A Genealogical Gold Nugget

Everyone knows that documents are the key to tracing ancestors. But family photos play a significant role in genealogy research too. Not only do they provide images of ancestors and of locations, but they often have information on the back that can be very useful. Comments such as “My son Arthur and his wife” can help narrow down a family by providing the name of a child. “In front of our house in Scarborough” can tell you where a family lived.

I had family photos and a few had notes on the back like that. But I also knew that my sister had acquired some photos, and even though I thought I had seen everything she had, I decided to ask her one more time if she had anything that would help my research. She too believed that I had seen it all, but when I asked specifically if she had anything from our grandparents, she suddenly remembered a small box. She said it was a gift box from our grandmother’s house and that it contained family photographs. I asked if she could bring it with her the next time she visited.

When I finally got my hands on it, I carefully reviewed each item. Mostly there were small photographs taken of the family as we grew up. There were also some pictures that had been sent from relatives overseas that had names or places on the back, which I knew might be helpful. But the item that caught my attention during the first pass through was a small card, about the size of a small photo or of a business card. On one side was the photograph of a cemetery with the name Killingbeck. I had no idea what it meant until I turned it over. On the back was printed:

Patrick Connell

Who died December 4, 1907

Interred at Killingbeck Cemetery December 7, 1907

It was my great-great grandfather's funeral card. Not only did it provide his exact date of death, something unknown to me before, but it showed me the cemetery where he was buried. This is invaluable information as it is likely that other members of the family are buried in the same cemetery.

I searched online and found a forum called Yorkshire Indexers, where photographs of the gravestones at Killingbeck Cemetery had been posted. It took awhile, but I located the photo of my great-great grandfather’s grave stone. There are numerous people listed on the same stone. Apparently, unless you could afford to buy an individual headstone for your deceased family member, the cemetery waited until a few people had been buried in one area and then erected one stone with all their names on it.