You can also see where he left the M and E separate towards the middle of the first row or letters and realized his spacing errors which caused the carver to use the combined M & E and the missing E at the end of TEACHR. I'm surprised they didn't decrease the space between Sometimes and Teacher, and make those letters slightly thinner to allow for the full TEACHER. Being the oldest dated tombstone, I'd guess the person doing this didn't have a great deal of experience carving previous stones, so I have to say they did a great job. Two lines down "Vitall Breath" has less space in the lettering, so they learned as they went further down. The 3/4 inch deeper engraving may have also been due to the lack of experience. How was that metal rod put into the stone? Was it stones pieced together, and if so, how was the stone sealed together to stand this test of time?
@@Troy-Echo My first guess was that the stones were held together by an iron bar running through them, with one end flattened beforehand and the second flattened like a rivet using heat and a hammer, but how they would manage to do that without cracking the rock I have no idea. I think instead there were two shorter bars joined in the center before the top stone was placed. Additionally, it is amazing that the mortar or adhesive could have lasted so long.
Can you please look at the date on the Head stone? They added 1000 years to our time line! Stop the video on the date and enlarge the picture, it's not a one, it's an I 678! It's plain as day!!
@@scottcardwell932There isn’t a good substitute for daylight while in broad daylight lol Even really bright lights don’t show up well on objects when it’s in the middle of the day
The oldest known surviving tombstone in the United States is the Knight's Tombstone in Jamestown, Virginia. It's believed to mark the burial site of Sir George Yeardley, who died in 1627.
It's the same with my ancestor, Oceanus Hopkins. He died before the 1640s, but he was just a small child and I have no clue where the body was buried nor if there is even a marker. In Cove Burying Ground, his two, older siblings lay interred. Giles and Mary. They, however, post-date THIS grave.
You are correct and some of my Spanish ancestors were buried there within that time period but none of the stones that I am aware of are as old as the oldest one in this video but if you have a photo of one I would love to see it. About 90% or possibly more of those buried there never had a grave stone and most of the grave stones that are there are for 19th century burials as I understand it. The only marker I could locate on my one visit about ten years ago was for my fifth great grandfather Francisco Xavier Sanchez de Ortigosa.
I'm lucky to live in the Hudson Valley where there are so many old graveyards. So many Revolutionary War graves! I wish there was more emphasis on preservation
Lived in the H.V. for many years. It always drove me crazy that more wasn't done to preserve and call attention to the Revolutionary War history of the region. Look what was done in Williamsburg, VA. with substantially less history.
In Saint Paul’s Episcopal church Norfolk Va has the headstone of Dorothy “Drew” Farrell 1673 . She was my 8th time great grandmother and wife to Captain Hubert Farrell who served in Berkeleys army and was killed during bacons rebellion.
I photograph headstones. The variety of carvings is amazing. There's a stone nearby for a little girl who dies during the Revolution. Her parents moved her up when they came to Maine. There's a sweet little angel on the top.
Wow, I would really like to see that one, although the children are always heartbreaking to me. I grew up regularly visiting little Nadine Earle's grave in Lanett, Alabama. Although it is only from the early 1900s, it is an actual playhouse that her daddy was building for her (and was literally in the process of describing to her on her sick bed) when she passed. It has a fireplace, windows, door, sidewalk, and mailbox. Any little girl's dream. Many of her original dolls and toys, along with those left as tribute, are arranged inside beautifully. Her stone bed inside is carved with her last words to her daddy..."Me want it now." Amazing tribute but heartbreaking!
There are at least two graves of veterans of the Revolutionary War in Western New York. One is in Ripley and the other who died in 1857, is in Versailles on Versailles-Silver Creek Road.
My 8th Great Grandfather is James Roger Buck, born 1555 Hingham England, died 1657 Hingham,Plymouth Colony Massachusetts, buried at Old Ship Burying Ground,Hingham Mass
He is my 9th GGrandfather, I've been there. I have also been to many other cemeteries looking for ancestors. Thanks for the info. I live in Northern MN.
Hi David, you requested that we let you know if there is a stone that's older. According to online sources, Grace Berry, who died in 1625, is burred in Plymouth, Mass with a slate stone.
I’m pretty sure that’s the one that has obviously been backdated. Its style is from 1670s to 80s I think if memory serves me correctly. Yes here is a link. Carved in 1670s or 80s based on its style. But it is a 1625 burial! That awesome isn’t it?! www.ancestoryarchives.com/2017/03/is-this-oldest-known-tombstone-in.html?m=1
Check the Charter Street Cemetery in Salem, Massachusetts, behind the Peabody Museum. It's the oldest cemetery in Salem, which is a bit older than Boston, & has the only marked tomb of a Mayflower passenger. It's possible there's an older tomb there.
Who is the Mayflower passenger? Thanks. That's near me and William Brewster is my 13th g grandfather. It would be something to visit the grave of another passenger.
The oldest grave in Roxbury Massachusetts is dated To 1633 at the Elliot cemetery. I wonder if a stone still exists and if it’s legible ? Roxbury is now part of Boston.
