n the middle of Hartford lies The Old Burying Ground. This little cemetery is next to a church. Many of the founding families of Hartford are buried there. The gravestones are old, faded and, in some cases, have fallen over. In the midst of the traffic and noise of a city, this little place of quiet and refuge tells a story.
So many markers are for women who died at the age of 30 or thereabouts. You know they died in childbirth. So many children, taken so young. Oh, it’s heartbreaking to read these stones.
Every stone tells a story. Some are very simple, some are ornate. I don’t know about you, but I like visiting old cemeteries. I’m always quiet, doing my best to honor those who have departed. In a graveyard as old as this one, you really get a sense of what life was like in the mid to late 1700’s. Though there were many stones that told of untimely death, there were also many for people who lived into their 80’s. How must it have felt to be one of the original settlers of a town? How brave they all were.
Just a snapshot from my time on the road.
I love old cemeteries too. As a family tree searcher they can be useful. Had to comment on yesterdays post about the trombone players. My son is a trombone performance major-he’d love this as I do!
I do geneaology and I have many photos of tombstones where I have done my research. Old cemetaries can be so interesting! I love how some can be so ornate and then what they say on them can be so intriguing. Thanks for sharing this Claudia!~Hugs, Patti
Kane and I walk in an old cemetery often near my home. There are areas of it where the dates go back to 1800’s and areas of recent burials. It is fascinating to read the stones and wonder who these people really were. So little said about them and their life. A few of the stones have pictures of the deceased holding a beloved dog. So sweet and sad.
I love old cemeteries too. They are so calm and peaceful. And the headstones are so beautiful and different.
Dear Claudia,
I was at our local cemetery this last wed 18th.. A dear friend of 58 died last year and I took his wife to put some fresh rosebuds on his grave.. I go with her when she asks me.
I took lots of photos of our beautiful cemetery. Its amazing how people do not forget their loved ones passed away.
Beautiful flowers of all kinds.
This is a most lovely heartwarming post
thank you for sharing it.
best wishes
Val
Right beside my house is an old cemetery and I like to wander there and think about the people behind the names. There is one memorial to 3 children that died within days of each other. You know it will have been something infectious that took them all. ~ Maureen
Beautiful photos. I also love walking through old cemeteries, imagining about the lives of those buried there. I live in southern California, so I don’t see memorials dating back to the 1700s.
I often think about how sad it was for our ancesors, loosing a child because of measels or even the flu,
childbirth,
my grandmother told me when she was 7 her mother and baby sister died in childbirth, her mother was 26 , breaks my heart and it did my grandmother the rest of her life because after her mother died life was not good for her and I know lots of other children back in the early 1900’s experienced this also
the stones are pretty
I often think about how sad it was for our ancesors, loosing a child because of measels or even the flu,
childbirth,
my grandmother told me when she was 7 her mother and baby sister died in childbirth, her mother was 26 , breaks my heart and it did my grandmother the rest of her life because after her mother died life was not good for her and I know lots of other children back in the early 1900’s experienced this also
the stones are pretty
I often think about how sad it was for our ancesors, loosing a child because of measels or even the flu,
childbirth,
my grandmother told me when she was 7 her mother and baby sister died in childbirth, her mother was 26 , breaks my heart and it did my grandmother the rest of her life because after her mother died life was not good for her and I know lots of other children back in the early 1900’s experienced this also
the stones are pretty
And to think that antibiotics haven’t been available to us for all that long! Such sad stories those stones tell!
Hi Claudia! I also love old cemeteries. They are wonderful, quiet places to go for walks. Plus, there are beautiful trees! I don’t like to go for solitary walks anymore though. Too deserted. Who knows what’s out there! Maybe you think I’m being silly. It’s just that a woman alone is never safe in a deserted place. The world we live in has changed so much from when I was a child. There’s a beautiful wooded area around where I live and there’s nothing I would like more than to just be able to go there and walk and look at all the trees and all the wild plants.I would be in my element and I know that I would feel so uplifted when I came back home. But I know that if someone tried to abduct me, I would not be able to defend myself. So, I tend not to go to deserted areas anymore. I used to, though. Just not anymore. Well, I felt I needed to share this. A woman alone is not even safe on a deserted bike path. I know this for a fact because somebody met a very nasty end not far from where I live just a few years ago. That’s when I started being afraid!
Claudia, I love walking old cemeteries too. There are some great ones in Delaware (the first state) that are very old. There are some gorgeous cemeteries in Charleston and Savannah too. Thanks for sharing the sentiments on some of these very old stones.
Just catching up here. Every time I pop back after I’ve missed a few posts it’s a real treat to catch up with what’s happening in your world.
Referring back … I think we all feel overwhelmed sometimes by the things you describe Claudia. I couldn’t begin to post every day, the pressure to keep up would floor me. I aim for 10-12 posts a month and that’s quite enough for me. I was reading somewhere else about the internet and all it’s demands killing a blogger’s creativity … I guess there’s something to be said for that. But looking in from the outside, your creativity is alive and kicking.
Have a great weekend my bloggy friend x
Claudia, you are right. The #1 cause of death for women back then was childbirth. And more often than not, the baby died too. So so sad.
My mom has visited a lot of these old cemeteries, in order to get rubbings of family stones.
Wow! My Husband and I have been researching our ancestry this year and I have traced one line to this area and this exact cemetery! I agree the headstones are incredible and I’m sure this is a “spirit” filled resting place…..Thank you for the wonderful pics. Have you ever posted any of this type of pic on the FindAGrave.com website?
Brenda Johnson
I absolutely loved this post. I love to go to old cemeteries and read the headstones. There is such history there. Plus, the inscriptions back then were so interesting.
I completely agree with you, Claudia! Wandering throught our local burial ground has always been a pleasure of mine, too. It’s so calming and beautiful. Ours dates back to the 17th c. with some old slate stones that are so worn the names can barely be read. A neighbor and I frequently take walks there and study the stones, reading about people.
For their age those tombstones are in great shape and so different.
I have always loved to visit graveyards. My Aunt was the “keeper of the graveyard” when we lived in the mountains of PA..and I often was her tag along. When we travel I always try to stop by some of the beautiful old graveyards we see. xo Diana
I love the old cemeteries. It’s sad that so many stones have been eaten away by acid rain. As I’ve wandered through these sacred bits of land I wonder who these long forgotten beings were and what stories they could tell. Thank you for the walk into the past.
You hardly find any cemeteries with old graves and gravestones. After 20 years (the latest in the row) the graves are closed which means there is lawn for another 20 years until new graves are built. This year my grandmother Anna’s grave is going to be closed (she died June, 1990). We can take her gravestone home.
My baby boy died 10 years ago, and I don’t know what they are going to do with the grave in 10 years. As he was cremated, I can take the urn home and burry it unter the oak we planted in his memory?
I love old graveyards, Claudia. Thanks so much for sharing this with us.
Laura
I always love to take a look at this blog.
The gravestones resemble those you see in English cemeteries and are really interesting. Some of them, over here, go back hundreds of years!
A while ago my husband and I visited a cemetery in Highgate, London, where Karl Marx is buried. It was an incredible experience! I later found out that the wife of PreRaphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, is buried there, too! so… we’ll have to go back there another time!
Thank you for a lovely blog!
ANNA