Maybe the one with the finger pointing up is still a Penn State fan! And I wonder if Usual Cobb had a brother named Unusual? or a sister named Rarity.

Our neighbor had 4 boys with Biblical names: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. She finally had a girl and named her Patience. Her husband jokingly nicknamed her 'Finally.' So you do wonder if there is a story behind the names.

Thanks for sharing these Susan. Really interesting.
Leslie

Very interesting. Thank you.

Thanks Susan! These are very interesting.

Susan, I love the photos. I love to visit old cemeteries, much to DH's dismay. I find them very interesting.

Thanks for sharing. Very thought provoking.

Thanks for taking us along on your trips through the cemeteries. Many interesting facts hidden on those old headstones.

Susan....I darkened your photo a bit and the inscription on Zachariahs stone seems to read: In Heaven, There Above....beautiful stones and rememberances....

~Kathy~

Thanks, Kathy! That makes sense. I was unable to figure it out even when I was standing in front of it.

Glad you all enjoyed the pictures.

Those are great photos Susan. Thank you for sharing. Don't you wonder how the name "Usual" came about?
I love looking through old cemeteries. A number of years ago I spent a lot of time at a cemetery in the county where I lived. I was trying to solve a mystery.
There were several gravestones and grave sights that had multiple childrens' names. It was so sad.
There was one family where there was an older man in his 50s and a younger man in his 30s and three children that all died within days of each other. It was back when the yellow fever epidemic was so prevalent.
Bob, Anna and I are going to another old cemetery in Memphis pretty soon. It has beautiful fall foilage and many unusual kinds of trees. I've wanted to do this for so long and finally I don't have to worry about being at work. I can go whichever day I want.

I'll take some photos when I go.

Linda

These are great Susan. I, also, really enjoy wandering in old graveyards. When my boys were young, they learned to try and distract me if they spotted a cemetery before I did on our car trips into the country. They didn't succeed very often! Beth

Another cemetary "nut" here, too. Enjoyed your photographs. Thanks for sharing.

Susan, I have found your Find A Grave posts very interesting. So much so in fact that I have been motivated to go find family graves I've never been to. I found both sets of grandparents, all of my aunts and uncles and all but two cousins. Another two cousins are out of state. One of the more intersting finds was that of my uncle, who is buried with a family that my sibs and I don't know, never heard of the name. It is a big, tall marker with another family name, my uncle's name engraved in the lower left hand corner. No relation as far as we know. Unfortunately there is no one left to ask. Another interesting thing I found was that some cemeteries are very accomodating, giving a detailed map, etc., while others have you look it up and print out yourself, and basicially wish you luck! At one cemetery the gentleman from the office took me out to see three graves in a golfcart. In another, I followed the gentleman from the office in my car, and when we got to the grave, he tried to sell me plots! But all very interesting. While looking for my family, I have seen many, many intersting markers. In the past two weeks, I have visited and taken pics of about 30 graves in 8 cemeteries.

Linda, did you solve the mystery?

Beth, I still love your Scottish cemetery picture.

Glad you liked these, Des_Arc--thanks!

Peg, that's wonderful that you've undertaken this! Very unusual, I think, to find someone buried with another family. But having said that I'm thinking now about my dad. When he died my mother (actually my stepmother) sent his ashes from Florida up to New York, to be buried in her family's plot. It was her intention to be buried there as well. But when she became ill, she couldn't remember the name or location of the cemetery. I was in Florida with her, and no one at home could find my record of the cemetery........what a crazy situation.

In the end, I had her buried in a lovely little cemetery in Florida. I felt bad that she didn't get her wish, but I consoled myself with the thought that we do not stay in our graves. Of course, I later learned the name of the NYC cemetery.

So........up in the Bronx is a plot where four people in the same family are buried, plus a man who appears to be no relation to them.

Very interesting. Very sad, all those dead children. I know it happened a lot in the old days.

if you're ever in the local library, you might look for an obit in the paper that was published in 1930's...

i love the way photographs can be inhanced to read some of the old markers...

doesn't it make a cemetary less frightening, once you've visited?

when we lived in so ca and visitors from the midwest, one place they always seemed to visit was forest lawn in glendale ca. of course they have more there than just a few celeb graves...

Susan, you asked if I solved the mystery. I didn't go into detail because I didn't want to hijack your post, but since you asked... :) No.
Here's what happened. I was dating a man whose father committed suicide when he ( My SO ) was about 10. The only family members left were my SO, his sister and their mother, the man's widow. They didn't have much money, but twice a year they bought flowers to put on his dad's grave. That was Father's Day and his birthday. Most years when they got to the grave there were already fresh flowers there and they had no idea who would have put them there.After my SO was grown he overheard someone talking about the possibility that his dad had another wife and kids at the same time he was married to SO's mother. SO said that explained the flowers and possibly the suicide.
He wanted to find out for sure who was putting flowers on his dad's grave so we went out there two days before each special day and on the actual day. We did that for two years, and did not see anyone. No matter how long we were there, no one showed up with flowers, but the next day they would be there. We didn't park near the grave sight, but we were where we could see across the cemetery, so I don't think we were seen lurking, but who knows.

