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Genealogy Blog

15 March 2013

Burial Ground Discovered in London May Be Victims of Black Death

Archaeologists working in central London have discovered a fourteenth-century burial ground that might contain victims of the Black Death. Thirteen skeletons have been uncovered lying in two carefully laid out rows on the edge of Charterhouse Square at Farringdon, and are believed to be up to 660 years old.

Historical records reference a burial ground in the Farringdon area that opened during the Black Death Plague in 1348. The limited written records suggest up to 50,000 people may have been buried in less than three years in the hastily established cemetery, with the burial ground used up until the 1500s.

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A Visit to London's Cemeteries

What are the first sights you seek when you travel to a new city? The museums? The top restaurants? Or the cemeteries? I choose cemeteries. Although some people think that's weird, I find them a through-the-looking-glass way of understanding a place and how it grew.

They are fascinating, beautiful, a bit mysterious but rarely ghoulish or spooky. Because of its rich history, London is one of the best cities for touring cemeteries. I started at Bunhill Fields, close to the City, as London's financial center is called.

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'Medieval Knight' Unearthed in Edinburgh Car Park Dig

The remains of a medieval knight or nobleman found underneath a car park are to be moved to make way for a university building. The grave and evidence of a 13th Century monastery were uncovered when archaeologists were called to an Edinburgh Old Town building site.

An elaborate sandstone slab, with carvings of a Calvary Cross and ornate sword, marked the grave. This find has the potential to be one of the most significant and exciting archaeological discoveries in the city for many years”

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11 March 2013

Danish Memorial for WWII Lincolnshire Airmen

A memorial to seven dead airmen who were based in Lincolnshire during World War II is set be unveiled in Denmark. The 44 Squadron crew was shot down by a German fighter pilot over the Baltic Sea 70 years ago.

They had flown a Lancaster Bomber from RAF Waddington, near Lincoln, and never returned home. Henry Horscroft, secretary of the 44 Squadron Association, said it was "heart-warming" that the Danish Defence Brotherhood had organised the memorial.

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Australia WWII Agent Nancy Wake's Ashes Scattered

The ashes of Australia's most decorated World War II servicewoman, former saboteur and spy Nancy Wake, have been scattered at a ceremony in France. The service took place in a forest near the village of Verneix, whose mayor attended the ceremony, as did an Australian military representative.

Mrs Wake died in 2011 at the age of 98. It had been her wish that her ashes be scattered in the area, where she played a key role in the resistance movement against German occupation.

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8 March 2013

Boston, Massachusetts: 300-Year-Old Tombstone Stolen In 1955 Is Returned

Mary Paine died on New Year’s Eve in 1713. At 15 months old, she had barely lived. But because of Roland ­McCandlish, Mary’s headstone saw the world.

In 1955, the then-20-year-old sailor snatched it from a tool shed at Copp’s Hill Burying Ground in the North End of Boston and took it back to his ship, docked at the Charlestown Navy Yard.

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1 March 2013

Wood National Cemetery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Fixes Location of 32 Misplaced Headstones

A recent audit at Wood National Cemetery in Milwaukee - Wisconsin's only national veterans cemetery - discovered that 32 graves had misplaced headstones.

The wrong headstones were on veterans graves in six different sections of the cemetery, mostly from people buried in the 19th century or early 1900s. The most recent was buried in 1992 and the oldest buried in 1881.

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26 February 2013

Commonwealth War Graves Commission: Site Sought For Memorial To WWI's 'Forgotten Soldiers'

There are still some soldiers who died in World War I for whom there is no memorial. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is trying to find a place in the Somme for a new memorial with thousands of names that have been missed.

Speaking to Today presenter Justin Webb, Terry Denham co-founder of the In From The Cold Project, - the initiative established to find a place for the soldiers to be remembered - explained "the bureaucracy of the day did not keep up with the events... and names just got forgotten."

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Coral Gables, Florida: Pioneer Day To Honor Early Settlers Buried At Historic Cemetery

"Pioneers! O, Pioneers!" wrote Walt Whitman of the intrepid folks who pushed ever westward when the nation was young. But brave souls ventured far south, too, into a vast, mosquito-infested swampland.

More than 200 of those pioneers are remembered and honored every year at the oldest cemetery south of the Miami River – indeed, one of the oldest historical sites in Coral Gables: Pinewood Cemetery at 7220 SW 47th Court.

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22 February 2013

Ghosts of Crimean War Return as French Cemetery Uncovered

The din of machinery mingled with the echo of the 19th century Crimean War when an excavator bucket stumbled upon the yellowed remains of long-dead French soldiers at a construction site in a southern Ukrainian port city.

The haunting find at Sebastopol's Cane Bay beach in December revealed the site of a large cemetery of French soldiers who died in the war against the Russian Empire during the 1854-1856 Crimean War.

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20 February 2013

Hundreds of British War Graves in Indian City Face Being Dug Up To Make Way For New Railway Line

British war graves in India are in danger of being dug up to make way for a new metro rail line. Some of the 2,000 graves in Lucknow, the Uttar Pradesh state capital, could be destroyed as part of plans by the city’s authorities to build a railway line.

The graves are those of British troops who were trapped inside the Lucknow Residency during the uprising of 1857 known as the Indian Mutiny or India's First War of Independence.

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New App Provides Information on Britain’s WWI Cemeteries and Memorials

A new smartphone app released on Tuesday allows people to find information about cemeteries across Britain that provide final resting places for those who died in World War I, which ranged from 1914 to 1918, the Duke of Kent said.

More than 100 information panels have been placed at cemeteries and memorials across the country as part of a project launched ahead of the centennial of the start of the war by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

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10 Of The World's Most Beautiful Cemeteries

To some, it may sound like a strange way to spend a vacation. But for many visitors, the carefully manicured grounds of cemeteries can provide beautiful moments to remember history's fascinating figures.

St. Louis No. 1, New Orleans. New Orleans is situated below sea level. Early in its history, each time there was a flood, the dead would literally rise. Residents soon learned that bodies shouldn't be buried in the ground.

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19 February 2013

Eighteenth Century Graves Found At Charleston, South Carolina, Construction Site

Workers have found at least 27 graves at the site of a construction project in downtown Charleston. The city is spending $142 million to renovate Gaillard Auditorium. But now workers have discovered more than two dozen graves and have more areas to search.

Officials are puzzled by the graves since there is no record of a cemetery at that location. Archaeologist Eric Poplin says it appears the pits date to at least 1780, the time of the American Revolution.

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18 February 2013

2 Mount Kisco, New York, Moms Restore Revolutionary War-Era Cemetery

Two village moms are teaming up to tidy and repair a historic Mount Kisco cemetery that played a role in the Revolutionary War.

The St. George’s/St. Mark’s Cemetery sits on about an acre across the street from Leonard Park and is home to about 430 graves dating from 1773 to 1940, many of which bear locally significant names such as Kirby and Sarles.

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