Hi Mom,
I am sorry I haven’t written or called since I went to Lowestoft on my own. I tried to call you yesterday (it would have been in the middle of the night, but I thought you would be up blogging). Unfortunately, the phone rang but no one answered and no answering machine turned on (I tried twice). Double check to make sure if you turn off the power to your computer through the surge protector that it doesn’t turn off the phone as well.
Lowestoft was an interesting experience. I boarded the train around 11:00 AM on a wet Monday morning. the atmosphere was… well, wet and slightly slimy in the train, but I was excited to be going to the birthplace of my Castleton ancestors (as well as the Browne, Smith, Barrett, Harwood and other various surnames). I made a video on my camera on the train ride there (I was bursting with excitement)! Lowestoft, as you know, borders the German Sea and is a large port town with a beach. In my mental to-do list I wanted to dip my feet in the German Sea, tour the parish church of St. Margaret and find a tombstone of one of my ancestors that had been overlooked and would give me a clue as to where to look when the family disappears.
Within 3 minutes of leaving the train station the wind broke my umbrella. Undeterred, I headed into town to find the tourist information shop. MaLese and I have used these shops in Dorchester, Lyme and Ipswich. They are great for finding maps, bus schedules and getting historical information on the town. Lowestoft’s shop was no different – except it did not contain a tourist map. I finally found an employee who pulled out a photocopied street map and highlighted where she “thought” the church was. Because the street she highlighted was St. Margaret’s Street I felt confident that it was safe to proceed. After a 20 minute uphill walk in the rain and mud (I have always wanted to make that claim and have it be true!) I reached the church. I even made a video of the church and the cemetery (the video included caveats on my broken umbrella and the buttresses on the side of the church).
This is the point where my trip became very funny in a sad way. First off, the church was locked, so I couldn’t go in. The information centre for the cemetery was closed as well. Now, by this point in my internship I feel pretty comfortable with the typical English church cemetery. The cemeteries are cute little grounds surrounding the church: the cemeteries might have a tree or two in the grounds, as well as a few overturned headstones, but you can go through all the tombs in 2 hours with time to spare. St. Margaret’s’ cemetery grounds could easily fill the Wilkinson Student Center on campus and would probably overflow to the surrounding courtyards (keep in mind though that the church is in the middle of this, but I am not counting the church itself in this space analysis).
The parishioners of Lowestoft certainly believed in recycling the ground because the cemetery is overflowing with tombstones. Someone has tried to use this excess of rock in the landscaping by creating a series of mini, square cemeteries that are fenced in with tombstones. In many places these tombstone walls are two headstones deep with the writing showing on both sides of the walls. In each of these squares are more tombstones. Also there are a lot of trees and bushes. Inside each tree/bush/trap for transcribers are 7-10 headstones. To read these tombstones a person needs to crawl to get into the bush, scrape the vines off the stone and have enough light to read the writing.
So, there I was. Two hours after I had started the rain was getting worse. I was drenched everywhere below the neck. My shoes were squishing and my umbrella was even more broken due to me trying to climb into bushes and not end up having to shave my head in an effort to remove myself from these bushes’ evil clutches. After all my efforts I had only gone through about 1/10 of the cemetery. In addition, I was cold, wet and very upset (not really, but it sounds good). I came to the realization that I was in a deserted cemetery on my own, and I was completely safe… because no one else would be crazy enough to be in the cemetery climbing through evil bushes in the pouring rain.
After calculating how much time it would take to go through the cemetery, contrasting it with the likelihood that somewhere there was an index (probably in the locked church or visitors centre) I decided to call it quits. And yes, I did a short video in honor of the occasion. After the 20 minute walk to the train station and the 1 hr 30 minute train ride home all I wanted was a bath.
As sad as this account is, I am so glad I went. I did not dip my feet in the German Sea, but I had about half of the sea dropped on my head and blown into my clothes. I did not get to walk through the church, but I found the church after walking though a foreign town. Finally, I did not find a missing tombstone, but I did find plenty of bushes to keep my hope of a missing tombstone alive. Oh well, I guess I will just have to go back one day and look again. Any volunteers for a traveling buddy???
Love you lots,
Heather
August 17, 2008 at 4:23 pm |
Lowestoft and the entire East Coast of the UK from there up, borders the ‘North Sea’…
Lowestofts nearest neighbour directly opposite it in Europe, is the Netherlands. …Nothing to do with Germany whatsoever. The English channel becomes the North Sea.
August 19, 2008 at 7:16 pm |
DB,
Thank you for your comment. The most common name for the body of water to the east of England is the North Sea. “North Sea” refers to the sea’s relationship to Frisia, which was populated by a German people speaking Frisian, a Germanic language. The people living to the south and east of the sea were historically Germanic people, so the North Sea was known as the German or Germanic Sea, as well. In fact, it was just as common to refer to the North Sea as the German Sea before the end of the nineteenth century. Indeed, most of the seventeenth and eighteenth century maps I looked at used German Sea in favor of North Sea. As my internship was part of an academic study, my university degree was in history, and my mother was used to both versions of the name I used German Sea in favor of North Sea.
August 20, 2008 at 5:23 am |
Heather,
Thank you for the reminder that the names of places and bodies of water change over time. I think this is one thing that trips up too many armature genealogists when doing research. It is helpful to refer to old maps when searching for old records.
This is a great post:)