Data Entry: Mission Complete (Well, Almost)

Beautiful view on my morning drive to the Church!

Last Thursday was spent in the vestry again. The set up I have in there is quite lovely, and I am extremely grateful to the Church for allowing me to use the space!! There is a great desk in the space, and I have room to spread out all the binders and books I am using. The below picture

Desk level view of half of my workspace.

shows only half (the neater half!) of this spread. Note all of the beautiful wood in the vestry! I completed my initial database entry in my time spent there. In total, there are 54 entries, including four entries that had no monuments, but had kerbing (a stone or cement plot boundary). I did have some difficulties with data entry in regards to conflicting data (I hear this is common with genealogy research). All of the conflicting data had to do with ages and birth and death dates. After speaking with my supervisor, I will be making slight modifications to some of the entries I made, and will be noting in the notes section of the database the other information I encountered. I keep thinking to myself that data entry will be a quick and easy process, but I spent 8 hours at the Church on Thursday inputting all of the information. Now I must make a few, small changes to the database, check the accuracy of my entries, and convert it to a more polished version with forms and buttons in Microsoft Access. Hopefully only one more day will be spent doing this, but knowing my skill with estimating time needed, it will probably take more.

Sarah Pope's tablet. The inscription reads "Farewell Dear Mother."

This week I am going to talk about the symbolism found on the Pope and Kranz tablets. Here is a website that lists meanings of common monument motifs. All four of these tablets have clasped hands with ribbon motifs. Both male and female graves have similar inscriptions on the ribbon for their respective genders. In addition to clasped hands, the Pope tablets also have Easter lilies, roses, and lily of the valley on their monuments. All of these motifs have highly symbolic meanings that may indicate aspects of the lives of the deceased lived.These are the only four monuments in the cemetery that display the clasped-hands motif.    

Abraham Pope's tablet. The inscription reads "United Above."

Caroline Kranz's tablet. The inscription reads "Farewell."

Fred Kranz's tablet. The inscription reads "United Above."

 Clasped hands are a common motif on Victorian Era monuments. Two of the four tablets display the variation of this motif where one finger on the grasping hand points downwards. On the Pope tablets this is displayed on the wife's monument, and on the Kranz tablets, on the husband's. Clasped hands are indicative of a final farewell and a close bond. The finger pointing downward can be associated with sudden death, morality, or a secret masonic handshake (Truswell and Townsend 1997:65, 79; Gillies 2013), but in this case since the two deceased were well into adulthood, it likely represents morality, which also fits in with the other religious symbolism present on the Pope tablets. The Easter lily symbolises purity, innocence, and resurrection, while the rose represents love, beauty, and hope. The lily of the valley flower symbolises the return of happiness, purity, and humanity. Note that on both Pope tablets there are four lily of the valley flowers, which likely represent the four writers of gospel: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The three different types of flowers on the Pope monuments represent the Holy Trinity (Truswell and Townsend 1997:79). Both women have "Farewell" inscriptions on their monuments, and both men have "United Above" inscriptions. In both cases the women died first, and with this context it makes sense that both the men and women would share the same inscriptions. On Frederick Kranz's tablet you can clearly see that one cuff is frilled, representing a woman's hand. This likely represents his wife hand leading him to heaven (Gillies 2013). The Pope tablet imagery suggests that both wife and husband were deeply religious people. All four tablets suggest that both couples were deeply committed to their spouses. The symbolic imagery on these tablets provides a fascinating glimpse into the lives of these four people.

Bibliography 

Gillies, Matthew. 2013. "The Grave Secrets of Symbols and Iconography of the Cemetery." Accessed November 2, 2013. https://mysendoff.com/2012/08/the-grave-secrets-of-symbols-and-iconography-of-the   cemetery/.                                                                                                                                         

Truswell, Norm and David Townsend.1997. A Guide for the Recording, Care and Use of British Columbia's Heritage Cemeteries. Victoria, British Columbia: The Old Cemeteries Society of Victoria.                                                                                                                                         

Fun with Data

Foggy view of the first few rows of monuments to the south of the Church. 

View from the window in the Vestry. 

