Mass Grave Suggests Ancient Village Wiped Out by Massacre

The Dead Still Speak

A 7,000-year-old mass grave holding at least 26 adults and children, many of them with smashed skulls and broken legs, is likely evidence of an early Neolithic massacre, a new study finds.
Most of the cranial bones show signs of blunt-force trauma, the researchers said. A number of individuals also had broken leg bones (tibiae and fibulae), indicating they were tortured before death, or mutilated afterward, said the study's lead researcher, Christian Meyer, a bioarchaeologist who conducted the study while at the University of Mainz in Germany.

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Digging up Bodies of Those Buried in Bedlam Insane Asylum

The Bedlam mental health hospital was established in 1247. A burial site, called Bethlehem and the New Churchyard, was opened after graveyards around London started to overflow.
The poor from London and inmates from the asylum were buried there and recent excavations have uncovered bits and pieces of skeletal remains.

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Digging up Bodies of Those Buried in Bedlam

King Richard III to be burried in Leicester Cathedral

King Richard III

Officials have finally decided on the re interment details for the remains of the 15th-century English ruler King Richard III.

His remains will be laid to rest on Thursday, March 26, 2015, in Leicester Cathedral during one of three services to honor the English king.

The king's remains, which were found under a parking lot in Leicester, England, in 2012, will be placed in a tomb made of Swaledale fossil stone and black Kilkenny marble crafted by Michael Ibsen, a descendant of King Richard III's sister Anne of York. 

The 'oldest tree in Europe' discovered in a Welsh cemetery

5000 year old yew tree in Wales

I don't normally blog about trees (well perhaps Family Trees) but as this one is in a cemetery its worthy of note. Experts say a yew tree found in St Cynog’s churchyard in Wales, is probably Europe’s oldest living thing.

The tree is more than 5,000 years old, that's 3,000BC. It started growing about 500 years before the Pharaohs in Egypt built the Great Pyramid of Giza. And it was a sapling at about the time work first began on building Stonehenge.

If only it could talk.

Outrage in Norway as hundreds of gravestones are covered in BLACK BAGS with a demand for payment

This is shameful. This is very shameful. Read the full details at Outrage in Norway as hundreds of gravestones are covered in BLACK BAGS at cemetery along with a demand for overdue rental payment

• Around 670 headstones have been labelled at Mollendal cemetery in Bergen
• Government covers initial maintenance cost and rental - 25 years for a coffin; 20 years for an urn
• After that, relatives must pay annual cost: £52 for a coffin; £37 for an urn

Texas Man Builds Fake Cemetery With Tombstones From Actual Dead People

A  Houston Texas man, tired of homeless people sleeping on his property, installed three grave sites complete with fake headstones.

Much to his surprise, it turned out that the headstones were  discarded from a local monument company and are inscribed with the names of actual deceased people.

The three tombstone markers are inscribed

Johnny Mack Chappell, Dee Brown Hancock 1922-1973, and Sandra Ruth Howen 1939-1986

Video & Details at:

Daily Mail Online: Texas man tired of homeless people sleeping on his property builds a fake GRAVEYARD complete with old tombstones - only to find out they were made for real dead people

ABC News: Phony Tombstones Used as Scarecrow for Vagrants

Ancient Jewish tombstones hidden from Nazis during WWII rediscovered in Vienna

"It was 1943 when Vienna's Nazi overlords gave the order to destroy the city's oldest Jewish cemetery, demanding it be levelled and the tombstones attesting to centuries of Jewish existence there be destroyed.

Desperate to save their heritage, the city's shrinking Jewish community decided to act. Defying the possibility of prison, deportation or execution, they buried the gravestones and kept them from Nazi hands." [Source: Edmonton Journal]

Continue reading this story

Credit: Image courtesy of digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Archaeologists find grave robbing evidence

Archaeologists have found evidence of grave robbing while digging at a 19th Century burial ground in West Bromwich.

A team working at the former Providence Baptist Chapel site found a mortsafe - a metal cage fixed around a coffin to stop people stealing the body.
Empty coffins and one filled with scrap metal were also discovered which archaeologists said was evidence of attempts to deter body snatchers.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-21044770

Or try ancestorsatrest.com/coffin_plates/  to learn more about 19th Century Cemetery Customs.

Cemetery had to hold bodies until burial

Visitors to Marietta's Mound Cemetery are often curious about a large, weathered sandstone structure that stands to the left of the walkway about halfway between the mound and the cemetery's main entrance on Fifth Street.

"It looks really sinister. People usually think it's a tomb of some kind," said Lynne Sturtevant, who often conducts historical tours of Mound Cemetery as the founder and owner of Hidden Marietta.
In fact, the structure is what was known as a "receiving tomb" when former Marietta mayor, businessman and philanthropist Nahum Ward commissioned the building of the stone vault in the mid-1800s.

