HelPeR - BYU Idaho Special Collections and Family History

Shaking Hands, Farewell. This is common in
older cemeteries and graveyards. It can mean simply
farewell to this earthly life or it can also show
a relationship that is suppose to transcend death.
Look closely at the cuffs. They will show gender
and the dominant one in the relationship—be
it husband to wife or wife to children—will be
clasping the other hand.
to photograph. Putting all this together gives the
researcher tools to identify, analyze, and use the information
that is found.
As with any tool, caution needs to be taken with
Cemetery Iconology. You will find mistakes occurring
on gravestones as they do in written records.
Carving a gravestone was labor intensive, so a carver
was not likely to throw a way a piece of work, especially
if it was near the end of the process, and start
over. Those that commissioned the stone usually did
not want to repeat the expense of a new stone, so
mistakes often stood uncorrected. An old adage in
genealogy research applies to gravestone iconology
as well. Just because it is written, on a page or on a
stone, don’t assume it is totally correct. Always check
and recheck your sources.
Cemetery Iconology and gravestone interpretation
may sound complicated, but most things sound complicated
until they are taken in smaller segments.
Cemetery Iconology is a research tool. As one
would not try to use a single tool to build a house,
one cannot expect to locate and study our ancestors
with just a single genealogy tool either. Cemetery
Iconology gives us an opportunity to learn more
about our ancestors. These were real people with
lives, loves, triumphs, and failures. It often allows
us to put a human face on the many names, dates,
and records we have collected.
Fraternal Order Marker. Fraternal orders sometimes
provide stones for their members. This one is Woodmen
of the World. The significance of this stone is
that these orders or associations usually keep excellent
records and can help you trace your ancestor.
Not all historical and genealogy records are written
upon paper or housed in museums. Cemeteries
and graveyards are open-air museums and repositories
of history. The 100 or even 200 year old gravestones
provide a lesson in history that is hard to find
anywhere else.
There is a tendency of those just starting on the
great ancestral trail to collect as many names, and
dates as possible and dutifully record them on the
proper genealogy form or computer program. The
names and dates relating to an ancestor are very important,
but getting to know our ancestors as real
people is also very rewarding. We should strive to get
to know our ancestors as the real people they were.
After all, they are family.
Ja n ua ry/Fe b r u a r y 2009 Ev e r t o n’s Ge n e a l o g i c a l He l p e r © 19