Grave Connections

“Oh, hi! Come on in! We’re all dead, but please – walk around, check out our names, take a few pictures!”

“Are you sure? You don’t mind? I’d really love to...”

And that’s how it started. I met them on a wet Saturday in July of 2003 on my first trip to the ancestral homeland (Canada). First I met the living at an Andrus family picnic somewhat east of Toronto where it rained and blew what felt like sleet off Lake Ontario. Next we drove off in search of my great-grandmother’s grave near a place called Roseneath. In Hollywood fashion, the sun broke through the gray clouds and the late afternoon turned lovely as we approached the cemetery. (I could almost hear harp music...), and then there it was: a small white church (very likely the place Henry wed Sarah) and a stone marker commemorating Sarah Ann Webb. No mention of consumption or babes left behind, but 1852 – 1898 hints that she was “AT REST” much too soon. I took a few photos, which was easy because these folks don’t blink or move around much.

Today, nearly three years after my visit to Merrill’s cemetery, I received a striking photograph from a photographer in Calgary. We ‘met’ because he, like me, has relatives buried in that peaceful place near Roseneath in rural Ontario. I had offered my photo of the church to the Northumberland County genealogy list, and he responded. In the back-and-forth that often happens over such an exchange, we discovered not only a common genealogical interest, but a mutual interest in nature photography.

“Judy, have you met Robert?”

“Why, no, Sarah Ann, but I'd like to.”