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A grave undertaking - Web site offers help in finding burial sites |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Monday, 10 September 2007 |
By THERESE APEL
Barbara Tanner and Betty Jane Taylor have been all over the area looking for graves to photograph. The two sisters from Gallman enjoy the hobby, but they also have a purpose. They spend some of their free time finding graves for "Find A Grave," a society that operates through a Web site that helps people find pictures of the graves of relatives, friends, and sometimes complete strangers.
"I was surfing the Internet one night to see if the Gallman Cemetery was listed, and I found this Find A Grave site," said Tanner. "You can join for free and take pictures within a certain area. Once you join, you just wait for the requests for graves then you photograph them and send them in."
While the sisters acknowledge the hobby isn't your run-of-the-mill pastime, they said it proves entertaining and exciting sometimes.
"It gives me something to do," said Tanner, who receives no compensation for her efforts. "And it keeps me out of trouble."
The more soft-spoken Taylor said she is there for the moral support.
"I just tag along," she said.
Tanner, who is always accompanied either by Taylor or by her Labrador mix, Luther, said she has pursued requests for people from all over the country. She said she has dealt with requests from as far away as Washington, California, Arizona, and Virginia, as well as grave sites as old as one from 1892.
Part of the fun, she said, is learning where all the graveyards are, but also finding the graves once you get to the graveyard.
The two were in the Riverwood Cemetery in Brookhaven on Wednesday looking for the grave site of Devon Alexander. They circled the graveyard once and then went to the office for better directions.
"I told him 'Apparently, Devon left. Do you know when he's expected back?'" Tanner said, laughing.
Sometimes the cemeteries don't have an office to stop at, though, and the two are on their own with the sometimes-murky navigation steps given by the Web site.
"Usually we're back among the trees," said Taylor.
And each grave has its stories, just like the families associated with them. Tanner tells of a time she even helped reconstruct a shattered tombstone in Lincoln County.
"A wild cow had broken her headstone," she said. "It had just run it down, I guess. We got the pieces and put them back together."
The sisters said they had grave-searched for one Arizona family who had 17 children who were searching for a younger sister they had lost track of.
"I found that she had died of appendicitis and I was able to tell the family what had become of her," Tanner said.
Some of the stories may never be told, though.
"There was one little boy, he had to be 6 or 7," said Taylor. "He had all these little Hot Wheels cars on his grave. You find all sorts of things on the markers."
They said besides learning things about the departed and their families, there are also techniques to the art of "graving."
"The ideal time to go is spring and fall, because of the weather," said Tanner. "And when you get requests, they're not always all correct, sometimes there's a name that's wrong or something. And sometimes the directions aren't great."
She said also the best time to go is before noon since most graves face east, and the sun shining straight on the headstone makes for better pictures of the graves.
There is also tough competition among the Find A Grave family.
"There's a lady in Jackson who, if I'm not Johnny-on-the-spot, she beats me," said Tanner. "I don't even know her name, but she's fast."
On the Net:
For more information on the Find A Grave society, visit FIND A GRAVE
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18802139&BRD=1377&PAG=461&dept_id=172922&rfi=6
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Taphophilia?
taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)
ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"
DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries
Quote Repository
“Men fear death, as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.” Francis Bacon
Shirtless and Sculpted
The Men of Mortuaries 2008 Calendar is now available! All sale proceeds benefit KAMMCARES, a breast cancer foundation.
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