I'm Tombstone Annie....

Well....that's one of my nicknames....

Reverend Moses Mather's tombstone, 

one of the many tombstone's I've photographed and chronicled.

Reverend Mather was buried more than 200 years ago, in 1806. 

The elements haven't been kind to the engraving on his stone. 

Taken in the ~Old Five Mile Cemetery~, aka Brookside Cemetery

on Rowaton Ave. in Norwalk, CT.

(backside of the tombstone in the first photo)

 Norwalk has begun to restore the old graveyards of our city. 

Poor restoration habits had been employed for many past years, 

not for lack of caring, but from lack of knowledge. 

Thankfully, there are now folks well taught in the best preservation methods.  

~

Enough of you have asked me why my blog is named The Tombstone Chronicler that I feel the need to explain a bit. (And, no, I don't reside in Tombstone, Arizona!) I became interested in genealogy about 15 years ago - don't really know what was the first spark, but along the way, I began wanting to know how I got here as me. Who were these people that came before me that made me who I am? 

I know from friends and family that this (read "my") genealogy thing (read "obsession") is a very personal journey/interest. Either you care or you don't. I care. Most of my family doesn't. And that's OK. It's my obsession/love not theirs. And I do love finding out about my own family and helping others (who may not even be related to me) find out about theirs. 

Out of my love of genealogy I've discovered the wonderful website www.findagrave.com.Now I spend some of my weekends traipsing through the cemeteries around here taking photos and then adding and documenting them on findagrave.com (F-A-G for short - their abbreviation, not mine:-). I try to go to the older cemeteries as those tombstones are the ones most in peril of being destroyed, by time and the elements, as you can see from the photos above (by the way, Moses Mather isn't my ancestor, just one of the tombstones I've added). I've even been the first to document several of the old cemeteries in our area. It's a good feeling to know that in some small way they've been "preserved" for the future. I also find it so very peaceful and calming to walk through these areas that are filled with so many different stories and histories. Believe it or not, when I first discovered F-A-G, there was only around 8,000 grave sites chronicled. Now there are around 27,000,000 chronicled (and counting!) - I've added 1,109 memorials and 1,460 photos! Word of mouth truly works! Amazing isn't it? (Click on that last above link to see my F-A-G page if you're interested.)

I know this is a love of some of us and not everyone. So - I'll try to remember to fill you in on this mad persuit of mine from time to time.  Just skip those posts if this isn't your thrill.  I'll forgive you....well maybe...o come on, you love tombstones too...right??;-)

xoabb

expect anything!