My lofty goal for this Thursday was to complete all my database entries and I spent the entire day in the vestry. There are approximately 54 entries, and I assumed that it would take about half a day. Needless to say, this did not happen. I began by double checking all of my previous entries for accuracy, and though there were only 16 of them this took me about an hour as I had to double check genealogy information. In all, I got about halfway done my entries. It is taking me so long because I  am including information that is not on the monuments, but in genealogy forms, and for some monuments I have to double check my written information with the actual monument outside to answer lingering questions. There is also conflicting information between a few of the different databases that I must refer to the burial register to confirm, and this takes a lot of extra time as well. Other conflicting areas include monument position differing from plot position. For example, I checked the position of John Greig's plot in the burial register, and it is definitively stated as plot 44 (as in the databases), but his monuments (he has two, an older concrete one and a newer granite one) appear to be on plot 43. The concrete  monument is one that I suspect was added after his burial as well, as it is of an identical style to a number of other monuments that stand on other pioneer burials. It is a simple, slant-faced concrete marker on a concrete base with only the deceased's name  

John Greig's monument. 

and "Pioneer" written on it. This type of monument is also present on two other burials that date to the 1930s and 1940s, with the same level of deterioration as the pioneer monuments. The Old Cemeteries Society of Victoria also stated in their report to St. Stephen's that they hypothesize the pioneer monuments were placed at the same time (1995a). However, the discovery of the two identical monuments from the 30s and 40s leads me to suspect that the pioneer monuments were added around this time as a project to mark the graves of many of the pioneers buried at the cemetery.

I have come across a few particularly interesting stories in the genealogy forms (available through the Church's archives) and in the research I have been doing for a paper on the history of the Church. One of the most interesting stories I have

William Batchelor's elaborate monument. 

come across is of Frederick Reynolds a.k.a William Batchelor. Frederick Reynolds came from the United States under this pseudonym in order to dodge military draft. He set himself up as successful entrepreneur in Victoria, beginning as a butcher and eventually amassing ownership of two business blocks and  10 acres of land for a dairy farm around what is now Reynolds Secondary School. He became extremely wealthy and would often display his wealth conspicuously to the community. He left a lasting testament as Reynolds through the naming of a school, park, and secondary school after this name. However, for his monument, he left explicit instructions for his real name, William Batchelor, to be inscribed, in addition to leaving instructions for its design (OCSV 1995b). Batchelor's monument is one of the most elaborate monuments in the entire cemetery. It is certainly the only one that is so blatantly Gothic in style. The luxury of the monument seems to reflect Batchelor's wealthy lifestyle.

In my future posts, I will continue to highlight interesting monuments and stories as I investigate them for my research. Hopefully next Thursday I will actually achieve my goal of finishing my database entries!

Documenting Monuments: Part II

View of the valley to the south of the Church.
A beautiful fog had rolled over it in the middle of the day.

Due to the help of a friend, I was able to completely finish documenting all of the Victorian Era monuments at St. Stephen's this last Thursday. It really is amazing how much more gets done with the help of another person! I am incredibly thankful for my friend's help, and she did a wonderful job copying down information and cleaning monuments! The day was once again lovely, and halfway through it fog rolled over the valley and into the cemetery. It made for an amazing view.

On Wednesday night I looked through a copy of a paper database given to me by the Old Cemeteries Society stating which burials had monuments and wrote down all the Victorian Era plot numbers that had one. It totalled approximately 52 monuments, but some of these burials did not have any monuments when I went to record them. Whether they originally did when the database was created or an entry mistake occurred I have no idea. A preliminary count of all the monuments recorded has shown that there are approximately 54 Victorian Era monuments in the cemetery. This number will be confirmed once I have completed the database. At the end of the day, I spent a couple of extra hours walking through the rows of monuments to ensure I had not missed any. During monument recording I have been utilising a paper database given to me by the Church to cross-check which person is buried in which plot and a few discrepancies have come up. For example, the database states that David Grieg is buried in plot 44, but when matching monument location with plot location on the map, it seems more likely that John Grieg is buried in this plot. Next Thursday I plan to check burial registers to clear up the confusion. It is possible ground shift has made this difficult to discern.

The Harrison plot. All that remains is a concrete boundary. I am
not sure if monuments for these three burials ever existed, but and
OCSV paper database printed in 1997 says there should be a "stone"
for each burial. Maybe it means the boundary?

Now that documenting is complete, the long process of entering all of the information into my Access database begins. I plan on formatting the database into a more accessible version by transferring the information into a form template. I am not entirely sure how I will be doing this yet, but Youtube videos have thus far been my friend. I then need to create a map with all of the photos I took. I have discovered that my computer does not have nearly enough memory to support the software needed to convert my photos to 3D digital files. A minimum of 16 GB of memory and a 3.5 GHz processing speed are required and my little netbook only has 4 GB of memory and a 1 GHz processor. Not nearly enough! I unfortunately do not know anyone who has this amount of memory on their computer either. So, sadly, that aspect had to be dropped. But overall, progress has been steady and few difficulties have been encountered. Hopefully the rest of the project continues to go as smoothly!

