Tombstone Tuesday

On a genealogy trip to Scotland we went to Haddington in search of my husband's Gowans ancestors. Although we scoured the graveyard at St. Mary's Kirk we were unable to find any trace of them. Whilst in the graveyard we were approached by a Scottish gentleman who was transcribing the site. He gave us his telephone number and said that he would check his records at home for transcriptions.

When we telephoned him the next day he gave us the location of a family grave that we were so close to on the previous day. We returned to the cemetery to find a headstone not just with details of my husband's ancestors' burial but with details of a number of other family members.

It is pleasing to see that the volunteer gentleman's transcriptions are now available on the Church website.

Tombstone Tuesday Downunder

In response to Weekly Genealogy Blogging Prompt #3 I am posting a photo of a family grave in Rookwood Cemetery in Sydney, NSW. One of Sydney's oldest cemeteries Rookwood has been operating since 1867, and is one of the largest cemeteries in Australia. It is managed by five separate demoninational Trusts and an independent Crematorium.

Interred in the grave are two family members

The inscription reads:
In Loving Memory / My dear husband /& our father/Ernest Henry/Norman Gillespie/Speedway Rider/Fatally Injured/Sydney Sports Ground/2nd April 1948/Aged 32 Years/Until we meet again.

A second smaller tablet is inscribed:
Also his Dear Mother/ Eliza A E Pritchard/At Peace/17th April 1962.

There is a picture of a motorcycle etched on a small marble tablet at the base of an urn that is situated in the middle of this double grave.