The grave is likely to be from that period but there are no stones themselves that were carved in Massachusetts prior to the 1670's. In many cases early graves never got a stone but instead a wood marker which was sometimes replaced by the family then by the 1700's many were replaced with stone markers and in other cases. In many cases family or local government knew where certain graves were located that never had a stone but then later a stone would be added by descendants. Many of my ancestors were in Plymouth in 1620 and some died that first winter. They don't know the exact location where those first settlers were buried but many historians believe that the oldest graves are under pavement of one of the roads based on historic descriptions. Unfortunately, early on, installing grave stones was not a priority. In Europe, most people never got grave stones. They were simply put in the ground in a cemetery and maybe a wood marker would be there but the location lost forever when the last person who could remember the location passed away. The famous John Alden didn't get a grave stone until the 1800's and while we know which cemetery in Duxbury he is buried in we don't know the exact spot. The current science of ground penetrating radar allows us to map out where graves are located where wear and erosion has erased their location but we don't yet know who each grave belongs to. There is one team at a university in Europe that is working on dating unmarked graves in an non invasive manner. They believe they can narrow the date of burial to the exact year. We don't actually need the exact year. All we need is to look for the only two graves, one male and one female buried together in the 1680's John in 1687 and Priscilla in 1688. To my knowledge no one has actually used ground penetrating radar to map out the graves in the Standish cemetery. There are also a large number of 17th century cemeteries in other parts of Massachusetts including Cape Cod where many of my early ancestors were buried.
We have a number of family members in the family cemetery dating back to the American Revolution that needed replacement. This time we used granite slabs approximately 4×8 feet in size and they are doing well. The original grave stones were left in place with new ones beside them.
I was about to send an angry message to you until you said you kept the old ones in place. I found at one of my ancestors grave a stone from 1699 that had crumbled. The slate was broken off so the stone could not be read but then I started to probe with a slender steel rod and found a bunch of pieces and dug them out from under the grass. I recovered 15 pieces though three pieces constituted about 90% of the stone. Most of it was readable so with permission of that town's historic commission I rebuilt the stone and set it in concrete and then recessed that in Vermont marble. The part I didn't do was cut the recess to fit the old stone in. I hired a monument company to do that. Now the old stone is preserved like an assembled jigsaw puzzle about 98% intact and readable except for five letters which I was able to guess and carve into the concrete. I got the idea from the way archeologists restore ancient pottery and statuary.
I saw some from the late 1600’s in a church cemetery in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. This was around 1977 or so. What struck me was how many young women there were. I was told that many young women died during childbirth in those days. Thanks for the tour. There is a cemetery near me in NW Alabama that had a civil war skirmish amongst the graves. There are supposedly some headstones with bullet holes in them but I haven’t found them yet.
I had high hopes a stone would exist in Jamestown earlier but it doesn’t seem to be the case. I saw one there from the 1690s but I think there are some a little older there
Interesting! don’t know how this wound up in my recommended, but cool story. Your stonemasonary skills are level 10. You should make a YT short time-lapse of the blank stone to finished product, it would blow up, call it somthin like “Old school tools to modern art”. Thanks for sharing.
I live in sight of the Palisado cemetery in this video. My mother and several of her ancestors are buried there, and one of them was the preacher in the first quarter of the 18th century. So I found this video fascinating, as I often walk through this cemetery for exercise and peace.
Theres a cemetery in springplace GA that has some really really old headstones in it. When i go visit family, i love just walking through and looking at the artwork and all the different names and dates and try to figure out family ties. Just very relaxing and peaceful.
Interesting video. Big thumbs up! Having a degree in anthropology/archeology, I once dug up a few unmarked, indigenous graves that were much, much older. Only the grave goods buried with them were left to tell their stories. Gravestones allow the world to know your story at a glance. Wonderful!
Your work is certainly very interesting and appreciated. I’ve never done any research or work in this field, but I’ve always found headstones and grave markers extremely interesting. Thank you for sharing your work.
I used to live in Charleston, SC. There are so many fascinating old cemeteries and gravestones interwoven into the city. Well worth a visit for anyone into historic early American gravestone art. Among the other gobs of history and beauty there.
There is a very old small cemetery in Marblehead, Massachusetts. It's on a small rounded hill, over looking the bay, just north of Boston. There is also a grave that appears to be a simple standing head stone for for a possible older man, that was a servant or slave . He has one name, simply carved, with year and its likely he was an indigenous slave. They appeared to have liked this man, as they gave him a burial next to other family members. It's a lovely little cemetery of a small community at that time and the scenery is gorgeous and peaceful overlooking the ocean. Its settled in around a very tight community of old homes, tucked in together. It was a surprise finding as we weren't looking for it at the time . The sun was setting at about 4 pm . Daylight is much shorter in November in Mass this far east. I do believe its from 1600s, its all very old stones. Whole families, including several children in families, all in a row. Usually a couple of years apart at best. I like the idea of seeing names, and validating the life of those that deserve to be remembered.
1st time viewer, you showed a small clip at the beginning of you carving a tombstone. That is Amazing! You still do it with a mallet and chisels? Incredible craftsmanship!! A true Art!!
@pumpkintown thankyou for sharing and responding! I never realized that carving the tombstones were still done by hammer and chisel. I have a few questions. How does someone go about learning that skill? Did you just pick up a rock and start carving, or is there an apprenticeship? What kind of chisels are used?
I have seen dated tombstones from the Revolutionary war & before in a secluded - & private - wooded area in Connecticut. (A few high ranking officers are buried there as well)
My wife is from a small place in Alabama called Lawrenceville. Her family's plot has gravestones dating back into the 1600s. Amazing one family's lineage going back so far in one spot.
Fragments of my ancestor, Bernard Capen's gravestone, d. 1636, are in a shoebox on a shelf of the New England Genealogical Society, on Newbury St. in Boston - or at least they were the last time I saw the fragments. They were removed from the Upham's Corner burying ground, in Dorchester, and replaced with a copy in the late 19th century.
