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    1. [MAMiddle] Question about Gravestone in Everett
    2. Betty
    3. Hello, I finally got a chance to visit the Woodlawn Cemetery in Everett yesterday. My sisters had a free day, so I joined them and we drove over. We made a very quick stop at the adjoining Glenwood Cemetery to take a picture of a stone for my grandparents' 3 babies who all died during the 1920's. (My grandparents were buried in Arlington as that is where they were living in the 1960's.) At the Woodlawn, we were looking for a gravestone for our great-great-grandparents, which I don't think anyone in our extended family has seen for many years. I stopped at the office to find out where the gravesite was. I was surprised to find the lady to look up the name and then give me a map with the directions highlighted. I told her there might not be a stone, so she gave me the names on the stones on either side of the site. It still took us at least 20 minutes, if not longer to find the site. We only found it because we found the 2 surnames the lady gave us. But what was between them was a very small stone which only said, "Mother" and "Father." There was no surname anywhere on the stone. I thought about that all the way home, and again this morning. In the past, the majority of the time, when I see a stone that only says "Mother and/or Father," it is beside a larger stone which has the family's surname on it. But, this was not the case. The stones on either side were also very old stones, but were maybe twice as large. The names were REEVES and STEVENS. And, those names are not on my family-tree that I know of. Robert and Eliza (HENDERSON) KERR were born in Canada in 1827, and were married there and had 5 children there. They had a son, William, then 2 daughters, then 2 younger sons. They were in 2 parts of the Prov. of Quebec until 1870. ~1872 William came down to MA and settled in the Malden and Everett area and married here in 1876. A few years later, his sister, Mary, came down and she also married here. Probably during the 1880's, the parents and the 2 youngest sons came down to join them. These sons also married here. I have never been able to find the 2nd daughter after she became an adult, Hannah Jane. So, I don't know if she married in Canada and remained there, or whether she died young. One thought this morning is that the daughter, Hannah, while married, came down to join the rest of her family, and maybe she died here and is buried near her parents with her married name. If this happened, I would have no way of knowing what her married name was. I was just wondering if other people have found a gravestone for an ancestor which only said "Mother" or "Father" or both, with no surname mentioned anywhere. Betty (near Lowell, MA) FYI: Robert KERR died in 1904, and his son, William, died unexpectedly in 1905. William was buried in the Bell Rock Cemetery in Malden where his in-laws are buried. (Eliza died in 1902.) The younger sons went out to Washington State early on, and one died there of old age; the son, Joseph, returned to MA ~1950 while an older gentleman, and I can't find him after that. The daughter became Mrs. McINNES of Somerville. At this moment, I can't remember if I found out where she is buried.

    09/17/2009 11:53:00