All over the world there are countless enthusiasts hot on the trail of their family history. If this is something that interests you, then there are lots of places that you can find information about your ancestors, with local archives and personal records being good examples. Gravestone memorials, particularly those from more recent centuries, are a vital part of the search too.

The inscriptions and / or epitaphs on gravestones can be used to fill in parts of the genealogical jigsaw. As well as the obvious recording of name, age and date of death, it is not uncommon to also find additional information, such as family links and occupations.

The length of the gravestone epitaph itself can give clues about the person buried there. Inscriptions are charged for by the lettering so, in general, a lengthy text suggests a family financially better off. However, shorter epitaphs are not necessarily an indication of a poor person. There may just have been a preference for simplicity, or the deceased might even have been responsible for some family misdemeanor.

You will also find that some gravestones have more than just writing on them, as symbols and pictures were commonly used in the past. The image of a skull and crossbones is something that you may well come across, but there is no need to worry if you do as this simply represents death, and does not mean that the person was a criminal, or was involved in anything unpleasant. Variations on this include a skull with wings, and an angel with wings.

Other symbols to look out for, particularly on gravestones from the Victorian period, are urns, broken columns or inverted torches, all of which indicate that a life has met a premature end, a sickle, which represents the reaping of a soul, or a weeping willow tree, which symbolizes that man, like a tree, must always reach upwards towards the heavens.

However, lengthy inscriptions need upright headstones and, to ease ground-keeping maintenance, cemeteries are now steering a return to smaller grave markers, placed level with the grass. Creative epitaphs are gradually becoming a thing of the past and today’s inscriptions are more to the point. Beyond the name, age and dates of birth and death they are often restricted simply to “devoted wife and mother” or “now at rest”, denying the keen genealogist further important clues for their search.

Over the coming decades, the task of tracing their ancestry is likely to become more difficult for people as the opportunity to record this valuable information is restricted.

At gravestones.org.uk, we understand the devastation caused by bereavement, which is why we aim to make choosing a lasting gravestone memorial an easy process.

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