One of my favorite cemetery symbols is the inverted torch. An upside-down torch symbolizes death, and one with the flame still burning symbolizes the soul continuing to exist after death.

So I decided to get a tattoo of one!

But the first attempt didn't go great.

Adelia Mary Bond - Lindenwood Cemetery, Fort Wayne

A few weeks ago, I was sitting in Trinity Episcopal Church for a choir performance and noticed this beautiful window.

At the bottom, it reads "In Memoriam" and "Adelia Mary," while the middle has a lovely image of two angels overlooking

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After a bit of a hiatus, the weather is turning, and my thoughts are also turning once again to cemeteries.

This is Carrie R., who died in 1877 at the age of 4 months and 5 days. Carrie is buried in Lindenwood Cemetery, Fort Wayne, Indiana.

The surrounding graves give no indication as to

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Before I get into more Langdale Cemetery stories, allow me a moment to vent.

Ancestry makes it super easy to find records and build your family tree, so easy that anyone can do it. But please, please don't just accept the suggested records, no matter how insistent they are that they match.

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And now I'm going to do something productive, workwise, before I share another Langdale Cemetery gravestone history.

Littie Rowton

These rounded concrete stones date from b/w 1910 - 1940. A few do have dates, and some have been further identified on findagrave, but not Littie Rowton or (her likely mother) "Mrs. Rowton" nearby.

(I never got a photo of Mrs. Rowton. The one below is from findagrave.)

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Everage Bowles was born February 25, 1883, to Charles Henry Bowles and Carrie Rosalie Duncan.

Charles H. Bowles was born near LaGrange, Troup County, Georgia circa 1857. He lived in "Troup Factory" in 1870 and Rough Edge in 1880 with his parents Jesse and Elizabeth Bowles and 7 siblings.

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I was looking back through my old cemetery photographs and found these from Langdale Cemetery, Valley, Chambers County, Alabama. Circa 2012.

The cemetery is located right on the Alabama-Georgia state line on a hill overlooking the Chattahoochee River.

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Do I suddenly hate my job? Or are too many people who aren't my boss asking me to do things that aren't my job a week before Christmas?

Currently thinking about this over a giant plate of pasta and a glass of Cabernet.

I don't really care about college football that much, but I am a Michigan native, and hearing people in this bar cheer for Ohio State has awakened something in me...

I'm planning on sharing a new post today, but first, I need to quickly knock out a historical context for the transcontinental railroad through Donner Pass. Easy peasy.

Library of Congress
Lawrence & Houseworth Collection
1866

This is great! I don't really use Vintage Aerial for genealogy as much as for historic architecture analysis (along with Google Street View), but either way, I love having more access to historic photographs! Hopefully it's a trend.

Do HistoricAerials.com next!

www.wboi.org/arts-culture...

That Benjamin post took way longer than I thought it would, considering that a lot of the research was already done.

And that's only one of the two houses that were on the property! I still have to get into the Anthony ownership.

This weekend though. Stay tuned.

Once upon a time ~7 years ago, there was a dilapidated and seemingly abandoned old farm that I would sometimes pass along M-21 in Genesee County, Michigan. So, I researched it. It's gone now.

Side note: I've rewritten this 3x now. We're just going to go with it. Bear with me.

2009 vs 2023

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I found out today that because I was over-enthusiastic when I joined Bluesky and started following other accounts before I fully set up my own profile, I may have been automatically blocked by a few people. That... kinda sucks. I mean, I get it, but still disappointing.

Morefield Cemetery. Hermitage, Mercer County, Pennsylvania
Berneice Bruce Major 1912-1937

I took this photo years ago. I know the big, ornate gravestones get a lot of attention, but there is something equally dramatic about a simple block of stone with only a date and a misspelled name.

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CW: suicide
Adam Prosser was born on January 18, 1838, in Ohio to Wm and Mary Prosser. The middle of a pack of at least 10 kids, Adam followed in his father's footsteps to become a farmer. By 1860, Adam and his family had moved to a farm in Jackson Twp, Dekalb County, Indiana, near Waterloo. 1/

My profile photo comes from Woodlawn Cemetery in Auburn, Indiana. I visited a few years back and took the photo because I liked the style of the woman etched on the stone. If it's a standard design option for that monument company, I've never seen another one like it. Let me know if you have. 1/

Hello Bluesky! I am a professional historian who, in my free time - or when I need a mental break from work-related research and writing - conducts random deep dive research on a gravestone at a cemetery or old house I happen to drive by.

I also like the idea of relative anonymity.