Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Tombstone Tuesday - the Sovereens in Delhi, Norfolk County, Ontario

Since I exhausted my own supply of gravestone photographs, I've been searching for online photographs of gravestones of my ancestors.

One of my ancestral lines is the ZAVERING/SOVEREIGN/SOVEREEN families that I featured in a recent Surname Saturday. This family line came from what is now Germany, settled in New Jersey, and migrated to Canada after the Revolutionary War, settling near what is now Delhi in Windham Township, Norfolk County, Ontario.

My ancestral Sovereen family line that resided and died in Norfolk County includes:

* Jacob Sovereign (1759-1845) and Elizabeth Pickle (1764-1849)

* Frederick Sovereign (1786-1875) and Mary Jane Hutchison (1792-1868)

* Alexander Sovereen (1814-1907) and Eliza Putman (1820-1895)

I wondered if there were photographs of the stones for some of these ancestral families, so I Googled [ sovereen delhi norfolk gravestones ] and was rewarded with the Field of Stones website which includes a number of photographs of gravestones in Delhi Cemetery in Windham Township, Norfolk County, Ontario.

There are pictures of gravestones for:

* Alexander and Elizabeth Sovereen

* Frederick Sovereen and Mary Jane Sovereen, who are commemorated on different sides of a large stone.

I also found the stone of John Putman (1785-1863) and Sarah (Martin) Putman (1792-1860) in this list, noted as John and Sarah Putnam.

I actually started this search looking for my Kemp families, but did not find them in this cemetery, or in any other cemetery listing for Norfolk County, Ontario.

Searching for gravestones in this way will usually result in success if there are photographs available online. When I search for these, I often put the name in quotes to limit the search, but also use last name first and given name in quotes to cover the last name first listings.

Thank you to Sheila Hill and Janet Jones for their work on collecting and posting the gravestone pictures on the Field of Stones website.

1 comment:

John said...

Nice find! Looks like you might have a few other cousins on that site too. Are you related to any of these Sovereigns, all in Norfolk County:

Ella May SOVEREIGN

David SOVEREIGN

Ada B. SOVEREIGN

Karl Bowlby SOVEREIGN

Ward L. SOVEREIGN

Angelina E SOVEREIGN

Looks like you might have a distant relative who has recorded all these Sovereigns.