Infant and Child Graves at Ross Bay Cemetery

Our monument analysis assignment led us to Ross Bay cemetery, where we decided to take a look at infant and child graves. In my experience, coming across graves of young individuals triggers such a feeling of sadness as well as gratitude for my health. Throughout our visit to the cemetery, we kept asking "why?". How did these infants and children die? Was it illness, disaster, murder? In some cases, it appeared as though as whole families died at similar times. This led us to formulate three potential research questions:


1)  Is there a noticeable difference in the ornamentation on the graves of children compared to the graves of infants? Is one type more elaborate than the other?
2)  Is there a pattern for which children and infants are buried with their parents? Is it mostly infants or mostly children that are buried this way? Is there a specific time period when this is most common?
3)  Some headstones have clearly been changed or altered since they were first erected. Is there a pattern for which tombstones have been replaced?


While I won't be answering all the above questions in this blog post, I will be taking a look at what fascinates me most about these questions and see how they associate to the monuments we looked at. We looked at a total of 16 monuments, which was quite thorough but did not provide quite enough evidence to draw firm conclusions for our questions. However, those 16 monuments did provide a nice base for discussion and analysis. We considered 0 months-2 years to be an infant, and 2 years-10 years to be a child.
Let the analysis begin!


Here is a look at our Google Map...



View Anth 392 Assignment - Monument Analysis in a larger map 


 1) Children Versus Infant Graves


From our somewhat random selection of graves, 7 were single children graves, 6 were single infant graves and 3 were a combination of infants and children. We thought we would notice that infant graves would be less ornamented, as perhaps the parents would have had less time to get to know them. Child graves, we imagined, would be more ornamented and "personal".
Contrary to our predictions, there were no noticeable differences in the ornamentation of children versus infant graves within our small sample. In my opinion, the monuments were more so a reflection of the wealth and time investment of the family who buried them rather than a reflection of the individual's age.
For example, the grave of D.B. Campbell (17 months) was very elaborate, and is comparable (in terms of detail) to the graves of Dottie Robertson (5 years) and Leila J.E. Engelhardt (9 years, 10 months).

         Grave of D.B. Campbell - 17 months

       Grave of Dottie Robertson - 5 years

Grave of Leila J.E. Engelhardt - 9 years, 10 months

2) Presence of Parents


Six of the 16 monuments did not have parents or relatives mentioned on the graves, nor were they buried in close proximity to other noticeable family members. For example, the grave of Mary Anne Bryant:

" In

 Memory of

Mary Anne Bryant 

Born Honolulu Hai.

April 17. 1885

Died Nov. 30. 1893
---------
Asleep in Jesus "

Other graves seemed to be family burials, where many family members had all passed away and were included on one single grave. This was the case with the Anderson Family grave, which lists the passing of a 57 year old male, a 39 year old female and their children, one aged 4 years and the other 4 months. 

IN MEMORY 

OF
HENRY ANDERSON
BORN JUNE 28, 1845
DIED DEC 11, 1902
SARAH CAMERON
WIFE OF H. ANDERSON
BORN NOV 8, 1851
DIED FEB 2 1890
H. ANDERSON
SON OF H & S ANDERSON
BORN JAN 23, 1879
BORN JAN 23, 1883
M. V. ANDERSON
DAUGHTER OF
H & S ANDERSON
BORN JUNE 4, 1888
DIED SEPT 26, 1888

3) Replacement and Modification of the Graves

Without further research or documentation, it is very hard to determine which graves have been replaced or moved and which have not. I can, however, take my best guess based on observation. 

For example, it can be inferred that the grave of Taketo Osawa and Genkichi Osawa was replaced, as it was in excellent condition considering they died in 1910 and 1913. 

Child of Genkichi Osawa
November 10 1910
Taketo Osawa
Died Age 2 May 9 1913 

Something else I found interesting was that we could see what appeared to be earth marks on some of the graves. It was as if they were directly in the ground before, and have been moved up onto another piece of stone. Perhaps they had sunk/shifted in the ground? A great example of this was the grave of M.J. Gerow. You can see what we think may have been the soil line at the bottom from where it had been in the earth previously: 

M. J. Gerow
Died
July 7, 1887
Aged 6 years
(unknown) (unknown) children
to come unto me


There is a lot of further research that could be done at Ross Bay Cemetery involving infant and child graves. A larger sample size may have helped in allowing us to identify trends. All in all, it was a fascinating project to do. It was my first time going to Ross Bay Cemetery and it is a genuinely neat place. I will certainly be going back in the future to dip my feet into the past and put my life into perspective.