Yes, especially the plural part.
JoanMN

What a heartbreak.

That is sad........Stacy

Where did you find that? What's the story behind it?

So sad Susan.....there was one in the cemetary where my father is buried but the stone was so old it finally crumbled away and is no longer there. It read.......My darling child. I cried every time I saw it......

~Kathy~

How Sad :-(
I can only imagine what the family must have gone through.
Thanks for sharing.
Deb

That is sad and so haunting in it's simplicity. Were you on one of your tombstone photographing assignments? We lived one street over from a cemetary and I often detoured through there on my way home after school. I still remember those tombstones with photos behind glass of children or the ones with "My Angel" engraved on the front and the ones with small white lambs on the top.

Oh, Kathy, I'd cry, too. And Mcmann, those lambs . . .

Yes, I was on one of my tombstone assignments. Sort of. I had happened upon a tiny cemetery in back of a little country church a few weeks ago, and I impulsively stopped and photographed some of the stones at random. I uploaded them to FindAGrave, and a few days later received an email from a woman in Seattle who was so happily suprised to find one of them online.

She asked if any more of her family members were buried there, and I said I'd take a look when I drove past again this week. The cemetery is small enough so that I was able to look at every gravestone. I didn't find any more of her relatives, but I photographed a few more stones to upload. And then I came upon this one, and it stopped me in my tracks. No other writing, no identification. Just two heartbreaking words.

Many of you know that I'm not the biggest fan of the modern approach to medicine, but even I will admit it has it's good points. To be aware of them, all one has to do is walk among some old gravestones to see how fragile children were back then, and what their families went through.

Susan

That's very sad.

Yes, sad. But it happened so much in the old days.

I have a cousin who died after an auto accident, as a teenager (before I was born). She has a beautiful angel gravestone but what I find most touching about it, that you wouldn't know from looking at it, is that her classmates raised the money to pay for it.

She died of shock. This was in the 60s when ambulance and rescue services weren't as advanced, nor were the local hospitals. She most likely would have lived had it happened a few years later.

Susan. .I too am a FindAGrave Volunteer and I go out and photograph old cemeteries and photo requests. .I just got thru doing a spreadsheet on an old Indian Cemetery in Hominy Oklahoma. It was Hominy's first cemetery. .there's lot of infant and childrens tombstones there also but the one inscription that has stuck in my mind was for an adult, it said. .
"How desolate our home, bereft of thee". . . .That is so hauntingly sad. . . Debbie

Debbie, that is just stunning. No wonder it has stayed with you. Gives me chills.

After seeing someone's post on here about find- a- grave we found where my husband's brother is buried. He died while in the navy and was married so the wife had him buried in her state. I don't think the family was notified that he had died for awhile. My sister-in-law had some ideas but wasn't sure. She has since died but we found him. He is buried in a national cementery in So.Dakota. We also found a good friend from long ago had died. We also saw pictures of other family member,s graves in MO and Ark. Some we had seen and some not.
It does seem strange sometimes. My mother died in July and her grave is listed but my stepfather who died probably 15 years ago and is buried next to her isn't listed at all.My niece, nephew and brother in the same cemetery are listed but not my aunt, uncle, grandma and grandpa.

I thought you would like to see these two.

The first is the stone of children of my Aunt and Uncle. I believe the babies might have been twins.

{{!gwi}}

And to leave you with a smile, this was their dog. It is appropriately? near a tree.

{{gwi:1575107}}

The cemetery is in Gaffney, SC.

Sue

Tombstones do have an effect on you. When I was growing up, eon years ago, we always decorated the graves on memorial day. We always went on Saturday to pull weeds and clean the grave up. Country cemetaries didn't have a groundskeeper so family would always take care of the graves throughout the year.
Then on late Sunday or early early morning memorial day, we'd cut flowers from the garden, arrange them and off to the cemetary.
While cleaning the graves, I got to investigate. I found neat things laying on the ground, like neat rocks, change and even a toad in one of the grave's flower jars. Momma told me not to go emptying the jars as that was NOT nice. I also found a small headstone with baby shoes on top. One shoe upright and the other on it's side. It was a baby girl's grave.
I brought momma to the grave and she read it to me. The grave wasn't cleaned off and no old jars for flowers. We cleaned off the grave and on memorial day I brought the baby flowers.
This went on till I married and moved away at 21. Momma took care of the baby for me after I left. Several years later momma called to let me know there were flowers on the grave and someone else had cleaned the grave.
Apparently the family had moved back or relatives found out about the grave. Now she has flowers every year. Rest in Peace dear baby girl.
Lynn

Susan,

That is quite moving...thanks for sharing it.

My mom's "family" plot is several hours SE of here, and we try to go twice a year to decorate. There is a nearby child's grave with a lamb curled up on top of the stone, and we always stop to put something out there.

These were taken in Vicksburg, MS. So many were killed during the Civil War that they simply marked some graves with number.

{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

Patruth, I think most of the non-famous graves listed on FindAGrave are put there by individuals. I've put up over 100 (with pictures) myself, at random. I didn't know any of the people. That probably explains why some of your family members are listed on the site, and some are not.

Sue, that is so sweet. Both of them.

What a lovely story, Lynn. You have a sweet momma.

