52 Ancestors - AT THE CEMETERY: Community of Saints

I always thought “cemetery” and “graveyard” were synonymous until I learned what it is that distinguishes one from the other. All graveyards are cemeteries, but not all cemeteries are graveyards. A graveyard is a burial ground within a churchyard. A cemetery is a public or private burial ground located anywhere else.

So, if a church owns and maintains a burial ground away from the church itself, is your loved one in a graveyard or a cemetery? I’m not sure, but I am going with “cemetery.” 

Most of my Irish Catholic relatives on my father’s side are buried at All Saints Catholic Cemetery in Portsmouth, just a mile or so away from St. Paul’s Catholic Church where they had been faithful members.

Aunt Lillie Killeen 
Visiting her father's grave Sep 1973
All Saints Cemetery, Portsmouth, VA

Walsh and Killeen relatives at All Saints Cemetery

On my mother’s side are the Shenandoah Valley Methodists. The Jollett sisters and their families were members of the Evangelical United Brethren Church before it merged with the Methodist denomination in 1964. Their final resting place is Coverstone Cemetery right down the road from the EUB Church. Even though the cemetery is right next to St Peter’s Lutheran Church, my grandparents always referred to it as the EUB Cemetery, but I am not sure that it actually belonged to the church.

Coverstone Cemetery next to St. Luke's Lutheran Church

 

My maternal grandparents
Orvin and Lucille Rucker Davis

Just some of my family at Coverstone

While my grandmother is at Coverstone, her family, on the other hand, are at rest in the Fields Methodist Episcopal Church Cemetery just down the road from the church they attended.

Rucker Family plot
Stones for my grandmother's brothers Ray and Willie, her brother Everett and his wife Ollie, 
and parents Joe and Sudie Rucker

Also my grandmother's grandparents George and Segourney Shiflett Eppard are in the same cemetery.

There is something comforting about being among a “community of saints” whether in a church graveyard or church cemetery.

 

Amy Johnson Crow continues to challenge genealogy bloggers and non-bloggers alike to think about our ancestors and share a story or photo about them. The challenge is “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.”

Wendy

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