Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Massachusetts and Connecticut Tombstones

I had determined to locate a few tombstones before we actually left home for the conference. However, at the conference I looked up a few more names in my tree and finally ended up with 10 tombstones to locate.

The first one was for Deacon William Holton (1610-1691) and his wife Mary Winche (c1650-1691), my 8th great-parents. The cemetery was Bridge Street Cemetery located in Northampton, Hampshire Co., Massachusetts. This was just a few minutes down the road from Deerfield. We located the cemetery by GPS. This was a large cemetery and fortunately there was a worker in the cemetery that morning and he directed us to the stone. This was actually a memorial "stone" installed by the Holton Family Association in 1938. So we are not sure if they are actually buried at that location. GPS reading Lat. N 42.32553 Long. W -72.62580.

The next tombstone was located in the Old Westfield Cemetery, Middletown, Middlesex Co., CT. Again the GPS coordinates guided us right to the cemetery which is located on a wooded country road among some local houses. This was a small cemetery and we easily located the stone for John Higby (1707-1789) and his wife Sarah Candee (1710-1792) my 6th great-grandparents. GPS Lat. N 41.57791 W -72.72835. We took off across country for the next cemetery and took a drive down a Higby Road.

The third tombstone was located in the Linwood Cemetery, Colchester, New London Co., CT. The GPS took us there. This was a large cemetery as well with no one around to assist. So we spread out and started looking for the Dibble surname. My wife found it. The stone was quite readable and was for my 8th great-grandfather Ebenezer Dibble (1671-1758). It was surrounded by Foote tombstones. GPS Lat. N 41.57104 Long. W -72.34141.

Nearby was a memorial stone which mentioned my 9th great-grandparent Nathaniel Foote (c1592-1644), who settled in Wethersfield, CT about 1630.

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