Very interesting video indeed! In England, those box tombs are usually filled up with bricks I've noticed. As for the clear inscriptions, I was blown away seeing the detail of your stones when sadly, most of the pre-1700 ones in my part of Suffolk are illegible. I remember as a young teen (some 30 years ago), carefully brushing through the foliage of a Holly tree in the Churchyard of Acton, near Sudbury in Suffolk. Hidden beneath was a beautifully sharp epitaph of a lady who'd been in service for Queen Charlotte, and many clean lines were detailing her life story. Went back a few years ago, and the tree was gone, along with the letters on the gravestone! Europe has some seriously acidic rain. I hope someone took a picture of the stone before nature went to work.
Yes! The 5 of the 17th and 18th centuries on stones largely took this form as a number that dropped below the base line or is called descender. This one has a nice folk appeal but over isn’t much different in skeletal form than the ones I carve frequently. I think they look better personally! The 7 is pretty standard, but could be more stylized for sure! Good question!
I’m from the lower Hudson valley and I know there are settlements and gravestones dating back to the 1680s there. Massachusetts was settled far earlier, and also st. Augustine, fl.
I live in St. Augustine the oldest city and just went to Jamestown VA but didn't think to look for dates in the little cemetery. I'll have to keep a lookout.
My dad bought some property in Owensville, Ohio in the ‘70’s (no longer in family, sad to say) and on the property was two families- North and South, whose date of death(s) was 1700’s. There were several tombstones in the woods, and one epitaph said, “death is a debt to mortals due. I paid mine and so must you” I was 8 months pregnant and started to cry and ran out of the cemetery. The year was 1983 when this happened
@@pumpkintown I sure will. They were in the old burial grounds section. I remember the top was broken on one and we tried to see inside it but we never saw anything. We were just disappointed kids. When we got old enough my brothers and I each had jobs there raking and mowing. Good times!
My first ancestor arrived in Virginia Colony in 1623 and then returned to England. In 1640 he returned with two brothers and 3 shiploads of colonists to Yorktown Virginia. The three brothers were given large land grants (or patents) for paying the passage of those they brought with them. My branch of the family migrated to Clay County North Carolina and then Wyoming where my dad was born. From there Granddad migrated to Odessa Texas where he built a wonderful life and my Dad then moved to Dallas Texas where I still live today. Really great to see this video and the history represented. Thanks for posting .....
One of my ancestors was shipwrecked in Bermuda around 1609 then he and some others made a boat out of the wreckage and sailed to Jamestown around 1610. He decided he did not like it in Virginia and returned about a year or so later and then joined another group of settlers and ended up in Massachusetts in 1620. He is the only person among that group that had already visited the new world other than the captain and crew. That group secured papers giving them permission to settle in Jamestown but they only pretended to intend to go to Jamestown and headed that earlier visitor to that colony and decided to pretend they were forced off course and proceeded to found Plymouth. The only member of my family go go west prior to the 20th century was my great grandfather who was descended from the above mentioned settler and he ended up in Oklahoma, pitched a tent and was one of the unlucky ones who was told that was where they wanted to build the government offices so he lost his claim and went home. But another relative told me that the real story is he woke up to find a rattle snake in his bedding and he said "f**k this" and took the first train or wagon or horse back east. Glad he didn't stay because he would never have met my great grandmother.
@@pumpkintown I should add that my grandfather went back to Clay County NC many years after settling in Odessa. He had inherited the family farm that straddled both sides of a flowing creek and restored the family cemetery and Baptist church that his grandfather founded and pastored and that his father my great grandfather had also pastored. Somewhere I have some pictures that I took of the nicely carved replacement granite gravestones and the restored church. Sadly, my dad inherited the property and sold it a few years later and the buyer subdivided the acreage into multi acre lots and sold it. At least I and one of my sons had an occasion to travel to the farm while we still owned it. Its near Kings Mountain in the Tusquittee Valley. Kings Mountain was the site of the Battle of Kings Mountain in the Revolutionary War that marked the end of the British Army's expansion into the interior of what is now America. My great greats were already settled there and did not take kindly to the British Army messing with their Fath, families and freedoms.
I have a relative in NE from 1600s that has a literal stone with the initials carved in it. But it is in an established cemetery and is in Find A Grave.
Fascinating! As a SC genealogist, and also a person who has recorded all the church and public cemetery (not including family cemeteries) tombstone inscriptions in my present day county over a period of years, I very much appreciate what you are doing. There is a lot of history in cemeteries.
@@pumpkintown If I can find a volunteer to hold the mirror! Usually I am alone in these cemetery projects. Now, in the age of computers, I photograph the monuments, but I used to record the inscriptions on steno pads. That mirror trick of yours is amazing. Most of my surveys were published by the local genealogical society.
Windsor was the first town in Connecticut 1635 (there were a handful of trapping and trading posts before). That is my ancestral homeland. Ephraim's wife was Isabel Overton, my 2nd cousin 11 times removed.
So far my first ancestor born here (in the US) that I’ve found was born in the Colony of New Haven in 1619….Mary Deborah Button. Thank you for showing this. So interesting.
There was no New Haven colony until 1638, and no English settlement in Connecticut until 1633. While there was a small amount of Dutch activity in the area during the early 1600s, Button is definitely an English name and New Haven wasn't settled by the dutch.
This is educational. Wouldn't have taken much of that into consideration without your expertise. Would love to know more about the history of the people on the stone. Thank you for sharing.
Cemeteries and graveyards are a temporary thing now. They are not forever rest in peace! Nowadays when you pay for a cemetery you got to pay for the plot and the hard box to be installed which is concrete in the lease is usually 50 to 100 years after that they removed the body and the contents and do whatever they see fit. It's called cemetery recycling . So your final resting place is not a final resting place! And people don't even realize this.
1638 Miles Standish Burial Ground in Dusbury Massachusetts is the oldest cemetery - this excludes the Runestones. Other articles say the oldest grave marker came from Belgium . Very interesting!! Thanks for uploading this!
