Always consider the possibility that your ancestor has
no tombstone. This can because one was never erected in the first place or because the one that was erected has deteriorated beyond readability.
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My great grandfather owned a very large plot in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.
There are 11 graves in it (and lots more room) and only one stone.
That stone is for one of his sons who died in his 30’s and left a wife and 3 children.
Since the stone says “Papa” on the top I am guessing it was erected by the window.
g grandfather was not a poor man. I guess he just wasn’t into stone markers.
My mother was surprised that my father’s grandfather and grandmother had no stones. Her comment was that their son (my father’s uncle) had money and should have done a stone. The only stone in the lot is for the uncle.
My late husband was British and grew up in Halesowen, Worcestershire. When he took me to the cemetery where his parents and maternal grandparents were buried, he could not locate stones in the plot for his grandparents, on an area he knew well. In checking at the county town crematorium, which had the records, we found that the stones had fallen over and become broken, so they were back hoed into a hole in the ground then covered up and grassed over. The records showed he had the correct location, and as far as we know, no one else will be buried there, but there was no outward sign of the graves. He did make sure that all was in order at his parents’ grave site, in a different section of the cemetery.
The very early Friends Cemeteries did not put up stones
I’ve been told that some religions, such as the Quakers, do not erect grave stones.
Just a thought.
Some early markers, at least in the Seattle Cemetery we visited, were made of wood, and have long since disintegrated. So said the clerk in the Records office. He certainly knew exactly where our relatives’ plots were located. Stone markers have risen up around these early graves, but the graves marked originally by wood are now just bare grass with no hint that anyone lies below.
Sometimes there is a stone, not visible, but because with time it has been covered with layers of grass growing over it.
My paternal Grandfather is buried in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. In my genealogy research I found this out. It’s been my desire to have a headstone placed however, I would like to be there when it is placed. Distance ( I live in California) is the only thing that separate us from making this happen.
Some of the early day Quaker burials were not marked
Or a name is not included on a stone marking a grave where several family members are interred. According to cemetery records my great grandmother is buried in the same grave with her father, step mother and some half siblings, but her name is not on the very elaborate stone monument over the grave.