Marnhull, St Gregory Visit, Part I,'On the Trail of Ancestors who were baptised, married,buried here
Channel: semw52
Date: 2023-05-01

A great visit to this beautiful Dorset church of St Gregory at Marnhull where  2 of my Granddaughters have ancestors on
their other grandmother's side of the tree,Sandra Sheppard, nee Merefield. It is from the Merefeld side of the tree and the associated names via marriages that bring me to Dorset and various villages and towns in search of their ancestors. Scanning churchyards is an excellent way of finding and recording information---sadly many  gravestones are often left in disrepair, unreadable and forgotten, abandoned with time and attacked by the elements, the Ivy and lichen and humans all over the country but some villages do take great care of them often.

Due to health and safety issues dominating over the past 3 or so decades ( as I write this it is now 2023)  GRAVES CAME TO BE SEEN AS AT RISK, DANGEROUS AND WERE TESTED TO SEE IF THEY COULD PASS A HEALTH AND SAFETY RISK ASSESSMENT- Hence many were dismantled, pulled down and rubblelized or placed  a way from their original plot and found leaning against a tree or wall and sometimes found as paving stones...So I always take some time scanning the graves because the names may very well be an ancestor not yet discovered and I have found this  loads of times...Due to their vulnerability I try to record as many as possible for future reference.Today in 2023 with the growth in interest in Family Tree and ancestry and DNA graves are starting to be seen as a very valuable record and an important memorial to family---Hence we have  companies/businesses that help to make  detailed records like 'Deceased  Online' and 'Find A grave'----the former charges a fee but the latter is for free..SO  graves are better protected with more often repaired, photographed and visited ......
On this visit in 2008 it is the early stages of the research into Sandy's Tree and I am using a hand held cassette tape recorder and Instamatic camera with only 24 shots......Quite a few photos are mine but  some are provided by Creative Commons..In those early days it was the early days of discovery of linking names to family etc...Visiting and doing the footwork is an important part of the research process and also provides joy and a feeling of walking in the footsteps of those Ancestors--breathing  the air in those places and trying to imagine their lives 100, 200, 500---------1000 years +++ ago..

Today in the 21st century we can record audio, voices and sounds so it is a good idea to try and record the voices of our living family as well because  before audio, radio, tv,  record ,Disc, tape and video  the voices of our ancestors were the unknown and we will never  know how they spoke and how they felt, how they could sing and laugh and cry---precious sounds lost in space and time.....
Anyway some family names connected to Marnhull are Bastable, Bealing Lambert, Plowman, Hatcher & others. Marnhull has a long history....