We often talk about the many different roles that cemeteries play. They’re a gathering place, providing a tranquil, beautiful location for families, friends, and entire communities to come together. They’re an art museum, displaying diverse memorials and monuments that reflect the lives of the people buried there. They’re a botanical garden and arboretum, with lovely greenery and flora abound. In addition to all of these roles that cemeteries play, they are also archives.
When we think about cemeteries, we may think of them from an individual or familial standpoint. We often visit cemeteries because we’re there specifically to visit someone we love. But as we wander the meticulously maintained paths there, we’re walking past hundreds of people’s stories, and these stories offer a window into the past.
A memorial marker will tell you someone’s name, their date of birth, their date of passing, and often other information, like their occupation, things they loved, and the people they loved. Taken individually, these markers tell the unique story of the person buried there. But taken together, they show the connections between the people living in a particular area, which you might call the local heritage and history.
Through collections of gravestones, we can learn about important points in local history and how they affected those living there. We can also learn about where the people of our communities come from, as well as how families once lived in a particular location so many years ago.
But it’s not just through words that cemeteries preserve local history. Even the memorial markers themselves tell us about the people who once lived in the towns we now call home. The material of the markers, the symbols and carvings that are used, and the way in which the markers were created tell us a wealth of information about the people of a particular area, like socioeconomic status and ancestry.
Next time you visit a cemetery, consider coming into it from the perspective of a student or a historian. Take a look around at the monuments and see what you might be able to tell about the community you’re visiting. You never know what you might uncover.