Rita, I'd never seen or heard of the numbered graves. What a terrible war. All war is terrible.

This one also really moved me. .this woman was so loved. The inscription reads
Lord, she was thine,and not mine own
Thou hast not done me wrong
I thank thee for the precious loan
Afforded me so long. .
{{!gwi}}

Aww...what touching photos and stories. I, too, love browsing around cemetaries. They're both sad and comforting too, if that can be true.

Is FindAGrave the same as RAOGK? Just wondering.

I've got to go about 12 miles out this afternoon and take some photos for a guy that requested them.

Wow... what a lovely sentiment! *sniff*

des-arc that's exactly right!...when ds was in college, had an assignment to visit a local gravesite of founding fathers in tiny town..he didn't want to go alone, so i went with him...

what was interesting was how much easier the photos were to read than some of the actual stones...

what i found out was how extensive the records mortuaries collect these days...they asked all sorts of questions when mother passed...like a mini ancestry...

I've been trying to find someone to go look for my grandfathers (genetic only) grave in California. Do you have any ideas who I should contact?
Leslie

What is RAOGK? Is there a web site and can you post the link? I would be very interested in checking it out.
FindAGrave is just FindAGrave.com
Please be very careful about going by yourself, I have heard many scary stories of women surprised by strange men in cemeteries, especially out of the way ones. It's very easy to get caught up in what you are doing, just pay close attention to your surroundings and keep moving your car so it's close by. If you are going out in the country it would be a really good idea to take someone with you. For those of you that also do this, what do you take with you? Such as, bug spray, clippers, spray bottle of water etc? . .Debbie

There is an old cementery not far from our summer place.There's one rather tall headstone with the names of 6 children all who died within a day or two of each other during the great flu epedemic...the mothers name is also on there having died around the same time.We can only imagine how sad and difficult it must have been to go through something like that.

Grammahony. .Do you know what cemetery he is buried in? Tell me what his name is and if you know, birth and death dates and if you know ...what cemetery he is buried in, if not what town and or county. .just what ever you do know and I will see if I can find his grave for you. Debbie

Alisande/Susan, if I could reach out to you right now, I'd give you the biggest hug.

Because of your post, I've found the cemetery and paid a virtual visit to my baby girl's gravesite, where I haven't been since 1963.

I'm forever grateful to you for this gift.

(((((Susan)))))

dbfirewife, here's the info I have. If you'd like to do this off the forum, you can e-mail me at my address on my page.
Leslie

Boyd H. Farnam
SS# 562-18-6298
Birth Date: May 1884 (I've also seen it as 1887, but in a 1900 census it shows him 16 yrs old)
Birth Place: New York
Death Date: June 1948
Death Place Los Angeles
Mother's Maiden Name: Chamberlan
Father's Surname: Farnam (he had said it was Farnam, but I've found out in truth it was Hudson)

Thanks for doing this.

I find grave headstones fascinating. Some of just so sad to read though.

When we travel between California and Arizona we usually stop at a little wide spot in the road with a population of about 2,000 near the border called Quartzsite. 2,000 people except in Jan and Feb when over a million rock hounds in 40,000-50,000 RVs arrive.

Quartzsite has an interesting little cemetery which is the final resting place of Hi Jolly, a camel driver the Calvary hired back in the mid-1800s.

Here are some photos of the desolate desert Hi Jolly Cemetery.

The pyramid looking structure is Hi Jolly's grave. I have several close up shots of his grave if anyones interested.

A close up of the wooden headstone in the foreground of the Hi Jolly photo.

Other graves...

My husband looking at a family plot.

Jodi-

Grammahony. .I sent you two e-mails. .Debbie

Thanks Debbie, I got them.

Granlan, I'm soooo happy this post was helpful to you. I didn't know you'd lost a child. I'm sorry, and I'm hugging you back.

I got started doing this because I was so moved (and grateful) to see the gravestones of two of my great-great-grandparents, photographed in London. I've only been doing it a few months, but it's very rewarding.

Debbie, RAOGK is Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness, and it's quite different from FindAGrave. The website is . RAOGK matches up volunteers with people who need their services. I'm signed up to do gravestone photographs only, but some people more skilled than I volunteer to do research or copy documents at the courthouse, etc.

When I go out on an assignment I just bring my camera and a microfiber cloth to clean off a stone if necessary. I live in a very rural, low-crime (knock wood!) area, and I go by myself, usually at mid-day to catch the best light.

I also keep a camera in the car at all times. Today I had to make a 35-mile trip in an unfamiliar direction, and sure enough, I spotted a little cemetery by the side of the road. I was early for my appointment, so I came home with lots of gravestone photographs to upload to FindAGrave. It's a bit addictive, especially after getting a thank-you note from someone (on the other side of the country) who was thrilled to find one of my random photographs on the site.

Debbie, what a beautiful inscription! And Jodi, a desolate cemetery indeed. But interesting, especially the camel driver and the wooden tombstone. I wonder how long they expected it to last?

The family plot actually looks quite cozy.

Susan

These are in the DeBorgia, Montana Cemetery. I took a ton of pictures when I went thru this cemetery...all thru tears. Some were so old and obviously forgotten.

This has turned into an awesome photo thread! How cool!