I have been working with three gravestone photograph collections to check and improve the records in the RI Historical Cemeteries Database. In particular I have over 3000 photographs of gravestones in the Common Burying Ground in Newport from 1. Vincent Luti (author of the book on the Stevens gravestone carving shop in Newport), 2. Barb Austin and Letty Champion (who are doing a fantastic job photographing every gravestones in Newport, Portsmouth and Middletown; they are using a mirror to light the stones and the photos are SPECTACULAR), and 3. my own collection. Unfortunately the three transcribers (Dr. Henry Turner, George Richardson, and Alden Beaman) of the Common Burying Ground, NT003, were not very careful and made errors approaching 20%. With the photographs I have made hundreds of corrections to the database. An update to the database on RIGenWeb is being processed and uploaded now. More updates will follow. You asked about Richard Simpson. I don't have a picture of his gravestone yet, but Barb Austin and Letty Champion are only one section away. Here is what I do have in the database. Richard Simpson - d. 20 Jan. 1810 age 77 yr. b. 1733c his wife Mary d. 20 Jun. 1804 age 70 yr. b. 1734c her coffin was ordered from Job Townsend 23 Jun 1804 by her son Richard Simpson Jr. their daughter Ann 1766c - 1769 Richard Simpson - d. 1 Oct. 1833 age 64 yr b. 1769c [probably son of the above] his wife Martha d. 20 Jan 1832 age 62y-7m-21d b. 1769c their daughter Martha Card 1804c - 1805 From: [email protected] Subject: [RIGENWEB] Gravestone inscription To: [email protected] Message-ID: <[email protected]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" An ancestor is buried in Newport's Common Burial Ground. I was there in the 90's and could read "Richard Simpson, son of ....." but the father's name was illegible. I took photos of the stone, but have been reading with interest notes on this board about getting info from stones that have eroded. Does anyone know of someone in RI who I could pay to use a "friendly" method to retrieve the name? I'm desparate because that's where my line ends. I can't go further back, the Newport town records being buried in the mud in the East River, ironically less than a mile from where i live now. Daniel Pelletier [email protected] ____________________________________________________________________________________ Choose the right car based on your needs. Check out Yahoo! Autos new Car Finder tool. http://autos.yahoo.com/carfinder/