I LIVED ON PALISADO AVENUE and attended that church. Also, I gave free tours to visitors of the church. I also lived in the historic section so I could walk to the church. Lovely people, and Windsor had a witch also. That is where I learned it wasn't just Salem!
If you're in Connecticut, please check an old burial ground next to the Connecticut river off of route 149.. In East Haddam.. I know that there are graves dating back to the 1600s there.
I enjoy walking through old grave yards. The carvings and engraving are amazing and sometimes you get to read the stories about the deceased. One of my favorites has a marker for the Methodist pastor who was struck by lightening at the altar while giving a sermon in 1841. That church is located in New London, Pa.
I'm one of the living branches of the Davenport branch of (West) Virginia; also an extant branch of the FitzRandolph, Blossom, Manning, Ford, Drake, and many other families. People oft forget about Connecticut and New Jersey when searching out what's oldest. Plymouth and Jamestown is just what gets taught too much at schools.
This is Great I used to draw cemeteries when I was 5 and 6 yrs. old Cemeteries are Very interesting Thank ya for sharing Roselawn cemetery Petersburg Il has a tomb 1500 I'll have to go and ck it again its been a few yrs. ago
There should be some from 1620 because there were a lot of people that were ill on the ships. In Salem they had above ground tombs with at least 10 peoples names on it
Thank you for the fascinating tour. Carving gravestones by hand must be such a tedious job. I cringe at how the stonecutter must’ve felt when he realized that he made a mistake in his carving.
Fascinating. I would have bet the oldest would have been somewhere in St. Augustine Florida (founded 1565). Love the in depth study of the stones. Great video, color me subscribed.
The bunched lettering on the top line is a prime example of why you should always layout everything before your chisel ever touches the stone.
Indeed
You can also see where he left the M and E separate towards the middle of the first row or letters and realized his spacing errors which caused the carver to use the combined M & E and the missing E at the end of TEACHR. I'm surprised they didn't decrease the space between Sometimes and Teacher, and make those letters slightly thinner to allow for the full TEACHER. Being the oldest dated tombstone, I'd guess the person doing this didn't have a great deal of experience carving previous stones, so I have to say they did a great job. Two lines down "Vitall Breath" has less space in the lettering, so they learned as they went further down. The 3/4 inch deeper engraving may have also been due to the lack of experience. How was that metal rod put into the stone? Was it stones pieced together, and if so, how was the stone sealed together to stand this test of time?
No idea!
@@Troy-Echo My first guess was that the stones were held together by an iron bar running through them, with one end flattened beforehand and the second flattened like a rivet using heat and a hammer, but how they would manage to do that without cracking the rock I have no idea. I think instead there were two shorter bars joined in the center before the top stone was placed. Additionally, it is amazing that the mortar or adhesive could have lasted so long.
Measure once, chisel twice
05:50 I think "The Church of Windsor" pretty much nails it as being English.
Indeed
it is now a Congregationalist church.
“Olde” English!
The town is Windsor, Connecticut. Everyone in New England in the 1630s, 40s was originally English.
@@kittymervine6115most in New England were/are. Amazing how few outside NE even know about “Congregationalist” but up there can’t get away from it.
Thanks for taking us on this trip with you!
Thank you for watching, and being interested!
I couldn't believe it when the first grave stone you show is of my 9th great grand uncle. Mathew Griswold was my 9th great grandfather.
Interesting stuff! Thanks for taking time to talk through the carving style.
You are quite welcome! Thanks for watching
I'm glad to know somebody is still doing headstones the old way.
Thank you
@@pumpkintownand beautiful work to boot! Subscribed.
Can you please look at the date on the Head stone? They added 1000 years to our time line! Stop the video on the date and enlarge the picture, it's not a one, it's an I 678! It's plain as day!!
Very interesting neat mirror trick.
Thanks Harvey! It has served us well!
Yea til they set the grass on fire😂😂😂.
Why not just bring a light?
@@scottcardwell932There isn’t a good substitute for daylight while in broad daylight lol Even really bright lights don’t show up well on objects when it’s in the middle of the day
The oldest known surviving tombstone in the United States is the Knight's Tombstone in Jamestown, Virginia. It's believed to mark the burial site of Sir George Yeardley, who died in 1627.
Did you watch the end of the video? That stone is discussed
@@pumpkintown😸😸😸
It's amazing that the lettering weathered the centuries well enough to still be very visible.
It's quite remarkable indeed!
Tolomato Cemetery in St. Augustine, Florida has burials dating back to 1565-1763.
But they are not dated sadly. I agree
It's the same with my ancestor, Oceanus Hopkins. He died before the 1640s, but he was just a small child and I have no clue where the body was buried nor if there is even a marker. In Cove Burying Ground, his two, older siblings lay interred. Giles and Mary. They, however, post-date THIS grave.
There are American Indian burials going back before time, but they aren’t dated.
@@melodytannerclark
oh well.
You are correct and some of my Spanish ancestors were buried there within that time period but none of the stones that I am aware of are as old as the oldest one in this video but if you have a photo of one I would love to see it. About 90% or possibly more of those buried there never had a grave stone and most of the grave stones that are there are for 19th century burials as I understand it. The only marker I could locate on my one visit about ten years ago was for my fifth great grandfather Francisco Xavier Sanchez de Ortigosa.
I'm lucky to live in the Hudson Valley where there are so many old graveyards. So many Revolutionary War graves! I wish there was more emphasis on preservation
Amen me too!
I live in the Hudson Valley and was thinking the Same thing - Thanks for writing your comment.
