My husband and I share a love of travel, of seeing the world from a new perspective, learning about new cultures, people, history. Here in Vermont we share a border with Canada and have beloved cousins there. No go, though only a few hours from the border! Our European dreams have been feasting on Rick Steves’ travelogues through beautiful counties on the Mediterranean, Adriatic, and along the Arno, Rhine, Danube. We now count on documentaries with drone flights across jungle claimed lost cities and imaginatively drained oceans in search of ancient cultures and shipwrecks.
Once upon a time, we conducted art tours through the mountains loved by the Hudson River School artists. Now we head to remote state parks and find beaches too crowded for us to get out of the car.
Lately we’ve found a cure for our wanderlust...we've been taking walks through local graveyards and cemeteries, in search of lives that genealogists are trying to track down. You can find lists of such requests on FindaGrave.com. Claim them to start your search. The oldest gravestones in our area are in church yards. We have seen some beautiful stone carvings from early America and our Federal period. And the names! Sometimes the stones even the stories of lives well-lived or cut short by childbirth, disease, sudden violence.
Later in the the 19th century cemeteries were established in garden-like settings, for picnic visits with deceased loved ones. We found ourselves talking to the people on our lists, scraping away lichen from their stones to make out their dates. We were rarely in the company of the living except for an occasional groundskeeper or romping dog. Ah, socially distanced mask freedom!
When we return home, I go on FindaGrave.com and log in our images of discoveries.
A pleasant surprise? Within hours, my email inbox is usually full of messages from far-flung relatives with profound thanks.
We recommend grave hunting to everyone.
Travel Ban isn't fun. There are places I would like to visit and people I would love to see. Someday.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I miss most too, Janet...seeing the people I've come to know and love. So glad for the NJ Conference and our time together there because...who knew THIS was coming???
DeleteI should start doing this again! I have visited cemeteries in Boston and the headstones are remarkable. Plus as a writer, they are always a source of inspiration. Thank you for reminding me about this. It will get me out of the house!
ReplyDeleteOh yes, Barbara, the gravestones of Boston are amazing...such artistry. And the names!! Happy hunting!
DeleteEileen, what a brilliant idea! I've been looking for something to do, somewhere to go during this pandemic. I love old graveyards. That's where I'll go. I'll bet there will be writing inspiration galore!
ReplyDeleteIt's great for names, too, Eileen...you can see the perennials and the popular ones decade by decade that have since faded away!
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