Archive
Christmas Wishes and reasons for not adding posts for a while!!
I know that it is such a very very looooooong time since I was able to post on my blogs and am amazed it really has been ages since my last post here.
The reasons for this are as follows (which I have also copied to my So That’s Where I Get It From blog).
Due to illness in the family and later a sudden change with things in September I really have not had the time to be able to devote to any family history research or this blog or much of anything else!!
I apologise to those of you who have been popping in to see something new but found it just the same as months ago. I just hope you will come and visit again.
Since September we have been looking after my (then) 100 year old Auntie Lucy (she is now 101 years old). She lived on her own, was completely independent and able to do everything for herself. She would go to her art group meetings twice a week and was still exhibiting her paintings in September.
Then she had a fall and was a bit unsteady on her feet as a result of that. Her doctor told us that he thought she had had a little stroke. So we took her home with us and have been looking after her ever since. She has fluid on the lungs, and has had a couple of infections (all cleared up now), but she has become very very forgetful and unless kept an eye on, could easily hurt herself because she is now unaware of things like hot cooker rings, and will stick her fingers into a toaster while the bread is toasting and picks up red hot plates and bowls but does not realise they are so hot. So although she likes to do her own breakfast and lunch, we have to watch her and make sure she does not hurt herself. We cook dinner so she does not have to do any of that.
Anyway, it has become very obvious that she can no longer live on her own so she is staying with us on a permanent basis. That means that we have to be alert 24/7 to make sure she is safe and comfortable and she tells us she is happy staying with us.
It has meant that we have even less time now to do the things we would normally do, which is why it has become such a long time since I posted to this blog. Now we realise that Auntie Lucy will always be staying with us I am hoping to get our routines done in such a way so that I can at least have more time to be able to get back to this blog and some lovely family history research.
As it is now Christmas time I have made a little virtual Christmas card for my family and friends (haven’t had a lot of time to do real Christmas cards) and want to wish you all a very happy Christmas and a wonderful, happy, healthy, and successful New Year.
Digital Card made by me December 2011 - copyright 2011
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you. Hopefully I can get myself organised to get back to adding posts here on a regular basis soon. 🙂
Gwennap Churchyard
Today, as it was a beautifully sunny day, my other half Paul and I went to Gwennap Churchyard to search for some of his ancestors lying at rest there.
By the time we got there it had clouded over and dark rainclouds were forming!! It was looking so nice there with all the Spring flowers dotted about all over the place but it turned out to be a much larger churchyard than I had realised!!
Original photograph taken by me today 16 April 2011 - copyright 2011
We are going to have to come back several times to search for Paul’s ancestors as it is such a large churchyard. While there, I decided that it would be nice to add this to the churchyard at Mithian, Cornwall and the churchyard at Lower Winchendon, Buckinghamshire that I am the Graveyard Rabbit for.
Many of the tombstones are very well preserved, some have very interesting designs, quite different from the majority of plainer ones at Mithian and Lower Winchendon and I noticed that it was very easy to read the inscriptions of most of those I looked at today.
Original photograph taken by me today 16 April 2011 - copyright 2011
This is the sign at the entrance to the churchyard. I think it must be the most attractive sign for a church that I have seen in a long time!! Most are usually past their best, with peeling paint or warped, tatty looking wood.
I will start adding some of the tombstones in this coming week, and of course, when we find those of Paul’s ancestors, if they still survive, then those will be shown here as well as at my genealogy blog So That’s Where I Get It From.
Recognition From a Fellow Rabbit – I’m Thrilled!
I am delighted to have found that Ashley at A Grave Concern has mentioned how nice a couple of my photos are. As far as I know this is the first time someone has written about this blog and put links to it so I am absolutely thrilled by this.
Thank you Ashley so much – you’ve really made my day, no change that, you’ve really made my week!! 😉
I’m back!! It’s been so long!!
I can’t believe just how long it has been since I was last here posting new blog items and pics.
I’ve had the most terrible internet connection problems for a very long time which meant that I could barely do anything on the internet. The problem was something to do with the speed and the strength of the connection and I would get to my home page showing a good speed and strength and by the time it loaded in the strength had gone down to 1%. Which meant I was lucky if I could get to another site at all just to even look at. I certainly was not able to upload photos or even manage to get to my blogs to write anything. Ooooooooooh it’s been so awful, I have been completely lost without the internet. I really don’t know how I managed before I bought a computer!!!
It didn’t help when our service provider told us it was our computer – which was fairly new and had been checked by a local firm, just in case it was the computer. We even got them to check our wireless router and all was well in that respect. We get the use of the phone line from another provider and they said it was our computer 😦 here we go again, or our main service provider. But somehow none of them knew what the problem was but they have managed to fix it. Well, they fixed it a little before Christmas but it was still very limited as to what we could do and now it seems it is fixed properly. Still they don’t know what the problem was – I think that’s a cost cutting exercise as none of the companies concerned want to refund the internet charges we have continued paying!!!!!
So, the good news is that at last, I can get back into the swing of things and start adding to the blog again. I’ve missed all this so very much.
Added a BBC News Link to the News Items – General page!
I am getting more and more amazed by the type of News Items I am receiving regarding vandalism and such things in churchyards. This link informs us that the Police have now received Dispersal Orders for two churchyards in Cornwall because of anti-social behaviour!