Lived in the H.V. for many years. It always drove me crazy that more wasn't done to preserve and call attention to the Revolutionary War history of the region. Look what was done in Williamsburg, VA. with substantially less history.
In Saint Paul’s Episcopal church Norfolk Va has the headstone of Dorothy “Drew” Farrell 1673 . She was my 8th time great grandmother and wife to Captain Hubert Farrell who served in Berkeleys army and was killed during bacons rebellion.
That is a treat to know that about your family! I wish I knew where stones were to my ancestors from the 1600s!
I photograph headstones. The variety of carvings is amazing. There's a stone nearby for a little girl who dies during the Revolution. Her parents moved her up when they came to Maine. There's a sweet little angel on the top.
I bet it’s lovely and endearing
Wow, I would really like to see that one, although the children are always heartbreaking to me. I grew up regularly visiting little Nadine Earle's grave in Lanett, Alabama. Although it is only from the early 1900s, it is an actual playhouse that her daddy was building for her (and was literally in the process of describing to her on her sick bed) when she passed. It has a fireplace, windows, door, sidewalk, and mailbox. Any little girl's dream. Many of her original dolls and toys, along with those left as tribute, are arranged inside beautifully. Her stone bed inside is carved with her last words to her daddy..."Me want it now." Amazing tribute but heartbreaking!
There are at least two graves of veterans of the Revolutionary War in Western New York.
One is in Ripley and the other who died in 1857, is in Versailles on Versailles-Silver Creek Road.
Fascinating! What a privilege to walk among these stones and history.
I feel the same way
The mirror trick is a winner, especially with a beautiful helper!
Hear hear!
I love cemeteries and often picnic there. I respectfully visit and read the stones - such history! Thanks.
Thank you kindly
I do the same….. and have for decades !
My 8th Great Grandfather is James Roger Buck, born 1555 Hingham England, died 1657 Hingham,Plymouth Colony Massachusetts, buried at Old Ship Burying Ground,Hingham Mass
Sweet!
I’ve visited that cemetery several times, I’m sure i’ve seen his stone!
He is my 9th GGrandfather, I've been there. I have also been to many other cemeteries looking for ancestors. Thanks for the info. I live in Northern MN.
Hi David, you requested that we let you know if there is a stone that's older. According to online sources, Grace Berry, who died in 1625, is burred in Plymouth, Mass with a slate stone.
I’m pretty sure that’s the one that has obviously been backdated. Its style is from 1670s to 80s I think if memory serves me correctly. Yes here is a link. Carved in 1670s or 80s based on its style. But it is a 1625 burial! That awesome isn’t it?!
www.ancestoryarchives.com/2017/03/is-this-oldest-known-tombstone-in.html?m=1
I agree...there are markers near waters'edge in Mass, N. Hamp & Maine
....some in the little islands a few miles
out.
Check the Charter Street Cemetery in Salem, Massachusetts, behind the Peabody Museum. It's the oldest cemetery in Salem, which is a bit older than Boston, & has the only marked tomb of a Mayflower passenger. It's possible there's an older tomb there.
Thanks!
Who is the Mayflower passenger? Thanks. That's near me and William Brewster is my 13th g grandfather. It would be something to visit the grave of another passenger.
@@jnc1028Hi Cousin !
Another Brewster descendent here.
@@joanmavima5423 Hi cousin! So fun!
The oldest grave in Roxbury Massachusetts is dated To 1633 at the Elliot cemetery. I wonder if a stone still exists and if it’s legible ? Roxbury is now part of Boston.
The grave is likely to be from that period but there are no stones themselves that were carved in Massachusetts prior to the 1670's. In many cases early graves never got a stone but instead a wood marker which was sometimes replaced by the family then by the 1700's many were replaced with stone markers and in other cases. In many cases family or local government knew where certain graves were located that never had a stone but then later a stone would be added by descendants. Many of my ancestors were in Plymouth in 1620 and some died that first winter. They don't know the exact location where those first settlers were buried but many historians believe that the oldest graves are under pavement of one of the roads based on historic descriptions. Unfortunately, early on, installing grave stones was not a priority. In Europe, most people never got grave stones. They were simply put in the ground in a cemetery and maybe a wood marker would be there but the location lost forever when the last person who could remember the location passed away. The famous John Alden didn't get a grave stone until the 1800's and while we know which cemetery in Duxbury he is buried in we don't know the exact spot. The current science of ground penetrating radar allows us to map out where graves are located where wear and erosion has erased their location but we don't yet know who each grave belongs to. There is one team at a university in Europe that is working on dating unmarked graves in an non invasive manner. They believe they can narrow the date of burial to the exact year. We don't actually need the exact year. All we need is to look for the only two graves, one male and one female buried together in the 1680's John in 1687 and Priscilla in 1688. To my knowledge no one has actually used ground penetrating radar to map out the graves in the Standish cemetery. There are also a large number of 17th century cemeteries in other parts of Massachusetts including Cape Cod where many of my early ancestors were buried.
Love the videos and your carvings!
Will you be doing a Stevens shop of Newport RI video?
Likely not but would love to! Thank you kindly
We have a number of family members in the family cemetery dating back to the American Revolution that needed replacement. This time we used granite slabs approximately 4×8 feet in size and they are doing well. The original grave stones were left in place with new ones beside them.
I was about to send an angry message to you until you said you kept the old ones in place. I found at one of my ancestors grave a stone from 1699 that had crumbled. The slate was broken off so the stone could not be read but then I started to probe with a slender steel rod and found a bunch of pieces and dug them out from under the grass. I recovered 15 pieces though three pieces constituted about 90% of the stone. Most of it was readable so with permission of that town's historic commission I rebuilt the stone and set it in concrete and then recessed that in Vermont marble. The part I didn't do was cut the recess to fit the old stone in. I hired a monument company to do that. Now the old stone is preserved like an assembled jigsaw puzzle about 98% intact and readable except for five letters which I was able to guess and carve into the concrete. I got the idea from the way archeologists restore ancient pottery and statuary.