Documenting Monuments

Another beautiful day at the Church. This photo faces the southern boundary of the Cemetery. 

Before photo of Caroline Kranz' marble
dome tablet monument. 

After I finished cleaning. Much more legible!

 I spent last Thursday at the Church recording inscriptions, which meant I also had to clean a few monuments in order to be able to see said inscriptions. I was lucky enough to have excellent weather again, and it was a perfect day to have to work with water. I brought my plastic bristled scrub brush, toothbrush, small ice cream bucket, and soap with me and used the taps present at the cemetery. To clean each monument I followed the instructions I learned from the OCSV. I began by dumping water over the monument to soften any lichen or moss present on it. I first attempted to place the soap directly into the water, but the water was too cold and it would not dissolve properly, so I placed it directly on my brush for the remainder of the day. I then scrubbed the monument in circular motions, or in one direction only until the suds got too dirty and I had to rinse it. I did this repeatedly for many of the monuments. I initially intended to follow a regular pattern of cleaning monuments, beginning in the NW corner of the cemetery, but I changed tactics once I discovered all the monuments in this area were mainly modern. I then began by looking at the area immediately north-west of the church as this is where burials began in the 1860s. I began with the Pope monuments and continued north, cleaning any Victorian Era monument that needed it.

Jane MacMillen's stained and hard to discern monument.
She was buried in 1872.  

I only cleaned each monument enough to be able to read the inscriptions and I did not clean those that I could already read as I am on a time limit with my data collection (I have to have my annotated bibliography and database completely done by the end of November). However, I hope to eventually clean these as a volunteer project in the future. Cleaning the monuments was mostly a successful endeavour. But not all monuments indulged their information to me, even after cleaning, due to erosion and severe staining. Some other difficulties I encountered while cleaning was discerning what material each monument is, both for recording and because I do not want to clean delicate sandstone monuments. While this seems like an easy enough goal, some monuments were so dirty/stained and covered in moss that it was very difficult for me to figure out what material they were made out of. I am not very good at picking out stone types to begin with (this is definitely something I need to work on), so stone that is over 100 years old and stained made this task even more difficult for me at some points. A stone I had particular trouble recording was Jane MacMillen's. I honestly have no idea what material this is and I will need to investigate this further in the future. I feel like it might be sandstone, so all I did was soak it in water as I did not want to risk brushing off any material. This particular monument has inscriptions that extend to the very bottom, and they get increasingly difficult to read as you continue. I copied the inscriptions out as best as I could, and Googled the beginning of the phrase later. Wow did I ever get some parts wrong! The bottom inscription is a variation on a hymn entitled "Happy Soul, Thy Days are Ended" by Charles Wesley. After comparing the actual lines to what I could see on the tablet, I could make out the words much better and successfully copied out the inscription. The inscription on the monument differs slightly in word choice from the version I linked to, but is very close. I plan on Googling other epitaphs that I could not read as well. Sometimes I wonder how I would get by without the help of the internet as this tactic will prove invaluable to my data collection. Next Thursday I will continue to clean and record monuments, and hopefully I will be done this aspect of my research by the end of the month. The forecast looks good for next week, so fingers crossed this lovely weather sticks! Here are two photos of the Pope monuments, which are marble and of the domed tablet style. These ones are particularly stained and were difficult to clean. They, along with the Kranz tablets show the clasped hands motif, which was popular in the Victorian Era. This will definitely be one of the trends I will be looking further into in the near future.  

First Day in the Field

Walkway leading to St. Stephen's Anglican Church

One before photo we took of a particularly dirty monument.  

This last week has been fairly productive. I finished the ethics form required for certain aspects of my project (I may be interviewing the custodian of the Church), volunteered with the OCSV, went to an OCSV tour of Ross Bay, and completed my first day at St. Stephen's Anglican Church! For the last two Saturdays I have made my way to Ross Bay to join cleaning sessions held by the OCSV. Last Saturday it was raining pretty heavily and so only one other volunteer showed up. Instead of cleaning, the other volunteer, a member of the OCSV, explained to me how to clean a monument and showed me the tools that the OCSV uses. This Saturday was gorgeous and so we worked on scraping off moss on many of the burial enclosures (before and after pictures provided below). This was the last cleaning session the OCSV is going to hold this year, but next year (probably beginning in the Spring), they will be holding them every Saturday. Volunteers are welcome, so please join if this is something you may be interested in! The tour of Ross Bay was great fun as well! They have a few exciting tours/ events coming up. Of most interest to me is the Murder Most Foul tour planned for November 3. They have a list of tour themes on their website, here.

