Brief Shot

These were taken by the side of a very old cemetery in Meriden CT.  The cemetery is practically in the middle of town and right next to a Lutheran Church.  I did not have time to get any more detailed shots and these are not very great.  The first one I took becase there was a contrast between the monument and the stump of a dead treethat was in the midst of the stones.

The second I took because it highlights a theme that has been developing in my mind.  Many of the larger and some of the smaller stones were certainly inspired by ancient Egyptian monuments.  Many appear to be obelisks of some sort.  I plan to do more on this.  this next picture is of a cluster of obelisk-like stones.  I apologize for the fence and the wires, it was in downtown Meriden.

Pequot Trail Revisited

Since I travel to visit my father in Rhode Island every two weeks or so, I frequently drive on a section of the old Pequot Trail that goes through Stonongton Connecticut.  In a recent post I put up some pictures taken at a small cemetery just off the road.  About 300 yards down from that cemetery there was another one.  I stopped this time and investigated this new little cemetery.

I had to get the flowers in, I am a sucker for flowers!  As you can see in the above picture This is old, small and not extremely well kept.  The stone wall is in great need of repair and many of the stones were tilted and some were turned over totally and lying flat one the ground.

I am guessing that this cemetery is a family cemetery. One of the houses nearby was probably the family "homestead." Many of the stones have the family name Noyes. One of the stones was for a Captain Noyes and another one was for the wife of a Captain Noyes. In many cases I would assume that this was Military, but Stonington was part of the great shipping and Whaling industry of the 18th and 19th Century New England. I am guessing that the Captain's Noyes were Sea Captains, though I do not know for sure.

You can click on the pictures to get a larger version of them. You can then see that one stone is for a Capt Noyes and another is for the wife of a Capt Noyes. Though it is hard to see Mrs Noyes was born May 1, 1776 a very significant year for our nation.

I shot these photos late in the afternoon.  It was a bright and warm day and there was a great deal of sun in the west.  You may notice that there are shadows on some of the stones.  I did very little editing of these because there was such great texture already.  The trees cast some distinct shadows over the stones and some areas were in full light still.

There was a very interesting circle of dandy Lion Puffs in an area of the cemetery.  They gave the whole scene a mystical and pastoral quality.  Who could guess that just yards away cars were rushing by on the asphalt highway?

Family Cemetery

It seems that I am the queen of finding small out of the way cemeteries.  I found this one while driving to visit my father who lives in Westerly Rhode Island.  This is just off the Pequot Trail in Stonington, Connecticut.  It is extremely small and seems to be a family cemetery.  Most of the stones with recognizable inscriptions are from a family name Rhodes.  I know nothing else about them.  I do find it curious that the name is similar to the Rhodes in Rhode Island. 

One interesting thing is that the whole cemetery was surrounded by a 4 foot high stone wall.  There was a very rusted metal gate.  I didn't try to go inside because I was afraid of damaging the rusty gate.  I am a bit too old to climb the wall.    The cemetery was located just off the road and there was another one about 300 yards down the road.  Parking was difficult.  Just outside the cemetery I found these flowers (I am a sucker for flowers!)

Some of the stones were well preserved and all that I could make out were from the mid 1800's.  One was for an 88 year old woman who had been born in 1767.

Here are some more stones from the Rhodes Family.

Here are some different angles and some different stones.  Some of these stones I could not see well enough  to decipher well.

I didn't have time to go and photograph the other small cemetery down the road, but I visit my father frequently so I will look to do that in the near future.  I expect that one of these days I will have to start planning visits to cemeteries, but for now I seem to just stumble on them.  I have recently been by many more that I haven't yet photographed.  This was intriguing because it was so small.

It would be nice if I had other contributors or even some suggestions.  Commenting  is open and you can email me at oldsoulscemetery@gmail.com.  Have a lovely day!

Accidental encounter

Many of the cemeteries that I have been to recently and have photographed have been accidental encounters. The cemetery here is located on a country road in Cheshire Connecticut. It is a very small cemetery and has some very old graves. I could do a thesis on the stones in this cemetery alone. For a small cemetery there seemed to be a great proportion of war veterans. This stone had been placed here to commemorate veterans of the American Revolutionary War.  Many of the stones were very old and some were terribly warn and weather damaged.

I found stones from the late 1700's and the one below is one that was still in relatively good condition. There were many others, but they were in very bad shape or very worn.

I did not find any of the markers from the Revolutionary War, but I did find several from the Civil War. This is only one of several. They all seemed to have survived the Civil war and died years later.

  For the first time I found a stone from a veteran of the Spanish American War!  This was a much smaller war and I feel that this was quite a find for such a small cemetery.

There was also a stone from a Veteran of the First World war that didn't come out well and interestingly several stones for people identified as  "foreigners."  There were two stones indicating the people buried there were born in England.  There were also several stones of veterans of the Second World war.

I found this cemetery by just riding by it.  I have been on that road many times and was kind of aware that there was a small cemetery, but this was the first time I had ever stopped to look.  One of the things that caught my eye this time was this grouping of flowers.  I am not sure whether they were wild or had been planted.  They were certainly strikingly beautiful.

Saddest Stones

Death is often looked at as a tragedy to us. It is in fact one of the phases of our lives. Some people live long lives and some not so long. Grave stones say very little about the quality of a person's life. There are exceptions, however. The stones here indicate the tragedy of extreme family loss. These are stones of individuals who died before much of their life could be actualized. They died in infancy.

The stone above is worn so the only remaining information is that the individual was an infant. The name is only "Baby" so possibly the child died before the sad parents could name the child. There must have been grieving because they cared enough to purchase and place a grave stone.

These other two stones are placed together in the same cemetery and have more information, but both represent great sadness in lives that ended before they could begin. Both stones have the names of the child, though you can't see that in this picture. One stone says the child died at 4 days. I don't know them or their families, but it does make me sad for their loss!

WRXEQGXJ9356

The Flowers of Easter

Easter is a season of flowers. Because it is positioned in Spring it corresponds with the flower blooming. It also corresponds with the greening and otherwise regrowth associated with Spring. The Easter theme for Christians is Resurrection and the renewal that Spring brings fits right in.


Many people visit the graves of their loved ones near Easter and place flowers on the graves. The ability to do this is sometimes limited by the Cemetery rules. This cemetery allows putting cut flowers out. I do not know any of the families involved but one thing that is obvious is that there is love involved.

Many of the flowers are not only beautiful, but they are costly. For some people the cost is insignificant. For other people it may be too much expense. The economy certainly has hit many very hard. So what does one do when one can't afford the expense of flowers?



Spring is great, because everything is blooming. Some Forsythia does just fine!

Old Stones

Old Grave stones really interest me. One thing that fascinates me is how different they can be. Both the stones in this picture date from the 19th century, but they are as different from each other as can be. The one on the right is indistinguishable. The face of the stone is falling apart. The one one the left looks like it was produced yesterday.

I am sure that the composition of the stone has a lot to do with the way stones survive. The one in the better condition looks to me to be granite. I am not really sure what the more deteriorated one is. Possibly it is sandstone. Maybe one of you can help with an opinion in the comment section.

I have noticed that some stones are damaged by lichens. I plan to research this a bit, because my mother's stone is somewhat covered by lichen. I am not quite sure what to do about this, but I plan to do some research. The stone to the side is not my mother's stone, but does show some lichen dammage.