A Monument of Paper

The second item in Trinity College’s Long Room that I thought deserved a place on this blog is certainly a different kind of memorial than I usually encounter.  A copy of one volume of  Ireland’s Memorial Records 1914-1918 was on display.  This book lists over 49,000 Irishmen who died in World War I: name, birthplace, rank, unit, cause of death, and place of death.

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It’s a small world after all…

I don’t remember why I originally snapped this photo months ago, but when I was flipping through my work looking to write about it, I saw something new there. One of the classes I attended at Pennsic was about Canterbury Cathedral in Great Britain, and the instructor had become interested in the area partially because she was able to trace her family to the nearby Isle of Thanet. Imagine my surprise when I realized that Edward Gifford, buried in Strongsville, Ohio, began his life across the sea in the same small place as her ancestors.

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Collins Wordless Wednesday

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Ellis Wordless Wednesday

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Soldier of the Revolution and War of 1812

Much of cemetery research is piecing together little tidbits of information from dozens of different sources to finally weave together some fragment of a story about the deceased. It means that just about any story you can learn enough to weave together is going to be more information that a casual visitor to the cemetery has at hand.

And then you encounter a tombstone like this.

What else can I tell you about Gamaliel Fenton? This is more information than I usually can dream about finding on someone buried in a cemetery. In this case, I think the story of the memorial itself is probably more elusive than the story of this life.

As you have probably guessed, the stone pictured above is not Gamaliel Fenton’s original tombstone. It sits next to an earlier monument for himself, his wife, and at least some of his sons. I don’t know if this monument is original to the date of his death.

Information on Fenton’s intricate tombstone is sketchy at best at the moment. I’ve found a reference stating that it was unveiled as part of a public ceremony in 1941, but no more information than that. I will have to dig into the old newspapers to find out who sponsored and created the stone to honor him.

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The Importance of Place

If you look at the vast majority of tombstones, there isn’t much information there. So anything that is on there must be important. Particularly in older graveyards, there is a significant emphasis on place – place of birth, place of residence, or place of death.

In Erie Street Cemetery, we are provided almost a map of movement westward with the grave of Esther Clampett, formerly of New Jersey and then Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The Kepplers were immigrants from Germany and France.

Immigrant John Cubben was born on the Isle of Man.

Does place hold the same significance for us now, in a world where I could visit the places listed on all three of these markers in a matter of days with an ambitious flight itinerary and money for the tickets?

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