After we finished cleaning. 

Area of the cemetery I was working in.

My first day at the Church went quite well. It was a beautiful day out! Firstly, I want to thank St. Stephen's Church for allowing me to do this research and giving me so many great resources to work with! I spent some time walking around the monuments to the south of the Church, marking on a map which ones fell into the date range I am using (1827-1911, although burials at the Church did not begin until 1869). I then spent ALOT of time trying to figure out how to make an Access database more accessible. I realize this is not necessary, but if I can create a database that is easy for people to use that would be ideal. This requires a lot of fiddling with forms and buttons and it is definitely a learning curve! I also found out today that a detailed copying of monument inscriptions did not occur at St. Stephen's in 1994 as had previously been thought. So for next Thursday I plan to haul out the necessary cleaning equipment (gentle soap, buckets, soft plastic bristled brush, toothbrush), clean monuments, and copy inscriptions. I am looking forward to it! Here is one more photo from my day on Thursday. Fall is definitely my favourite season!!

Methodology

I have added a small section to my previous post briefly summarising the articles I posted links to, so it provides at least an idea of what Victorians attitudes and beliefs were for those who don't have time to go to the links. This post will be dedicated to outlining the methodology I will be utilizing in my research. Three areas of focus were talked about in my first post, "Beginning My Research." The first area of focus is Victorian burial trends, the second is creating an electronic database and map, and the third is to make this research relevant to the community. Below I will flesh out exactly how I plan to complete these areas of interest. Throughout my research I will be consistently updating my methodology as what I plan to do, and what I actually do will likely change a little. Warning, this post may be a little dry but I will keep it as short and simple as I can, while still being clear about how I am going to do my research.

To help complete my first area of interest, I will be conducting an in-depth literature review to discover both what Victorian burial trends are, and the history of the church so I can any results, I will then analyse what burial trends are found at St. Stephen's. In my initial research I have found a number of resources that mention Victorian era memorials, cemeteries, or commemoration practices. I have also located information on the history of St. Stephen’s Cemetery via independently published books and preliminary permission to access the Church’s historical registers, maps, and other documents. Once the literature review has concluded and trends have been identified, analysis of the cemetery will take place while I am documenting the burials and after the database has been completed.

Paper Map of St. Stephen's Cemetery.

I will use Microsoft Access to create an electronic database containing all available information on Victorian burials present in the cemetery. Information that will be incorporated into the database includes: plot number; number of individuals; name(s) of the deceased; birth and death dates of the deceased; age of the deceased; additional inscriptions on tombstone; type of tombstone (e.g. tablet, column); tombstone materials; tombstone motifs; type of burial enclosure (e.g. mausoleum, fence, stone boundary); plot type (i.e. individual or family); and any additional notes (e.g. occupation). The OCSV has a set typology for monuments that I will be utilizing for this database. In addition to creating my own database of Victorian era burials, I will be consulting an electronic database of burials at St. Stephen’s Cemetery completed by the OCSV. This database was completed in 1994, and so will likely be useful for inscriptions that are no longer legible. I am sure that at least some inscriptions that are eroded away today were legible in 1994. I will also be cross-checking my own database with this one to ensure I have not missed any pertinent information or made any errors.


In addition to the database, I will be creating an electronic map of all Victorian era burials in the cemetery (the burials to the north and in front of the Church). A small paper map (shown above) will be my base point for creating this electronic map. Inscriptions and photographs of the monuments will be uploaded and attached to the appropriate plot on the map. If possible, software enabling 3D views of the photographs will be experimented with to facilitate a more realistic rendering of the burials. I have emailed a student who has worked with this type of software, so fingers crossed it will work for this project!

