How odd Marriage date on Headstone ?

[Guest]

never seen this before

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~murrayp/nipissin/sturgeon/union/slater1.jpg

[Chrissie Smiff]

It looks as though John plans to be buried in the same grave. It's very poignant, a real love match.

[Guest]

hadn't thought of that Chrissie, be a great help to anybody researching them having the marriage date.

[Chrissie Smiff]

Yes Val, it would be lovely if they all had the marriage date on Mind you, on reflection, if it was usual to add them there may have been a few red faces around if they had always been assumed to be married but weren't!

[Guest]

supposing the other one remarried

[Janet in Yorkshire]

Where is the stone, Val - abroad, in a cemetery?
I don't think the inclusion of the name of a living spouse would be allowed in a churchyard in England, where the rules are much stricter than for municipal cemeteries. A "blank " headstone in a neighbouring village always used to spook me out and I used to always pop round the back expecting the inscription to be there, but of course it wasn't! (The churchyard was about to be closed and the elderly single verger wanted to buried there when the time came, so he got permission to reserve his plot and to put up the headstone and planned and paid the stonemason for the inscription which would be added later.)
I think people not of the parish can now request a space for a fee, and then a small cement plinth with the name is put down, but nothing in the way of a headstone until there has been an interment.

Jay

[Guest]

its in The Canadian Gravemarker site Janet, I'm looking through them trying to find my Slater's Wife.

[PhotoFamily]

I've seen many gravestones in the US that have the names of both spouses, and one of them has a death date, the other does not. Sometimes it's obvious that the surviving spouse must also have died (e.g., the DOB of the deceased one is quite old). Sometimes the one is just waiting for the other to join them.

And, yes, I've seen marriage dates, too. And a list of all the children of the marriage - with some of the children planted around 'em.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=25744480&PIpi=12849204

[Guest]

I would hate to have my name on a Gravestone before I'd even died.

[Anne in Carlisle]

It seems to be quite common in Europe as well. Also having photographs on gravestones, which I find a bit unsettling.
Anne

[Stacky]

I was photographing a church near Colchester a few years ago and a couple (50 ish) turned up with their daughter and son-in-law to be, to view the plot they were all going to be buried in!

[Janet in Yorkshire]

I was photographing a church near Colchester a few years ago and a couple (50 ish) turned up with their daughter and son-in-law to be, to view the plot they were all going to be buried in!

I have no problem with that. Most churches are getting short on consecrated ground and so restrictions have had to be imposed and certain conditions of qualification met. It is quite common for people to reserve their plot.
I do have a problem with the names of living people being inscribed on headstones though, so that all that needs to added later is their date of death.
Photographs inserted into headstones has been allowed in many municipal and privately owned cemeteries for some decades now, but as far as I know, is not allowed in C of E churchyards, which are governed by a different set of regulations.

Jay

[Stacky]

No problems with reserving a plot, but a Sunday afternoon trip with the new in-laws to be to view said plot would stun me a little!

[Olde Crone Holden]

My father took me to see his plot about 20 years before he died. Very nice.....problem was, when the time came, a huge tree had grown on the plot and we were hastily offered a different plot!

OC

[PhotoFamily]

I would hate to have my name on a Gravestone before I'd even died.

Yeah, I thought it was a bit creepy the first time I saw it - but it's great for genealogy! It also seems a bit lonely when you realize that the other person on the stone must have died in the meantime, but it isn't recorded on the gravestone. Likely scenario would be that the surviving spouse remarried, but I've also seen where the surviving spouse moved to children far away, and was buried there when the time came.

[Guest]

dont know what I'm worrying about I dont intend to have a Gravestone anyway, just hope I am really dead when they cremate me

[Chrissie Smiff]

We're getting a bit morbid aren't we

[Guest]

yes Chrissie suppose I am :(

[Chrissie Smiff]

Try doing what I do Val. I just enjoy every day as much as I can and assume we shall live to 120 :D

[Guest]

but would you really want to