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Merry
06-07-12, 12:36
Nothing to add to BK6 from this thread

Following adding my ToGG4 thread this morning I was reminded of a problem with the death and burial detals for the wife of my 4xg-grandfather, Thomas Buck.

Thomas died in 1826 aged 90, according to his memorial inscription, and this matches other info I have about him.

The gravestone names two other people, one is a child (granddaughter of Thomas) who died in 1814, everything matches well for her too. The other person is Thomas's wife, Mary. The gravestone says she died on 8th Jan 1807, but that's not right as she died in 1813! The interesting bit is that her sister-in-law, also Mary Buck (wife of Thomas's brother, Henry), DID die on 8th Jan 1807. At first I thought, fair enough, the gravestone was erected at least 13 years after Mary's death - perhaps many more years later - and someone has looked for her burial and found the wrong one. However, that doesn't really work either as the burial on 14th Jan 1807 doesn't give the date of death - the only place that shows up is with the will of the Mary who died in 1807, but the will is clearly not for the wife of Thomas as 1) she says she is a widow and, though Henry was dead by 1807, Thomas was alive and 2) the children named in the will are all the children of Henry and Mary and not the children of Thomas and Mary!!

So, whoever erected the gravestone was confused anough to get the wrong Mary, but efficient enough to know the exact date of death. Very curious.

In this case perhaps it doesn't make a great deal of difference as had I only had the stone to go on I would just have my Mary dying at the wrong date which wouldn't affect the rest of my research, but imagine if it was critical - what if the wrong date had been within Mary's child-bearing years and it appeared she had died before all her family had been born? I might have spent forever looking for records to back up something that never happened!!!

*observes glazed-eyed audience*

*creeps away from thread*

kiterunner
06-07-12, 12:53
I must have mentioned my Australian rellies' gravestone before, which has the wrong year of death for both people mentioned on it. But at least the day and month are correct!

Phoenix
06-07-12, 12:58
Merry, there's a lovely ledger slab in Devon which names about three generations of one family, so spanning over more than fifty years, all in the same (for want of a better word) font. It glosses over the awkward silence of the registers in one generation, suggesting that those who ordered the stone knew no more than I do.

lozaras
06-07-12, 13:51
*blinks several times in pathetic bid to hide the glazed-over-ness. ;)

Uncle John
06-07-12, 14:28
*Wonders what they are on about*

Phoenix
06-07-12, 15:42
*batters Sarah & UJ about the head with a mason's mistake*

What Merry has to say is ALWAYS interesting!

*smiles sycophantically & leaves a polished apple on the desk*

JBee
06-07-12, 16:28
As they probably couldn't read or write the family wouldn't realise a mistake had been made!!!

Merry
06-07-12, 16:49
This branch of mine could, Julie! I wish I knew who organised the inscription!

Unfortunately there isn't a stone for the other couple (I expect there was once as they were the better off pair) as it would be funny to see if the other stone had the same date for the spouse of Henry as is inscribed for the wife of Thomas!

Nell
07-07-12, 10:42
Gravestones - like certificates and census entries and other sources of information, are liable to human error.

All info is suspect. I got a book at the LDS centre in London, listing gravestones in Limpenhoe (Norfolk) churchyard. So far so good, but the book spells the village Lympanhoe and one of my rellies is listed as Hannah Rebecca, although the gravestone clearly says Anna Rebecca!

Tom Tom
07-07-12, 10:43
Does it say "His wife Mary..." or does it say "Also of Mary..."?

Is it possible he was buried with his sister in law?

Tom Tom
07-07-12, 10:44
... Another thought....

Perhaps the gravestone was erected several years later and the date of death was taken from a family Bible and they got muddled up that way?

Merry
07-07-12, 10:59
It did say 'wife of', Tom, but that other idea sounds very possible! I know my 2xg-grandfather (ie grandson of Thomas and Mary) was very keen on listing dates of the births and deaths of family members in his dairy, though annoyingly all the events he has listed are to do with his mother's ancestors and not his father's. I doubt he had the gravestone errected as he moved away from the area as a teen settling some counties away.

Tom Tom
07-07-12, 11:02
I have just been thinking about this a bit more.

My great great Grandad had a little birthday book. He recorded deaths in it as well, but put things like Mrs William Davenport '07.

It is only because I have seen gravestones that I was able to be certain as to which Mrs William Davenport it was (there were three William Davenports, all cousins, born within 18 months of each other).

I can see how things could get easily muddled had he been more of a recorder and included extended family.

Uncle John
07-07-12, 11:20
I know my 2xg-grandfather (ie grandson of Thomas and Mary) was very keen on listing dates of the births and deaths of family members in his dairy

Did he transcribe them into a book later or did he have a desk there?

Merry
07-07-12, 11:44
All I know is that he was b 1818 and by 1836 he had left Weymouth and gone to London. His uncle had a timber yard across Westminster bridge from the Houses of parliament and this uncle died in 1840. My ancestor probably lived with them for a time as the widowed aunt gave her late husband's pocket book to my g-g-grandfather with an inscription regarding this. The pocket book was filled with religious tracts in very faint pencil and diary entries about social events in even fainter pencil (I can't read any of it :() My ancestor entered a load of his maternal ancestors dates (the uncle was his mother's brother) presuamably whilst he was in London but all the dates are correct! He wrote a few other bits and pieces and the nothing more is in the book for 50 years or so when it was used for shopping lists by gg-father's daughter! I have other bits of paper with lists of dates by the same man, but they are mostly friends not relations.