Famous prostitute's gravestone deemed too 'slutty

I confess, I wonder exactly how he was going to present the "two pink marble boulders"
http://www.thelocal.de/society/20090702-20335.html
This is a case were "making the memorial about the persons life,not death" Could get a bit-difficult.Though from the article this woman seems to have overcame a difficult life to become a advocate for a group women who are often voiceless. This again points out the importance of putting your wishes about how you want to be remembered down in writing and letting the people in your life know.If she wanted the pink boulders-I say let her have them!It's just boobs!

Wordless Wednesday

St. Joseph Cemetery,Sacramento,CA

Tombstone Tuesday

This is the grave of Rina Picchi.she was born in Roseville CA. in 1915 and died in 1936.It is in the Roseville Cemetery in Roseville in Placer County.This is a lovely cemetery with a number of nice stones.Rinas is the most elaborate one.I love the way the marble has mottled so it looks like real skin.I was surprised to see so many Italian and Greek names on the early headstones.This was a railroad town,that and ranching were the economy for many years in this area.

Historic Catholic cemetery's upkeep

Lisa Burke over on adventures in Grave hunting has a post that expresses some of my feelings and concerns about older historic Catholic cemetery's here in California and what seems to be a pattern of neglect concerning them.I find it sad the church is failing to care for those who during their lives cared greatly for them.Please read it and I look forward to updates!Thank you Lisa and Louise Gaffney for bringing this to our attention.
http://lisaburks.typepad.com/gravehunting/catholic-cemeteries/

Irish Roadside Memorials

Mayo Fan over on Findagrave posted the link to this very interesting site.
http://www.irishroadside.com/index.htm
I find it interesting that there seems to be the absence of controversy about the presence of these memorials in Ireland.Some even seem"official" or done with the approval of authorities.Considering all the controversy they seem to bring up here what with banning them in some places or with them having to be approved and erected by the local road authorities. We really have become a nation of "only by the book,and only what the book allows".I realize some safety issues have been raised about these memorials but again I would think that could also apply to some of the new digital billboards that are blinding me while I drive!
The older Memorials are particularly intersting!

Shaming the Dead-Facedown burial

Found this over on the National Geographic site.http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/06/090623-facedown-burials.html
Interesting that the lead study author Caroline Arcini states that"shaming of the dead is most likely a deep rooted behavior in humankind."It mentions the practice occurring up into the first World War.Most likely with prisoners I would imagine?Information of this sort fascinates me.The why we are and the way we are and how many things are the same all over the world.
Here is a link to the original article in Current Archaeology http://www.archaeology.co.uk/articles/buried-face-down-prone-burials.htm customs

The Real Deal

Graveyard Rabbit that is! I did a little trip to Roseville District Cemetery this morning and this fellow was "half way galloping among the graves".And Wary Still indeed he was! Racing away from me.

A Tradtion Saved-sort of

This was in the San Fransisco Chronicle today. While it's sad that it won't be staying in the family it's nice the tradition will be carried on by people who care and California can use all the jobs we can get!
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/24/BU3V18DB06.DTL

Tombstone Tuesday

Old Holy Cross Cemetery -Santa Cruz CA. Jose Brijido Rodriguez is one of the early Californianos,he was baptized at Mission San Antonio de Padua,his father was a soldier.I believe this lady,Francisca R. Escamilla, in the same plot is his wife but that he was not her first husband as I found a record of her marriage to one of the Castro's.She was baptized at Mission San Francisco de Asisi,her father a soldier of the Presido there.Her parents originally came from Guadalajara.
This family plot is in a sad state but at least they have headstones,very few early Spanish/Mexican Californians do.
Sources- The Huntington Library, Early California Population Project Database, 2006. Photos are my personal property.

Death-the Great Equalizer

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7936494.stm
The comment about John Calvin gave me a chuckle,talk about spinning in your grave!

Tombstone Tuesday

The war to end all wars- we wish. St. Joseph Cemetery,Sacramento CA.

