't help then. Good luck though.

Just thinking and I'm sure the answer is no.....he wasn't in any groups/society or whatever? No farmers lodge or whatever?

Were there any children with those initials that might have been buried with him, Joy?

Not that I've found Belle. He was buried with his second wife (not my ancestor) and neither of them had initials C or H.

Caroline, I have no idea whether farmers had lodges then. You are thinking of freemasonry, I guess?

Along those lines but any group or fellowship would apply, it's not unheard of to have initials for any group you're in on the stone.
What part of the country was he in?

Durham, Caroline. He died in 1711.

Putting thinking cap on.......

No idea at the moment, but just to clarify,

Do you mean the letters are written along the uppermost 2 inches ie. within the width of the stone rather than on it's front face?

Abbreviations Found on Headstones - RootsWeb


www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wicemetp/abbrev.htm

Abbreviations Found on Headstones. ... There are many different types of crosses and each may mean something ... Usually marks the grave of a child and means ...

Yes Gwyn, on the top narrow width of the stone - not on the face.

I'll take a look at that AnnC, thank you.

Epigraphy - Wikipedia


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inscription


Epigraphy is the study of inscriptions or epigraphs as writing; ... The inscription often concludes with H.I. (Hic iacet), or some similar formula, and also, ...
Scope ·
History ·
Form ·
Content ·
Greek inscriptions ·
Kannada inscriptions

I am sure this subject came up a few years ago and a photo of the gravestone was put on Keepsafe. Unfortunately the search function on here doen't work properly so I have no hope of finding the old thread.

I remember that also Kense but for the life of me
can't recall if it was solved.

If you remember, would you please let me know.

I am going to look online again now.

No it wasn't solved

http://www.genesreunited.com.au/boards/board/general_chat/thread/1354932?d=asc

IHS The sacred monogram: an abbreviation of the word for Jesus in Greek.?