The most important part of this project, for me, is to make this research relevant to the community. I find that academic research often takes the information it needs from communities and gives very little, if nothing, back. It is my intent to give something back to the communities I am working with. I have spoken to the custodian and rector from St. Stephen’s Anglican Church and the president of the OCSV to help reach this goal. At this point, I have not been provided with any concrete tasks to complete at St. Stephen’s, although updating maps and an old Church database have been mentioned briefly. Throughout my research, I will be regularly updating my progress on this blog. I have already provided the URL to the OCSV, and will be emailing it to the curator from St. Stephen's shortly. I originally intended to provide it to him in person, but I feel I should get it to him soon as I already have a few posts. It is my hope that anyone interested from the Church or community will follow my progress on this blog as it occurs. I will also be providing St. Stephen’s Anglican Church with a paper to be completed by March of 2014. Hopefully I will able to upload the database and map that I have made online. This will allow anyone from the community to search the database easily and to have access to photographs and plot locations from the map. Discussion with the OCSV has brought up the possibility of expanding their webpage on St. Stephen’s Cemetery, as it is currently sparse. Overall, I am open to any suggestions and requests St. Stephen’s and the OCSV may have in regards to historical related duties and tasks. My goal with this area of focus is to have my research contribute to and benefit the communities in which I am working.

Sorry about how dry that was, but I would like to be completely transparent about what I am doing, and how and why I am doing it. This post covers my planned 'how' so I wanted to make sure it was thorough.

Contextualising Victorian Monuments

Although I introduced my research in my first post, I did not go into great detail about why exactly I am looking at the Victorian era. I intend to provide a more thorough background to my interest in Victorian era burials,as well as a bit of history on Victorian funerals in this post. In this way, I can be clear about why I am so interested in doing this research, as well as provide a contextual base to enhance understanding of Victorian attitudes about death.

In my introduction I stated why I am interested in working at St. Stephen's Church and how this project idea came about. However, I have yet to explain why I am so interested Victorian era burial trends. Ever since I was a child, history has been one of my favourite subjects, and thus anything historical has always caught my attention. Cemeteries often have attracted me as they often provide a breadth of historical information with personal anecdotes, names, and motifs written or carved on the monuments. One of the first experiences I had with a cemetery was one behind a friend's house on an acreage they were renting. This particular acreage had a very old farmhouse on it, and the cemetery behind it was an old family cemetery. Almost all of the monuments dated to the mid 19th century to the early 20th century. Most of the monuments were rather ornate and our imaginations began to run wild imagining the lives that the people described must have lived in her house. As I grew up, I noticed that monuments dating around the Victorian era tended to be more ornate and varied. This pattern was explained somewhat when I began to learn about Victorian attitudes about death. Since then, this era has been particularly interesting to me. When I discovered that the child burial patterns in Ross Bay conformed to Victorian era trends, it made me wonder what other trends were present in that period.

The Angel of Grief monument erected by William Story for his wife in 1894. The link below provides the full story.  A quick Google search reveals the popularity of this monument in the era.
http://wallacestudy.blogspot.ca/2013/03/the-angel-of-grief.html

Here are some links that will hopefully provide easy access to contextual information about Victorian era funerals and mourning. Not all of these touch on monuments, but it does provide a good idea of the attitudes that may help to explain the types of monuments found in the Victorian Era. The gist of many of the articles is that funerals tended to be an extravagant affair in the Victorian era. People would forgo the necessities of life in order to ensure proper funerals. Mourning for widows was extended over a long period of time, and for the first year they were required to wear all black. Length and extent of mourning depended on how close a person was to the deceased (i.e. the more distantly related, the less mourning was required). Many people in the Victorian era had many superstitions about death, and thus small rituals would be followed such as stopping all the clocks in a house and covering mirrors once someone has died. Victorian era obsession with death was often exemplified in poetry and prose, and a favourite pastime of Victorians was picnicking in cemeteries.

Mourning in the Victorian Era by Heather Rothman: This article provides a brief description of appropriate behaviour and dress around mourning as well as external sources.

Victorian Funeral Customs and Superstitions: This is a post on a blog for Oak Grove Cemetery, which is a Victorian era cemetery in Fall River, Massachusetts. This particular post touches on fears many Victorians had surrounding death and being buried (or being buried alive, a real but rare occurrence). If you look to the right and scroll down, you can find a section called categories where other interesting posts about the cemetery and Victorian era practices are listed.  There is an interesting post entitled "Arches, gates, and doors" that provides information on the symbolism of these types of monuments.

Funeral Practices in the Victorian Era: This article provides an in depth overview of what a Victorian era funeral would look like, what kind of funeral money could buy, and even touches on types of monuments that were popular.

So this explains the deep rooted interest in the Victorian era that has sustained my interest in researching trends in this period. I have also attempted to provide a few resources that will help contextualise some of the attitudes surrounding death and funerals in the Victorian era.