I received a very wonderful email this week about a great blog post on Billion Graves. Let me quote a few lines from the post here. In it, you will find 10 Cemeteries To See Before You Die. The pictures are amazing.

“I can’t tell you how many people have said to us in hushed voices, as though sharing a secretive confidence, “You know, I actually really like going to cemeteries. I know that sounds strange, but I do.”

Well, here at BillionGraves, we’ve heard it often enough to know that it’s not strange at all. Cemeteries can be amazingly beautiful. From their park-like settings, where visitors can picnic or go for a walk, to their breath-taking sculptures that rival those in any art museum – cemeteries can just be awesome places to hangout.”

I would like to add one more to the list. Hope Cemetery in Barre, Vermont. Hope Cemetery is located next to the quarry that produces the granite for all of these custom made headstones. We visited it and it is truly a one of a kind cemetery. It is modern and even kids love it. The inscriptions on the headstones that are unique pieces of sculpture are inspiring and often funny. I am sure it has changed many people’s paradigms about cemetery visits.

This Billion Graves post made me think about why visiting cemeteries has fallen out of favor with so many in our day and age. For centuries, all over the world, people have gathered in cemeteries to commune with each other and find peace and comfort near their kindred dead. More than once I’ve seen a raised eyebrow when mentioning that we enjoy going to cemeteries. Have you? What do you attribute it to actually? As I have thought about it it may be the media. Too many horror movies, and also from my childhood, too many creepy ghost stories. Those can affect small children, I still remember some of them I heard decades ago. Maybe the most important thing is there is still room for improvement among many that know nothing about their ancestors. Jim and I have visited many cemeteries, cleaned headstones, photographed them and been touched by the sayings and quotes people have chosen for them. We find children’s sections in cemeteries to be the most poignant of all.

My husband’s grandmother was living in San Francisco as a small child in 1906. She had one younger brother that died when he was a baby and 8 days old. This was very hard on his big sister as he was a precious baby and her only sibling. When I met her in her 50s she was still trying to locate where he had been buried. Her parents were Italian immigrants and she remembered he was buried somewhere in Colma, CA. Her memory had dimmed as she was only six when he died. She told us his name was Franchesco Franchini.

Years after her death Jim and I set out to try to find this infant great uncle of his. Our first place to look was the Internet, but no luck. So we traveled to San Francisco and went to the mortuary that had long stood in the neighborhood where they had lived. We were so hopeful, but their records only went back to 1910. Earlier records had been destroyed in the 1906 big earthquake and fire. That was exactly the year this tiny baby was born and died.  By that time San Francisco was running out of land for cemeteries and so the city of Colma, south of San Francisco, became the city of cemeteries in the bay area. There are several very large cemeteries there. They are known as the city that has more dead residents than living! We started an exhaustive search for his burial place in Colma.  Still nothing.

One day I was working in the FamilySearch Library and I was looking at an old website called Micavo. I decided to just search for his father’s name on a whim. Pietro Franchini. Much to my surprise, I found a Pietro Franchini buried in the Italian Cemetery in Colma, CA. I knew it couldn’t be our Pietro Franchini, the baby’s father as he and his wife had returned to Italy before they died. I called the Italian Cemetery the next day. and asked them to check their records. They had only one Pietro Franchini in the entire cemetery. I said was he by chance a baby? The man answered YES! Bingo, we had found our baby!   It was time to revisit the county records office and try to find a death certificate. We went to the records office an got this certificate! We were elated.

We went straight over to find his little grave. We discovered he did not even have a little marker. So we decided on the spot we would get one made for him. That was the day we fell in love with cemeteries. Jim’s mother became interested in family history that day. She even had her DNA done at age 91.

We all have visited that grave many times, brought flowers and had picnics there.  Little Pietro was only called Franchesco but his real name was after his father. His sister never lived long enough to even know that.  That day we felt a real connection with that family and it left a lasting impression.

Do you have a story that changed your thoughts about visiting cemeteries? If so, please share it. Recently Jim’s mom passed away at nearly 93. We gathered all of our children and grandchildren around us for her funeral. We went privately to the graveside and had a powerful family gathering where we talked about her and being together again one day. It was very touching and the kids all loved it. Gathering around a loved one’s grave can bring great peace and comfort and affirmations of what we truly believe. Our Grandsons, Connor, and Zach carefully laid the flowers on her grave, it was a beautiful sight. Our grandkids had the opportunity to visit not only their great-grandma’s resting place that day along with Jim’s father. They visited my parents, Jim’s brother, their cousin and also their second great-grandparents, (Pietro’s sister, Grandma Marge and Grandpa Andrew.) Most of our grandkids that live in Utah have done a genealogy project for their schools about an ancestor. Grampa Andrew was the one most of the kids chose. So it was nice for them to see where he is buried when they were all here in June.

The Family History Guide has a lot of information on Billion Graves, cemeteries, and their records. Try the Google Search bar on the Homepage of the Family History Guide, the Country Pages or the Vault or Topics for other interesting information. I hope this post has inspired you to take some visits, photos and even a picnic to a local cemetery to see what you can find and enjoy there. For those of you that like to avoid crowds, they are nice places to visit. Peaceful, restful and beautiful are all great attractions for some of us. What about you? Please share a story with us if you are so inclined. Comments can be added under the selection of other blog posts on similar topics below.  What is your take on visiting cemeteries? Yay or nay?