Read more at.....
 http://www.newsandsentinel.com/page/content.detail/id/570389/Mound-Cemetery-held-bodies-until-burial.html?nav=5061

Read more about Cemetery Customs at.....
http://ancestorsatrest.com/

Rare Spiders Discovered at 150-Year-Old London Cemetery

We don't often think of a cemetery as being a great place for wildlife but life can thrive in the most unexpected places. The rare Orb Weaver spider was spotted last December during a bat survey as part of the Wild London Inclusive London project held by staff at the London Wildlife Trust. Officials were working with the locals and staff of the Highgate Cemetery. A large population of these spiders was seen in the tombs of the Egyptian Avenue at the cemetery.

http://www.scienceworldreport.com/articles/4534/20130124/rare-spiders-discovered-150-year-old-london.htm

You can read more about Cemetery Records at

http://ancestorsatrest.com/ 

Grave of 219-year-old man discovered in Limerick

We may never know how the grave of John Murphy in Knockainey came to say he was 219 years old when he died. A mistake on the part of the Tombstone Engraver perhaps. Or maybe old John Murphy was a bit of a storyteller. The tombstone of the mystery man - who is surely a candidate for the Guinness Book of Records - has been discovered in the cemetery at St John’s Church in Knockainey by a local historian.

http://www.limerickleader.ie/news/latest-news/grave-of-219-year-old-man-discovered-in-limerick-1-4701563

You can see more grave records at

http://ancestorsatrest.com/

Unearthed Headstones at Merrimac Farm Offer Glimpse into Prince William’s Buried Past

Stories of ancient Indian settlement, colonization and frontier communities, slavery and war, early industry and intensive farming permeate our local history, but the past is sometimes hard to see for the present.

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Woman Crushed by Backhoe at Cemetery

A horrendous news story but because I follow cemetery news, I have come to realize that many many people die in cemetery accidents every year. Old tombstones topple for example. So please everyone, be careful when looking for your ancestors' graves!

Sep 24, 2012 8:54 PM ETA freak accident killed a woman in the Baron de Hirsch cemetery in Cote-des-Neiges

The 44-year-old woman was at the cemetery on Montreal’s Mountain Sights Avenue when she was crushed by a backhoe performing work at the site.

Read more: http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/woman-fatally-struck-in-baron-de-hirsch-cemetery-1.969755#ixzz27U7X0fFD

Cemetery Lost and Now Found!

One crumbling tombstone remains, having fallen to the ground. The others are long gone although Lorine McGinnis Schulze of Olive Tree Genealogy remembers seeing six still standing in the early 1970s.

Now the town of Midland Ontario has discovered this old Pioneer Cemetery and is searching for records of those buried there since the early 1800s.

Read about the forgotten cemetery, lost and now found.

Railway workers reburied with dignity 180 years later

The remains of five Irish labourers, who researchers believe were murdered in 1832 while building a Pennsylvania railroad, received a dignified reinterment Friday more than 5,000 kilometres from their homeland and nearly two centuries after their first anonymous burials.



http://www.thespec.com/news/world/article/684908--railway-workers-reburied-with-dignity-180-years-later

Love Remains After Death in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery

SLEEPY HOLLOW, N.Y. – For many couples, the power of love continues even after death. Buried within Sleepy Hollow Cemetery are many stories of love and loss throughout the past century from famous couples, to poets, to past Tarrytown residents.

“I never knew a day I did not love you” is the inscription that lies on the grave of Leona Helmsley.


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No More Kisses For Oscar Wilde's Grave

For decades, fans of Oscar Wilde have paid tribute to the Irish writer by leaving kisses on his tomb at Paris's famed Pere Lachaise Cemetery. But years of greasy lipstick smears have badly damaged the memorial, a stone angel designed by modernist sculptor Jacob Epstein.

Read the rest of the story

Olive Tree Genealogy More Cemetery Walk Videos

The Olive Tree Genealogy has added more Cemetery Walk videos. This is just a few of what she has online.

Cemetery Walk: St Paul Cemetery Oakville Missouri

Cemetery Walk: Hillsdale United Church Cemetery Ontario

Cemetery Walk: Cochrane Catholic Cemetery Ontario Canada

Cemetery Walk: Uxbridge Cemetery Ontario Canada

Cemetery Walk: Trinity United Church Cemetery Beeton Ontario

Cemetery Walk: St. Paul's Anglican Cemetery, Melancthon Twp, Dufferin Co. Ontario

Cemetery Walk: Waubaushene Protestant Cemetery, Waubaushene Ontario

Cemetery Walk: Genier Catholic Cemetery, Cochrane Ontario

Cemetery Walk: Farnham Cemetery, Arkell Ontario

Cemetery Walk: St. Michael's Catholic Cemetery (NEW ONE) Orillia Ontario

Cemetery Walk: Donegal Cemetery, Perth County Ontario

Cemetery Walk: Price's Corners Cemetery. Dufferin Co. Ontario

If you want to have a look at all the great Cemetery Walk videos try
Olive Tree Genealogy You Tube Channel

Nothing like death to liven up a trip

If you're going to Europe, visit a cemetery — they're authentic, artsy and oozing with history.

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Pioneer graves found at school site

Almost a dozen 180-year-old graves, including those of three children, have been discovered during an archeological excavation at the site of a former elementary school in Amherstburg Ontario.

Read more: http://www.windsorstar.com/life/Pioneer+graves+found+school+site/5209311/story.html#ixzz1UdnCwe9v