Preservation in the United Kingdom (Moved from comment Wall)

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Permalink Reply by Debbra Walker on July 24, 2009 at 12:48pm

Comment by Teresa McVeigh 1 day ago moved from comment wall. Re: Graveyards and stones in the UK
Yes, they are wonderfully preserved. In fact the British are exceedingly into preservation of everything historical, from tombstones to 1000 year old churches to 3000 year old henges (stone circles). I could not actually search much for ancestor graves in the UK since almost all of my and my husband's lines came over before the Revolution, were mostly poor Scots and Irish, and tracing them to the homeland has been difficult. But my husband and I were enamoured with the churches, which are often the oldest buildings, and loved the ancient Celtic stones (c700-900 AD). Most churches are exceedingly well preserved, even the rare Anglo-Saxon ones. If you can find where someone is buried, there may be excellent records and stones. Most parish registers are preserved and may date back to the 1500s.

Permalink Reply by Debbra Walker on July 24, 2009 at 12:52pm

Comment by Kay Adkins 23 hours ago (moved from the comment wall)
How wonderful it must be to see those old cemeteries! The oldest one I've ever seen was in Nova Scotia. There's an Arcadia Press book about San Diego, CA cemeteries - I bought it for a friend whose relative was mentioned in it. It's so sad how San Diego completely disresepcted a lot of their old cemeteries -bulldozed them and built freeways over them with no atempt at documentation or preservation. They actually built a big "grave" and pushed lots of the old headstones into it, keeping a few to mark the top. It's the only place with a grave for headstones. Makes me glad I didn't have any San Diego pioneers in my family.