There is a gravestone in Jamestown Virginia dated 1627.
Not dated, and no letters on the stone at all.
The tombstone is in great shape for being almost 400 years old. That's amazing.
The letters are still so clear too. Amazing.
It looks like a sarcophagus, not a tombstoone
I saw some from the late 1600’s in a church cemetery in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. This was around 1977 or so. What struck me was how many young women there were. I was told that many young women died during childbirth in those days. Thanks for the tour. There is a cemetery near me in NW Alabama that had a civil war skirmish amongst the graves. There are supposedly some headstones with bullet holes in them but I haven’t found them yet.
I had high hopes a stone would exist in Jamestown earlier but it doesn’t seem to be the case. I saw one there from the 1690s but I think there are some a little older there
@pumpkintown
There are some oldies in SC, especially Charleston. Interesting though.
Very interesting. The mirror trick was awesome. I thought there were graves from the 1560s or 1580s in St Augustine.
Burials but not dated gravestones to my knowledge. Would love to know of any in Florida
Interesting! don’t know how this wound up in my recommended, but cool story. Your stonemasonary skills are level 10. You should make a YT short time-lapse of the blank stone to finished product, it would blow up, call it somthin like “Old school tools to modern art”. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the tips!
I live in sight of the Palisado cemetery in this video. My mother and several of her ancestors are buried there, and one of them was the preacher in the first quarter of the 18th century. So I found this video fascinating, as I often walk through this cemetery for exercise and peace.
Theres a cemetery in springplace GA that has some really really old headstones in it. When i go visit family, i love just walking through and looking at the artwork and all the different names and dates and try to figure out family ties. Just very relaxing and peaceful.
You sound like us!
Interesting video. Big thumbs up! Having a degree in anthropology/archeology, I once dug up a few unmarked, indigenous graves that were much, much older. Only the grave goods buried with them were left to tell their stories. Gravestones allow the world to know your story at a glance. Wonderful!
Thank you kindly! Wow!
Have you checked St. Augustine Fl. That's the oldest settlement in North America.
Yes1565
Thank you for showing the Jonathan Edwards marker.
Learned something. That mirror trick was really cool.
Thank you! I have video just on the mirror trick also. Please share!
Your work is certainly very interesting and appreciated. I’ve never done any research or work in this field, but I’ve always found headstones and grave markers extremely interesting. Thank you for sharing your work.
Thanks so much, I enjoy sharing it.
I used to live in Charleston, SC. There are so many fascinating old cemeteries and gravestones interwoven into the city. Well worth a visit for anyone into historic early American gravestone art. Among the other gobs of history and beauty there.
Knights Tombstone in Jamestown, Virginia. It's believed to date back to 1627
There is a very old small cemetery in Marblehead, Massachusetts. It's on a small rounded hill, over looking the bay, just north of Boston. There is also a grave that appears to be a simple standing head stone for for a possible older man, that was a servant or slave . He has one name, simply carved, with year and its likely he was an indigenous slave. They appeared to have liked this man, as they gave him a burial next to other family members. It's a lovely little cemetery of a small community at that time and the scenery is gorgeous and peaceful overlooking the ocean. Its settled in around a very tight community of old homes, tucked in together.
It was a surprise finding as we weren't looking for it at the time . The sun was setting at about 4 pm . Daylight is much shorter in November in Mass this far east. I do believe its from 1600s, its all very old stones. Whole families, including several children in families, all in a row. Usually a couple of years apart at best. I like the idea of seeing names, and validating the life of those that deserve to be remembered.
Me too amen
Part of my grandparents family when they would come and visit I was a kid. We would go to the cemetery where family was buried and took family photos.
Awesome!
1st time viewer, you showed a small clip at the beginning of you carving a tombstone. That is Amazing! You still do it with a mallet and chisels? Incredible craftsmanship!! A true Art!!
That is correct! Thank you for watching.
@pumpkintown thankyou for sharing and responding! I never realized that carving the tombstones were still done by hammer and chisel. I have a few questions. How does someone go about learning that skill? Did you just pick up a rock and start carving, or is there an apprenticeship? What kind of chisels are used?
I have flown many miles, carved many hours and spent many dollars to learn! Thanks for watching
I have seen dated tombstones from the Revolutionary war & before in a secluded - & private - wooded area in Connecticut. (A few high ranking officers are buried there as well)
Neat!
My wife is from a small place in Alabama called Lawrenceville. Her family's plot has gravestones dating back into the 1600s. Amazing one family's lineage going back so far in one spot.
Amen!
What's the name of the cemetery your wife's family are buried in?
Fragments of my ancestor, Bernard Capen's gravestone, d. 1636, are in a shoebox on a shelf of the New England Genealogical Society, on Newbury St. in Boston - or at least they were the last time I saw the fragments. They were removed from the Upham's Corner burying ground, in Dorchester, and replaced with a copy in the late 19th century.
Is it dated on the carving?
Thank you. I had heard of the Mirror Trick but had not seen it in action.
Happy to help!
Very interesting video indeed! In England, those box tombs are usually filled up with bricks I've noticed. As for the clear inscriptions, I was blown away seeing the detail of your stones when sadly, most of the pre-1700 ones in my part of Suffolk are illegible. I remember as a young teen (some 30 years ago), carefully brushing through the foliage of a Holly tree in the Churchyard of Acton, near Sudbury in Suffolk. Hidden beneath was a beautifully sharp epitaph of a lady who'd been in service for Queen Charlotte, and many clean lines were detailing her life story. Went back a few years ago, and the tree was gone, along with the letters on the gravestone! Europe has some seriously acidic rain. I hope someone took a picture of the stone before nature went to work.
