Funeral Rituals and Traditions: Part II

In our last post, we talked about the importance of understanding some of the rituals and traditions surrounding funerals. We looked at coffins, caskets, and common practices that many associate with burying our loved ones. This week, we'll explore floriography, the symbolic meaning of plants and trees, so we can better understand some of what we see at funerals and cemeteries.

Funeral Rituals and Traditions: Part I

Perhaps you were among the millions of people who watched the touching but COVID-restricted funeral of England’s Prince Philip on Saturday, 17 April, as it was broadcast on live television. If you did, you couldn’t help but notice how the entire procession was steeped in tradition and symbolism. Of course, unless our family is royal or quite prominent, we are not going to be surrounded by hundreds of military troops nor are we likely to warrant television coverage of our last moments above ground, but most of us will certainly be affected by symbolism and tradition as we deal with the loss of our loved ones. And knowing more about what preceded our ancestors into their final resting places helps us understand them better as well.

Put Meat on the Bones of Your Family History!

You have undoubtedly heard many genealogists talking about “putting the meat on the bones” when it comes to their family history. Just how do you do that and what does it mean? We learn when we start working on our genealogy that it’s vital to capture names, dates, and places for everyone in our family tree. Of course, it is absolutely necessary to find documentation of basic facts and we need specific information to do that. But if we want to understand our ancestors as living, breathing human beings instead of just statistics, we need to know much more. We want to learn about their personalities, their occupations, their leisure activities, and their interactions in their communities. The more “meat” we put on those bare-bones dates and numbers, the more those people who preceded us become real.

Now You Know Your "A, B, C's," Part II

Who hasn’t seen sentimental signs for “Ye Olde Corner Shop” or “Ye Olde House on the Hill” or something similar? Or maybe you have seen the word “ye” in an old document? Are you guilty of pronouncing it as “yee”? If so, it’s because you may not know that once there was a letter called “eth” that was pronounced as “th.” It looked like a small “d” with a line through the stem. Over time, it changed shape and began to look more like our “y” does today. "Eth" is long gone from our alphabet, but it has left us with the commonly seen "ye" that looks like it should be pronounced with a “y” sound but is really “the.” This is just another example of letters that have disappeared from our alphabet. Here are some more . . .