Learn More About Symbols on Tombstones

Are you familiar with the term "iconography"? Pronounced "eye-con-og-ra-fee," it means, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, "symbolic representation, especially the conventional meanings attached to an image or images." Even if you've never heard of the word, as a genealogist, you know how important it is to understand the meaning of what we see on tombstones. Among many other things, we may learn whether an ancestor was in a fraternal order, what his/her occupation may have been, or if he/she had life cut short too soon.