Linda

Linda, that's quite a story! I don't think I'd have been able to give up on it. I can see myself wearing camouflage, buying one of those nighttime cameras, or hiring a private eye. :-)

I feel sorry for your SO, having that hanging over him his whole life. I hope he dealt with it well.

Thanks for sharing!

Susan

I have walked several cemeteries looking for clues about my ancestors, and photographed important finds. The sadest one that I found was a husband-wife grave flanked by 5 smaller, closely spaced stones in a neat row. These 5 stones held names of their children, all who had died in infancy. The ages ranged from 2 days to 1 yr, one child immediately followed by another in time. This couple did finally have two more children who survived.

Your first photo shows a tree with a stone at its base in the roots of the tree. This is a very good clue. The age of this tree is indicative of the age of this grave.

The stone showing the names of a family with the same death dates were likely killed by accident - maybe a car crash, train or bus accident, or house fire. In rare csses, it could have been by murder or a muder-suicide.

I have found a stone bearing the names of granddaughter and grandmother. The grandmother had been married 3 times - 1st marriages had ended by death of the husbands. However, the 2nd husband had died by jutifiable homicide and the family who buried this pair left off the surname of the husband who had been killed by homicide.

On occasion, dual dates maybe found on very old stones. These dates will be in the range of January through March. This occurs due dual calendars that were in use: the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The Julian calendar began the year at Spring, or near the first day of April. because it was not an accurate calendar, it had drifted off by 10 days. The Gregorian calendar was devised to replace the Julian calendar. A system of leap days were added to keep this calendar in sync with the equinoxes and the New Year's d Day was moved to Jan. 1st. Adding a leap day every 4 years is tiny bit too much so about every 400 yrs, one leap day is omitted. Even with omission adjustment, the Gregorian calendar is not perfect, but is quite good and will not require other adjustments for several centuries.

When the Gregoian calendar was introduced, it was not accepted by all, mostly those of certain protestant faiths because the Gregorian calendar was a Roman Catholic one, and it had 'messed' with the New Year Day. Easter Day did not change (much) since this day is based on a lunar calendar. Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon in spring, therefore, Easter moves around by almost a month. (Also, in the first year of the Gregorian calendar, all holidays took a move of 10 astronomical days, the error that had accrued in the older calendar.) However, much of the rest of the world adopted the much improved Gregorian calendar. The result was that in the religious settlements of the New World, both calendars were in use.

Jem, interesting stuff! I hadn't thought of the connection about the age of the tree, but of course it makes sense.

I've often wondered if the mothers back in the day of high infant mortality rates had some biological mechanism whereby they could reserve some emotion toward their babies, instead of falling completely in love with them as we do now. But given that maternal devotion is necessary for survival, my guess is that they had their hearts broken every time.

did a little research..the swingles and cobbs are related...

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.olden-times.com/swingle/s-jmcnamara/jmcnamara01.php

Susan, that was such fun to read! I'm familiar with all those places. The road where Robertson's Tannery was located is still call the Tannery Road. I drive on it all the time.

The area is overrun with Swingles and Shaffers. The woman who requested the gravestone photos is a descendant. She described them as "a prolific bunch I guess, who intermarried with alarming frequency." LOL

Alisande:

Mothers back then grieved and hurt just as much as mothers today, some more so. Her children defined who she was. Many families were farmers and ranchers, and their social security was the family surrounding them, not money in the bank. The bigger your extended family, the better off you'd be in your old age. Loneiness was not an issue as it is today. The wife expected it of herself to produce the children to form the family. That drive was uppermost in the mind of most new brides - people placed high value on family. When a child died an early death, the wife took it very hard becasue it represented a failure for her and she may have feared that she would not be sucessful as a wife and mother. A large family was the main source of labor and protection on farms and ranches.

However, the wife had to look no farther than her neighbor's household to find similar problems. Childhood death was common in the pioneer days. Diseases and malnutrition took a toll. A loss of a child through natural causes, no matter how hurtful, was accepted as 'normal'. The parents turned to their faith to find solace and the courage to go on.

Common killers were diptheris, malaria, cholera, yellow fever, samll pox, and pneumonia. TB was thrown into the mix as well. Goiter and rickets were dietary diseases.
Sometimes 'rabbit fever' would sicken and kill members of a family. This was a little understood infection, therefore, would be a mysterious happening when it struck.