Passenger graves and memorials web tribute

Shelley,

Sounds like quite an adventure! Good to hear you found Amy's grave.

I do the same thing when I find a grave, I talk to the person that is buried there.

Best regards,

Jason
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Well the effort is appreciated! These pilgrimmages are not for the faint of heart I can tell you. Often the cemetery office is not open on Saturday-so I have finally learned to call ahead and try to get the lot number on a weekday- also visual clues or cemetery street names, sections, etc. A survival pack is good- paper towels, squirt bottle of water, soft brush, disposable camera, bug repellant, small scissors (all this for cleaning stones and cutting growth), bandaids, pencil and notecards (for recording data for filing later), little cold drink cooler (six pack size), hat, sunglasses, sunblock lotion, cell phone, primary camera, and spare batteries. I have all this kit in one small knapsack and it has been a lifesaver over the years. Sometimes the cemetery office will send a Xerox map of the place if you call ahead- Mt. Auburn has a beautiful brochure of the layout. A few places have online websites. It is good exercise- my love of old cemeteries comes from photographing the statuary and doing stone rubbings, which combines nicely with recording Titanic people. Am headed to Achusnet, Massachusetts Saturday to find Ellen Bird. Will also get a photo of her Newport house.
 
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Sorry the inscription is so hard to read- the color of the stone is so close to the color of the engraving. It says William H.H. 1858-1923
Amy E. Stanley 1888-1955 wife of Eugene S. Tanner Sr. 1894- 1973.
 
Thanks Shell -

These are great! I always have a ton of things I like to do in NY but now I know I have to add a visit to Woodlawn Cemetery to the list. The Harper grave site is very lush, one of the most peaceful I've seen. And in the men's gallery, Mr. Ostby looks the quintessential gentleman.

Randy
 
Dear Shelley,

What a great new site! I, too, am a cemetery nut, and even my daughter has recently gained a reputation for her informative, nocturnal tours of our beautiful old Salado Graveyard, just as I did as a teenager at the City of Lubbock Cemetery!
I am just so proud!!

Quite seriously, thank you for this great site and for your sensitivity for the sometimes forgotten or neglected grave sites and memorials of those long departed.

Best regards,
Doug
 
Thanks Doug! I spent an enchanted day Friday at Swan Point in North Providence, visiting the Ostby grave site- one of the most impressive park-like cemeteries I have ever seen next to Mount Auburn. I had never been in summer and all the flowers were in bloom and the grounds immaculately manicured. The Ostby celtic cross is enormous and many headstones are in the large plot. I shot up an entire roll of film there which will be designed into a webpage for the Otsby family this week. The response from Canada and the UK has been heartening as well, donating photographs on the memorials and Lusitania pages. This undertaking has been rather like a potluck supper- everybody has brought something wonderful to the table, and pretty soon we shall have a visual feast. Have also met some new people in the process- another blessing unexpected.http://www.revdma2.com/Lusitania.html
http://www.revdma2.com/Memorials.html
 
Some questions, Shelley:

1)What is the hymn number for "I vow to thee my country" (first line of the hymn you used on your new site) It's not in the '82 hymnal. I can't get it out of my head and want my choir to take it on for the Sunday of the July 4th weekend.

2)Is "Horbury" the title of the setting for "Nearer My God to Thee" as played in "A Night to Remember"? Neither version is in the '82 hymnal, as you probably already know.

3)Is that you playing the piano for the various pages on your site?

Doug
 
It IS a haunting composition Doug! Actually the melody is from Gustav Holst's Jupiter section of "The Planets" Symphony. The hymn tune is Thaxted I believe- and it is not in American Hymnals. Actually I could also not find it in the British Hymns Ancient and Modern either! I love it because it speaks of sacrifice and service- two virtues displayed aboard Titanic in abundance. More on this piece can be found at
http://www.cyberhymnal.org as well as most of the versions of Nearer My God to Thee.
 
John Dykes' Horbury is the version played in ANTR and also the one heard at the recent TIS convention in Newport. It is especially heartrending played by a string ensemble. The Cyberhymnal link above has the midi, score, and info on many versions of the hymn. Americans know the Bethany hymn tune best. And no- !- not me on the piano on the site. I once had to play the Horbury for a television crew on April 15th at a Titanic 2nd class dinner re-creation and was so nervous it was unrecognizable- even after about 20 "takes"! I only play now for myself and God! :)
 
Brutally hot this week in New England so not much to post until Monday as cemetery visiting was curtailed. Here are the Chambers, Norman and Bertha in lovely Kensico Cemetery which is actually in Mount Pleasant, not Valhalla, Westchester County- not far from the Tapanzee bridge. The cemetery has a site with directions- a really beautiful spot- http://www.kensico.org/
There were so many graves in the Otsby Plot at Swan Point, R.I.- an entire page is going to be needed-it would seem Engelhart had many relatives. That page will go up Sunday night.
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Shelley, thank you for the information on hymns. I've forwarded all this to our choir master. I'm not sure, however, that the hymn links you sited are working ones.

Thanks again for this great information, from one cemetery-hopper to another!

Regards,
Doug
 
Cecil Spring-Rice wrote the lyrics to I Vow to Thee My Country a month before he died (Valentine's Day 1918). He was a British Ambassador and was quite a figure in politcal circles in Edwardian times. His telegrams to the Admiralty during WWI about guns aboard German ships are riveting- and can be accessed online under The Churchill Papers which are now unclassified. THAXTED is a village in Essex by the way. I found the hymn at last in the REVISED Hymns Ancient and Modern #579 or maybe you can print this page out from your computer. A biography on Spring-Rice is just out.
http://www.guitarist.com/cg/notebook/diana.gif
 

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