I think it is so very sad that any respect for those no longer with us seems to be disappearing these days. What will it all come to?
Added a News Link to News Items – General Page
I’ve just added a link to a BBC News item about arrests being made after some vandalism at a graveyard in Scotland.
I really cannot understand why people would want to do this at all. There just seems very little or no respect these days!! Just so sad to see this happening!
Ancestors at Rest – Places I “look after”!
Original photograph in my private collection, taken by me in 2000, copyright 2010
Because most of my family history research is in Buckinghamshire and particularly one village, Lower Winchendon (I think its ancient name of Nether Winchendon sounds so much nicer), I will be adding posts and photographs here at this blog concerning the churchyard etc., of St. Nicholas in that village.
According to the history of this village, the Church has probably formed a major part of village life for at least 1,000 years. The Church’s Parish Registers start at 1562 so although not too big a churchyard, there have been quite a number of people buried there!
Having visited this village and churchyard several times over the years (I live too far away to go on a regular basis) Nether Winchendon today is an obvious medieval village with a smallish population. It is lovely there, and it is as if time has stopped still. You feel like you have been transported back to the time your ancestors were there!! These days there is no pub, no shop, or school although the Censuses show the village had these then. The Church seems to be the centre of the community as it has probably always been.
The village’s name of ‘Winchendon’ is an original Anglo Saxon name, and means something along the lines of ‘hill at a bend’. Lower Winchendon and Upper Winchendon were both recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 and were known as Wincandone.
Because of the family history research for my partner Paul, I am also interested in the fairly local to us churchyard at Mithian, Cornwall. Again, the interest mainly stems from the fact that some of Paul’s ancestors are at rest there, but I will also be including photos and details of graves, monuments and history etc., concerning all the others at rest there.
St. Peter’s Church, Mithian, Cornwall
Original photograph copyright Mark Charter - http://www.flickr.com/people/markcharter/
Sadly, the church is now closed. I believe the roof was in a bad way and so it had become unsafe for anyone inside the church.
This is a much newer church compared to that at Lower Winchendon mentioned above, as the parish was formed in 1847 from the parishes of several places such as Kenwyn, Kea and partly from Perranzabuloe and St Agnes, because of the quickly growing population in the area. The church and churchyard can be found midway between the villages of Mithian and Blackwater. Mithian is considered to be one of the oldest villages in Cornwall.
Although St. Peter’s Church is fairly young (compared to many) there has been ancient chapels in Mithian from the ancient times.
A year or so ago, after the Church was closed there were plans to convert it to residential use!! I do not know whether this is still going ahead, but it certainly makes me wonder what will happen to the churchyard and all those resting in it? I am sure that if someone is going to turn the Church into a house they probably will not want to be surrounded by graves and the continuous comings and goings of those descendants and relatives of more recent people at rest coming to visit, tidy up, place flowers and so on.
I have always found this particular churchyard slightly wild as it has not been immaculately kept, but very pretty at certain times of the year. Springtime when the whole churchyard is covered in primroses is a delight to see. And it is always so peaceful there so I am hoping that maybe one day they can find the £800,000 + that they need to put the church right rather than have it turned into a house.
Ancestors at Rest – why I have this blog!!
Even looooooong before I was bitten by the genealogy bug I was always interested in graveyards. I always found them peaceful places to walk around (and still do) and some of the stones and monuments were always quite fascinating. I stopped and read many inscriptions even though the people laid to rest there were not connected to my family at all.
Once the genealogy bug bit me, I had more of a sense of purpose for strolling around graveyards, still finding them very peaceful and interesting but of course I had the added incentive to discover my ancestors, transcribe any inscriptions that could still be read and if there was no stone, at least I knew which graveyard they were buried in and could still visit.
In more recent years it has saddened me to see so many graveyards turned to just grass with no tombs, monuments, headstones, nothing and where the obvious graves still exist it saddens me so much more to see that many younger people these days have absolutely no respect for those that went before us, because they really don’t worry about standing on an obvious grave, throwing their litter on it, and just trampling all over other graves. And some even vandalise graves!! Why!? I always tread very carefully so as not to walk over someone lying there and always utter a quick apology should I inadvertently step on a grave.
I talked to the Vicar of St. Mary’s Church, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire a few years ago when we were able to visit and told him that sometimes it was quite difficult to not step onto someone’s grave and I felt bad if I did that. He knew I was researching my family history and visiting ancestor’s graves and he just said to me that as I meant no harm at all then they won’t mind!! So since then I don’t feel quite so bad because I don’t mean to trample on any of my ancestors or anyone else’s, but I still utter a quick apology, that’s just me!!
So, why this Graveyard Rabbit blog?
Since moving and updating my general genalogy blog So That’s Where I Get It From, and joining Geneabloggers I have looked at many other genealogy blogs, which I find so fascinating and then I came across the Graveyard Rabbit Association and other Graveyard Rabbit blogs. They are wonderful and it is so good to see all those who are Graveyard Rabbits trying to inform, educate, preserve and generally try to “look after” their respective graveyards they are interested in. It made me think that I would very much like to do the same. So, that is why I have this blog, Ancestors at Rest Graveyard Rabbit!!
Ancestors at Rest Graveyard Rabbit 