This is such an important and impressive project.? My thanks and appreciation go out to Barbara and Letty.? You are both awesome.? Thank you!? Joan L. Fitzsimmons in NJ -----Original Message----- From: sisson-request@rootsweb.com To: sisson@rootsweb.com Sent: Sat, 29 Sep 2007 3:02 am Subject: SISSON Digest, Vol 2, Issue 64 Today's Topics: 1. Photographing old stones (David A Sisson) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2007 12:11:22 -0400 From: David A Sisson <dsisson2@rochester.rr.com> Subject: [SISSON] Photographing old stones To: Sisson List <SISSON-L@rootsweb.com> Message-ID: <46FD27AA.7010404@rochester.rr.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Dear Cousins and Friends, One of our cousins, Barbara J. Austin, born just down the road from her ancestors Richard and Mary's 17th-century Portsmouth homestead, was featured in a September 25th article in the Newport Daily News. It's a long article, but these highlights will give you some idea of the wonderful work she and her "remote" cousin Letty Champion are doing. Quoting: Barbara J. Austin has made it her goal to photograph every headstone in every cemetery on Aquidneck Island. [Aquidneck is also known as Rhode Island, the "other" part of the state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, its official name. Aquidneck Island is the location of the towns of Portsmouth, Middletown, and Newport]. It's a mission she began 12 years ago. She and her partner in this endeavor, Letty R. Champion, have covered 16 cemeteries in Newport, 32 in Middletown and 47 in Portsmouth, giving them a total of 95 historical cemeteries they have documented. They estimate they have photos of about 4,000 headstones, but they still have a long way to go. They have photographed about 2,300 headstones of the estimated 10,000 that are in Newport's Common Burying Ground. Three days a week, depending on the weather, they are out there snapping. About three years ago, Austin and Champion began revisiting the cemeteries Austin already had done. They had a better digital camera and some improved techniques for capturing the inscriptions and carvings on the headstones. That gave Austin a chance to revisit historic cemeteries such as the Easton lot of Paradise Avenue in Middletown. She photographed the headstones there about five years ago, and again in the past year. "The first time I could read them," Austin said. "There weren't good, but I could read them. Today, they are illegible." The photos of all these headstones eventually will be posted on the Web site http://www.rootsweb.com/~rinewpor/cemeteries/index.html. Cemeteries with posted photos are highlighted on the Web site, but posting has just begun. Austin and Champion want people from around the country to be able to find the headstones of their ancestors. "That's the reason we feel such an urgency about this work," Austin said. "The chances are not great for the preservation of these stones. The fact they've been there for 300 years doesn't make a difference, not in this world - not with acid rain, vandalism and people carting off stones for mementos." Austin, who was born in Newport and has resided most of her life in Middletown, and Champion, a longtime Middletown resident who now lives in North Kingstown, first became interested in historic cemeteries because they wanted to see the graves of their own ancestors. Austin has Coggeshall, Sisson, Anthony and Sweet families in her heritage, and Champion has Coggeshall and Sisson families in her family tree. The two are distant cousins. ... Austin and Champion have found three lost cemeteries in Portsmouth during the past two years. ... They are reluctant to give exact locations for some of the cemeteries because they are surrounded by private property and visitors must first obtain the permission of the property owner to visit. ... It is not easy photographing some of the stones. They often are covered with lichen and moss. Austin and Champion clean the stones with water and brushes. They use a large door mirror to reflect the sun onto the gravestones because the inscriptions often are very worn. Held right, the mirror brings out the inscription through the shadowing in the letters, making it easier to read in the photos. ... The [state Commission on Historical Cemeteries] wants Global Positioning System coordinates for each of these cemeteries. [Evelyn] Wheeler [chairwoman of the Commission] hopes to have GPS locations for cemeteries around the state by Nov. 3, when the commission is sponsoring a statewide cleanup of historical cemeteries by volunteers. ... End quote. Three cheers for Cousins Barb and Letty!!! David Arne Sisson ------------------------------ To contact the SISSON list administrator, send an email to SISSON-admin@rootsweb.com. To post a message to the SISSON mailing list, send an email to SISSON@rootsweb.com. __________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to SISSON-request@rootsweb.com with the word "unsubscribe" without the quotes in the subject and the body of the email with no additional text. End of SISSON Digest, Vol 2, Issue 64 ************************************* ________________________________________________________________________ Email and AIM finally together. You've gotta check out free AOL Mail! - http://mail.aol.com