Manor Park Cemetery, H , John Henry Wood 1869-1947, April 2013
Channel: semw52
Date: 04/07/2013

I never met my paternal Grandfather who died before I was even born--he  had been a fishmonger as was his father and Grandfather and before that we have a Joseph Wood  who in 1841 census is described as a butcher. Sadly, like my maternal grandparents, John Henry lies in a shared grave with strangers and he may have had a stone but this may be entwined in a bush roots. It was a strange feeling finding my Grandparents like this having never known them nor they me. Following WWII my mother, daughter -in- law of John Henry, decided to stay in Somerset where 7 years after the war I was born--a Somerset lass with deep London roots--all my grandparents were Londoners as were their parents except one --my Great Grandmother Mary Ann Oak Brooks from Cambridgeshire who married a Steib---I have yet to find their graves-------I call this great grandmother my Gatekeeper because from her I have been able to trace my tree back  1000 years and beyond.
It would have been great to have known my grandparents,and my Mother who died when I was 14 and I only discovered her resting place after about 45 years........However,via 'Deceased Online' I am beginning to find many of  my relatives  --many are buried here at Manor Park Cemetery, many no longer have visible grave stones, many share a grave with strangers but are not alone. Cemeteries and gravestones are so important to people for a number of reasons, they are records. London has been described as one massive cemetery because over centuries there have been many deaths, many burials, many churches. As I walk around Manor Park I do not feel alone , I feel others are walking with me, helping me to find my extended family. Finding my family like this is so important and enriches the Family Tree allowing my dead Ancestors to come alive, become real--after all they once walked the Earth, lived, laughed , cried and were baptized, married and buried--had social existences, experienced social events in history, passed on their knowledge, their DNA...
Just recently the present Government have announced plans for shared graves-----typical ignorance or avoidance because shared graves have always existed and what I call 'rubblization and churning' are taking place here at Manor Park Cemetery---re-landscaping, renaming of plots and then the burial of  recent dead people on top of those that lie beneath the ground---the stones have gone but thousands of dead people now lay forgotten under the ground until people start researching their family tree, like me, and find plot names have changed on the burial maps and very little information---I found a small area stacked with old grave stones and memorials which family could claim within a set time BUT this is not advertised or made known...I have family members --quite a few with no obvious evidence of their burials e.g.both my Smith great grandparents and aunts and uncles are now not recorded on the burial maps despite being under the ground---I expect old burial maps  will show the location...