Me too! Thank you
Do you know anything about the funky-looking 5 and 7 on the grave dated 1657?
Yes! The 5 of the 17th and 18th centuries on stones largely took this form as a number that dropped below the base line or is called descender. This one has a nice folk appeal but over isn’t much different in skeletal form than the ones I carve frequently. I think they look better personally! The 7 is pretty standard, but could be more stylized for sure! Good question!
Wow dude, the mirror trick is pretty cool. Also your hand chiseled skill set is impressive.
Hey, thanks!
I’m from the lower Hudson valley and I know there are settlements and gravestones dating back to the 1680s there. Massachusetts was settled far earlier, and also st. Augustine, fl.
Indeed
I live in St. Augustine the oldest city and just went to Jamestown VA but didn't think to look for dates in the little cemetery. I'll have to keep a lookout.
Please do
You are an incredible artist.
To God be the Glory thank you
I love to learn!! From Philadelphia, thank you so much!!
Wow, he is an old soul. Amazing what you do.
Thank you kindly!
My dad bought some property in Owensville, Ohio in the ‘70’s (no longer in family, sad to say) and on the property was two families- North and South, whose date of death(s) was 1700’s. There were several tombstones in the woods, and one epitaph said, “death is a debt to mortals due. I paid mine and so must you” I was 8 months pregnant and started to cry and ran out of the cemetery. The year was 1983 when this happened
Wow that is profound. I need to remember that
Wow, your craftsmanship is impressive!
Thank you!
Fascinating. It'd be an honor to have you carve mine especially if I outlive you. :-)
It would be an honor to carve yours indeed. I hope I get to carve a model a on one someday
Thank you. That would truly be an honor!
I grew up next to a cemetery. There were a few of those box graves. Now I have to go check em out when the weather gets warmer.
Please do!
@@pumpkintown I sure will. They were in the old burial grounds section. I remember the top was broken on one and we tried to see inside it but we never saw anything. We were just disappointed kids. When we got old enough my brothers and I each had jobs there raking and mowing. Good times!
Pittsburgh has old cemeteries so I will look 🎉🎉🎉love the show ♥️
Thanks!
Good background music 🎶 love the show ♥️ all the best Hombre 👍
Thank you!
My first ancestor arrived in Virginia Colony in 1623 and then returned to England. In 1640 he returned with two brothers and 3 shiploads of colonists to Yorktown Virginia. The three brothers were given large land grants (or patents) for paying the passage of those they brought with them. My branch of the family migrated to Clay County North Carolina and then Wyoming where my dad was born. From there Granddad migrated to Odessa Texas where he built a wonderful life and my Dad then moved to Dallas Texas where I still live today. Really great to see this video and the history represented. Thanks for posting .....
One of my ancestors was shipwrecked in Bermuda around 1609 then he and some others made a boat out of the wreckage and sailed to Jamestown around 1610. He decided he did not like it in Virginia and returned about a year or so later and then joined another group of settlers and ended up in Massachusetts in 1620. He is the only person among that group that had already visited the new world other than the captain and crew. That group secured papers giving them permission to settle in Jamestown but they only pretended to intend to go to Jamestown and headed that earlier visitor to that colony and decided to pretend they were forced off course and proceeded to found Plymouth. The only member of my family go go west prior to the 20th century was my great grandfather who was descended from the above mentioned settler and he ended up in Oklahoma, pitched a tent and was one of the unlucky ones who was told that was where they wanted to build the government offices so he lost his claim and went home. But another relative told me that the real story is he woke up to find a rattle snake in his bedding and he said "f**k this" and took the first train or wagon or horse back east. Glad he didn't stay because he would never have met my great grandmother.
@ GOOD FUN STORY!! He would have liked Texas!! lol Thanks for posting!!
Wow
@@pumpkintown I should add that my grandfather went back to Clay County NC many years after settling in Odessa. He had inherited the family farm that straddled both sides of a flowing creek and restored the family cemetery and Baptist church that his grandfather founded and pastored and that his father my great grandfather had also pastored. Somewhere I have some pictures that I took of the nicely carved replacement granite gravestones and the restored church. Sadly, my dad inherited the property and sold it a few years later and the buyer subdivided the acreage into multi acre lots and sold it. At least I and one of my sons had an occasion to travel to the farm while we still owned it. Its near Kings Mountain in the Tusquittee Valley. Kings Mountain was the site of the Battle of Kings Mountain in the Revolutionary War that marked the end of the British Army's expansion into the interior of what is now America. My great greats were already settled there and did not take kindly to the British Army messing with their Fath, families and freedoms.
I have a relative in NE from 1600s that has a literal stone with the initials carved in it. But it is in an established cemetery and is in Find A Grave.
That’s awesome!
I can guarantee, brother that stone and the cutter, have been waiting for you.
Interesting ! Thanks ever so much from old New Orleans 😇
Thank you for watching!
Have you looked in St. Augustine, Fla? Settled by the Spanish ca. 1500.
Wow, what an interesting presentation! I was wondering just that and glad to know of such old and well preserved headstones. Keep up the good work 👍
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!
Fascinating! As a SC genealogist, and also a person who has recorded all the church and public cemetery (not including family cemeteries) tombstone inscriptions in my present day county over a period of years, I very much appreciate what you are doing. There is a lot of history in cemeteries.
