Day Four: General Protestant Cemetery: A Grave Issue

This past week, Nora and I had the opportunity to explore the General Protestant Cemetery in St. John's in search of more resting places of those involved in the S.S. Florizel disaster. I had been looking forward to this trip since day one of this project since the General Protestant Cemetery (or 'GPC' for short) is the cemetery with the most S.S. Florizel passengers and crew (19 that we managed to locate and two others who are recorded as there but could not be located).

The graves of Mabel Barrett,
John Lambert (steeply leaning)
and a third entirely fallen.

Something I was surprised by, having gone through numerous cemeteries recently, is seeing how many headstones have broken and tipped over. They are little markers of history and often the longest-lasting documentation we have of some people. There were some people on the S.S. Florizel who all we know about them is that they died on the Florizel and that they are buried in this particular cemetery. Being able to find their headstone will often give us information such as their hometowns, the name of their spouse, parents or kids, their birth year, or age at death. A simple search can find a dozen William Earle's from Newfoundland, but it is much easier to find the exact William Earle when we know he was born on Fogo Island or that he was born on 29 June 1878. This information can be invaluable for finding more conclusive results.

The grave of Michael Connolly
at Belvedere, barely visible
from having fallen over.

It's no wonder that headstones break, given that they are over a century old and Newfoundland has a history of brutal winters and windy summers. But I was somewhat curious as to how we go about preserving and protecting headstones. Something I have seen countless times is that the headstone breaks and falls forward, facedown, hiding all of the memories and information engraved on the front of them.

The grave of Robert
Wright, rather unstable
from a tree having grown
almost under it.

When I got back to the museum, our manager, Sarah, sent me some resources on the topic, which I will link below for anyone who wants to learn more about it. I wanted to learn more about how we can preserve these headstones. As an amateur enthusiast, I was not exactly sure what I could do to help in preserving headstones, so I did some digging and found a couple of things we can do to help.

First off, there is what we have been doing: filling online databases! This is the least invasive method in preserving a little bit of history. As long as we take care to not trip over or move anything that we shouldn't, it is a great way to dip our toes into the field. Sites like 'Find A Grave' and 'Billion Graves' are always looking for people to go take pictures, write transcriptions, and GPS tag headstones. It's a great way to preserve the information on headstones while also helping others have ready access to it. There is even a function on there where people can request photos and transcriptions. This is something I have even done in my spare time and I greatly enjoy it. I also put in some requests for S.S. Florizel passengers whose bodies were buried outside of Newfoundland, so if you're in Chicago and wanting to give us a hand, you can even find our photo requests on there! *hint hint*

The possible grave of
Heber Piercey. We are
working on finding more
information on it.

Another step towards helping preserve cemeteries is learning the proper methods before attempting any preservation efforts. We live in an era of internet and social networking. There are some phenomenal, and often free, resources out there on the subject. Organizations such as the Association for Gravestone Studies, Saving Graves, and Atlas Preservation have all sorts of online resources and publications on the safest ways to clean and preserve headstones. Social media platforms such as Facebook and Reddit even have groups for cemetery preservation enthusiasts and is a great place to learn, ask questions, and even find mentors. They can even help you find in-person workshops on the subject! For our readers who live near St. John's, NL, Oh Folklore: A Canadian Folklore Review will be hosting a Cemetery Documentation Workshop on Saturday, September 19th from 10 am to 12 pm at the Forest Road Anglican Cemetery. You can find out more here. 

A third, and arguably the most important, make sure we have permission before trying to clean or preserve anything. There are laws in place protecting cemeteries, and something as simple as cleaning a grave with water and a brush can get us in trouble if we do not have permission to do so. Getting written permission from the proper authorities (which varies from cemetery to cemetery) is an absolute must. Plus, not many people are doing stuff like this and so a lot of cemetery boards would be delighted to know that people are taking interest in them.

I will end by saying that the General Protestant Cemetery is absolutely stunning. It is a beautiful cemetery that has stood by the people of St. John's through no less than two world wars, several natural disasters (including a great fire), numerous tragedies, and it has many stories to tell, if only we take the time to read them. I have included the promised links about graveyard preservation and inscription recording at the very end, and as per usual, here are some links to our findings from the day:

I hope my headstone reads
half as well as Thomas
McMurdo McNeil's after
100 years

Mabel Barrett: LINK
Minnie Ellis Butler: LINK
Wilbert C. Butler: LINK
William F. Butler: LINK
Frank Chown: LINK
George Crocker: LINK
Alexander Fleet: LINK
Edgar Froude: LINK
Gordon Ivany: LINK
Captain Joseph Kean: LINK
John Lambert: LINK
James McCoubrey: LINK
Thomas McMurdo McNeil: LINK
Alfred Moody: LINK
John C. Parsons: LINK
Newman Sellars: LINK
Stanley Squires: LINK
Herbert Taylor: LINK
Robert Wright: LINK

Here is a LINK to a document assembled by the Newfoundland and Labrador Genealogical Society to help train their team of transcriptionists. There are some neat tricks in there on how to read difficult inscriptions and how to note things that are illegible.

Here is a LINK to a document assembled by the Government of Ontario on the proper identification, cleaning, maintenance, and reparation of headstones. I cannot say it enough, remember to acquire written permission from the proper designated authority before attempting any of these methods!

Here is a LINK to Jonathan Appell's website and to his BLOG where he talks about different preservation methods if you are more interested in the preservation side rather than to the cleaning or maintenance side.

-Tim