This week’s theme over at The Gallery is At Peace.
Now this can be interpreted, as Tara did when announcing the theme, as personal peace and quiet (“a quiet corner with a book, or sitting in the bath by candlelight”) or in the sense of beyond the grave. I’ve chosen the latter interpretation.
Click the image for a larger version
This is the grave in churchyard of St Nicholas, New Romney, Kent of David Masey (10 October to 28 July 1882) who was my great-great-grandfather and his wife Mary. Also commemorated are a number of their family members (none in my direct line). We know from the census returns that David Masey was a fisherman, but I’ve been told that he was also variously a greengrocer, fishmonger, boatman and a lifeboatman at Littlestone.
St Nicholas, New Romney is an interesting church in a small country town and has the usual peaceful and rather idyllic churchyard. When I searched there last I was unable to find any other Masey graves, although sadly very many of the headstones are so weathered as to be unreadable.
There's an interesting project all by itself. I know (not from practical experience, but I've seen it done) that if you photograph weathered gravestones from the right angles and in the right conditions, you can often recover the inscriptions.But even if you can't, that graveyard – any graveyard – is worth documenting as it is *now*. Photograph every headstone, tag it, database it. Because what you do now might help someone find their ancestors decades down the line.
@John … Actually I think New Romney churchyard has been documented (how I wish they all were!) and sadly I'm not near enough to be able to "drop in" and do a bit at a time. Yes, photographing headstones can work; wetting them is good too.
There's something about a graveyard that calms the senses. A feeling of respect, perhaps? I find that even my boisterous children quieten when we walk through the churchyard…!
Interesting photo and take on the theme 🙂