I dig camping... and graves!
Graveyards have always held a particular fascination for me. Growing up in a small New England town, the elementary, junior and senior high schools were all situated next to old cemeteries. A grammar school classmate and I would sit up against the chain link divider fence during recess and play a game we called 'Dead People'. We held elaborate funerals filled with decorum for figures fashioned from twigs, leaves and stones. We would gaze at the gravestones erected hundreds of years ago as we hummed, sang, preached and buried our own 'dead'. (It wasn't until years later that I realized this was not an actual game played by other children, or even really a normal thing to do.)
Camping in the former Massachusetts Bay Colony affords many opportunities to explore the final resting places of the earliest settlers. (Also known as taphophilia which is apparently a normal grown up thing to do-phew!) While hiking from the campground to the beach, nothing beats a side trip to these peaceful places filled with poetic markers, relics from a past when extended families were born, lived and died side by side. A two hundred year story is written across these plots. This history of epidemics, harsh winters, farming accidents and rough seas is palpable.
At the end of last season, I just couldn't let that history go. I've always known I'm 'from here' and decided to explore just HOW 'from'. I started poking around Ancestry.com back in October, starting with a tree filled with the ancestors whose names I could remember. 4,341 family members later, I have an arsenal of information about those who came before me, dating back to the 1300s in France and England. Their triumphs and tragedies can be gleaned from old church records and history books, their journeys across the sea well chronicled by journals. Ancestry hosts the mother of all databases, chock full of scanned documents, books and user generated content. It's like open source for genealogists. In just one winter, I gained enough information to fill a lifetime of cemetery excursions. So Snappy Campers, this summer when you're racing to the beaches, don't wait up for me. I'll have a few extra side trips to make before I hit the sand.
Old Town Cemetery in Sandwich Massachusetts where my 9th great grandfather, Thomas Burgess was buried in 1685.
photo credit : ancestry.com user bos1814a
Camping in the former Massachusetts Bay Colony affords many opportunities to explore the final resting places of the earliest settlers. (Also known as taphophilia which is apparently a normal grown up thing to do-phew!) While hiking from the campground to the beach, nothing beats a side trip to these peaceful places filled with poetic markers, relics from a past when extended families were born, lived and died side by side. A two hundred year story is written across these plots. This history of epidemics, harsh winters, farming accidents and rough seas is palpable.
At the end of last season, I just couldn't let that history go. I've always known I'm 'from here' and decided to explore just HOW 'from'. I started poking around Ancestry.com back in October, starting with a tree filled with the ancestors whose names I could remember. 4,341 family members later, I have an arsenal of information about those who came before me, dating back to the 1300s in France and England. Their triumphs and tragedies can be gleaned from old church records and history books, their journeys across the sea well chronicled by journals. Ancestry hosts the mother of all databases, chock full of scanned documents, books and user generated content. It's like open source for genealogists. In just one winter, I gained enough information to fill a lifetime of cemetery excursions. So Snappy Campers, this summer when you're racing to the beaches, don't wait up for me. I'll have a few extra side trips to make before I hit the sand.
Old Town Cemetery in Sandwich Massachusetts where my 9th great grandfather, Thomas Burgess was buried in 1685.
photo credit : ancestry.com user bos1814a
Posted by Jennifer at 4/4/2009 11:28 AM 
Categories: Not P-town but still snappy
Tags: genealogy graveyards. Sandwich Mass Old Town Cemetery taphophilia
Categories: Not P-town but still snappy
Tags: genealogy graveyards. Sandwich Mass Old Town Cemetery taphophilia
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