An Upturned Cemetery

From The Santa Cruz Daily Surf Sept. 26,1885 "In digging the trenches for the foundation of the new Catholic Church on Mission Hill, a large number of bodies were unearthed.The bones of many were in a excellent state of preservation.Coffins were found in several instances buried one above the other, the upper one being not more than 1 and a half or two feet below the surface. One of the skulls was about three-eighths of a inch in thickness. In the end of one of the trenches a large pile of bones was found,as though a great many bodies had been buried a t the same time. The results of further excavations will be watched with interest."
Remember not just Indians and Spaniards were buried here.Many of the American pioneer family's of the area were laid to rest in this cemetery as well.California had only been a state 35 years but these people were already forgotten and in the way.One has to wonder at the lack of over site by the church in this matter.They seem curiously absent,other than the mention previously of the Father calling for removal of family at the Sunday service, no mention in any of the articles I have read about the church overseeing or involved in the relocation of the people who first celebrated the Catholic faith here.I have one more article to share about this that says volumes about what happened here.

Our cemetery's

I would like to provide links to these blog posts.I think they both go a long why in explaining some of why people feel so disconnected from cemetery's today.I feel the sentiments in these posts are echoed in the huge growth of the holiday of Dia de los Muretos.People feel a need to be connected to their loved ones that have died regardless of their religious beliefs or ethnic customs.We as a society are looking for new ways to deal with the loss of loved ones and the way the business of death is handled now is not fulfilling our needs.Please read Joshua Inayat's blog post on his site Cemetery Seeker on the Camp Polk cemetery, http://cemeteryseeker.com/?p=357
and Dead Man Talking over on Blogging a Dead Horse,were he talks about how the modern funeral business has set up their own demise,http://bloggingadeadhorse-dmt.blogspot.com/2009/06/little-history.htm

This looks very interesting!

Sharif,a member over on Findagrave(http://www.findagrave.com), posted this link.http://www.gadsdentimes.com/article/20090609/NEWS/906099974/1017/NEWS&tc=email_newsletter I would like to try this,but my family and friends already think I'm nuts,this might push it over the edge!Might have to sneak into a lonely cemetery during the week and try it!I wonder if it would work through concrete?

Come and get your relatives

The following are excerpts from newspapers in Santa Cruz CA. regarding the moving of the Santa Cruz Mission Cemetery when the new Holy Cross church was built.In case you think this sort of thing only happened in the "old days"here is a link to Julie over at the Graveyard Rabbit of Chicagoland regarding the removal of a cemetery for a expansion of the O'Hare airport.http://clgrabbit.blogspot.com/2009/05/st-johannes-cemetery-relocation.html.

July 14,1885 The Santa Cruz Sentinel "Sunday morning Father McNamee requested those having friends or relatives buried in the lot adjoining the old adobe to have them removed within two weeks."
So Sunday morning in church the father tells you to come and get your dead relatives within two weeks.I wonder how that worked out?I mean ,did you go dig them up yourself?Did you automatically get space in the new cemetery?By this time(1885),many,if not most,of the original settlers family's,both Spanish/Mexican and others, had moved away,this being one of the most mobile periods in history. I can not even begin to comment on the Indian burials and the remainders of their family's.Many of the family's in the cemetery would still not have English as their primary language so a newspaper announcement would be useless.
The most telling part of this article is the statement"buried in the lot".This sacred place was no longer Holy ground in the eyes of the powers that be.No longer a cemetery,but a lot to be developed anew.That this "lot" belonged to the church itself,that the people buried in this so called "lot" were the very people who had brought the faith of this church to this land and the peoples who lived here was no longer important.That would be the prevailing mindset in dealing with the California Mission cemetery's and the early settlers who were buried there all over northern and central California in the years to come.
I have some news articles dealing with the mass body removal I will post later.

Tombstone Tuesday

Pioneer cemetery, Nevada City CA
"Our little angel has gone home to god"
Wilson Burnett Head
age 5 mos and 3 days