Yes! Apply that mirror trick and teach to others
@@pumpkintown If I can find a volunteer to hold the mirror! Usually I am alone in these cemetery projects. Now, in the age of computers, I photograph the monuments, but I used to record the inscriptions on steno pads. That mirror trick of yours
is amazing. Most of my surveys were published by the local genealogical society.
Windsor was the first town in Connecticut 1635 (there were a handful of trapping and trading posts before). That is my ancestral homeland. Ephraim's wife was Isabel Overton, my 2nd cousin 11 times removed.
Really informative and very well done…
So far my first ancestor born here (in the US) that I’ve found was born in the Colony of New Haven in 1619….Mary Deborah Button. Thank you for showing this. So interesting.
There was no New Haven colony until 1638, and no English settlement in Connecticut until 1633. While there was a small amount of Dutch activity in the area during the early 1600s, Button is definitely an English name and New Haven wasn't settled by the dutch.
Thank you for being a craftsman. What cool is,...Sir.
Very informative! I was especially interested in the type font characteristics you point out. Thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
This is educational. Wouldn't have taken much of that into consideration without your expertise. Would love to know more about the history of the people on the stone. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed!
My hubby and I are going to travel the country so we will keep an eye out.
Yes please do!
Fascinating, Thank you and Thank Renee for the mirror trick!
You're a great artisan.
The Lord be praised! Thank you
Very interesting. I love the letter carving styes. Thumbs up!
I appreciate the thumbs up and thanks for the comment!
Cemeteries and graveyards are a temporary thing now. They are not forever rest in peace! Nowadays when you pay for a cemetery you got to pay for the plot and the hard box to be installed which is concrete in the lease is usually 50 to 100 years after that they removed the body and the contents and do whatever they see fit. It's called cemetery recycling . So your final resting place is not a final resting place! And people don't even realize this.
You tell the truth for certain places. So sad
1638 Miles Standish Burial Ground in Dusbury Massachusetts is the oldest cemetery - this excludes the Runestones. Other articles say the oldest grave marker came from Belgium . Very interesting!! Thanks for uploading this!
I think Standish’s stone is a modern stone.
I've read that sermon from Johnathan Edwards.
Very powerful sermon. Thanks for showing that stone. I didn't know it was memorialized there.
It might be safer because it isn’t prominent
We enjoy walking through cemeteries, it's history.
Amen!
Thanks for sharing these gravestones. Wondering if they are original tombstones? Amazing the stones look so good after 379 years.
Every indication says yes
I know of a stone dated 1628 in Scituate, Massachusetts. But, I suspect it was re-done sometime during the 18th century based on the style.
Yes
Had to give a thumbs up just to show appreciation to that fine lady holding that mirror up for this video. Trooper for sure!
She sure is! Thanks brother
@@pumpkintown No problem. I'm sure it was heavy at times the way she had to hold it & for how long, so she definitely deserves some appreciation.
I LIVED ON PALISADO AVENUE and attended that church. Also, I gave free tours to visitors of the church. I also lived in the historic section so I could walk to the church. Lovely people, and Windsor had a witch also. That is where I learned it wasn't just Salem!
I live a few minutes away and visited these nearby graveyards as well. Very interesting visits.
It’s a neat cemetery
I owned a house in NH there was a small family grave yard on my land the oldest one was a rock with 2701 carved on it
???
That mirror trick is genius! Shout out to Robert of Sidestep Adventures. He would like Pumpkintown Primitives. Great video.
Thank you kindly!
Thank you for this well done video. As a native New Englander I appreciate knowing who had the earliest grave date.
You are quite welcome
If you're in Connecticut, please check an old burial ground next to the Connecticut river off of route 149.. In East Haddam.. I know that there are graves dating back to the 1600s there.
Catchy tune.😊
I agree
I enjoy walking through old grave yards. The carvings and engraving are amazing and sometimes you get to read the stories about the deceased.
One of my favorites has a marker for the Methodist pastor who was struck by lightening at the altar while giving a sermon in 1841.
That church is located in New London, Pa.
I grew up in Little Compton RI. My ancestor John Peckham's stone is close to 1644!
Tell me more!
In Mass. next to a restaurant named PJ’s. There is a cemetery Walk through there.
Neat
Route 6 Wellfleet Ma. The cemetery next to the restaurant. Old head stones.
I'm one of the living branches of the Davenport branch of (West) Virginia; also an extant branch of the FitzRandolph, Blossom, Manning, Ford, Drake, and many other families. People oft forget about Connecticut and New Jersey when searching out what's oldest. Plymouth and Jamestown is just what gets taught too much at schools.
Maybe so
This is Great I used to draw cemeteries when I was 5 and 6 yrs. old Cemeteries are Very interesting Thank ya for sharing Roselawn cemetery Petersburg Il has a tomb 1500 I'll have to go and ck it again its been a few yrs. ago
Yes please do
Great presentation sir, 🙏
There should be some from 1620 because there were a lot of people that were ill on the ships. In Salem they had above ground tombs with at least 10 peoples names on it
Burials yes. Stones, with dates, no
You sir, are a talented man.
Thank you!
Old congressional burial ground
Strafford Connecticut
John Curtiss Sr
1577 - July 1639
Is there a stone?
Thank you for the fascinating tour. Carving gravestones by hand must be such a tedious job. I cringe at how the stonecutter must’ve felt when he realized that he made a mistake in his carving.
It's wonderful that this grave stone has survived all these years, this is a great video. This cemetery take loving care for their deceased. ✝️❤️🙂
Amen! Couldn’t agree more
It's what they're made of.
Fascinating. I would have bet the oldest would have been somewhere in St. Augustine Florida (founded 1565).
Love the in depth study of the stones. Great video, color me subscribed.
Thanks for the kind words and for subscribing!