Good Morning Gloucester

The Trustees have annnounced the scheduled reopening of a number of properties on Thursday June 4; these include Ravenswood! Other Trustees properties will also reopen Thursday including Appleton Farms Grass Rides in Hamilton and Greenwood Farm in Ipswich. Some of the properties such as Appleton Farms Grass Rides will now implement parking fees for non-members in order to offset cost of added staff to monitor the grounds and prevent overcrowding, so check before you go. 

I recently stopped by the Crane Beach for the first visit of the year.  Visitors need a timed day parking pass which you can obtain online herewhich I did not realize.  It was explained that capacity is limited to 650 vehicles per day and even membership does not guarantee  you will be able to visit Crane Beach as expected. So be sure to check for that pass (they go very fast and you cannot request further than one week ahead). I am hoping those restrictions lift soon as well.

But, if you miss Crane Beach yourself, here’s what I saw recently:

The Cherry Hill Cemetery’s location adjacent to the Addison Gilbert Hospital makes it somewhat more intriguing than some others, especially in light of the report on FindAGrave.com come which states, in part: Its proximity to the Addison Gilbert Hospital was convenient during times of epidemic when large numbers of bodies were reportedly buried in a common grave. Epidemics and pandemics are on our minds lately and it did seem that many of the burials were for the 1918-19 time period, but that was likely my imagination……..

The cemetery is very steep and uneven. Sections are not easily identified, except for the Firefighters’ Memorial. It is currently a bit overgrown, but so are we all these days.  Despite hospital busy-ness and nearby traffic, I found it peaceful there on this beautiful morning.  However, I was a bit winded by the climb and careful stepping.  The worn sign seems to indicate it was established in 1865, but the Guide to Cemeteries in Essex County, Massachusetts (by the Essex Society of Genealogists) indicated it may have been established around 1823. There is a nice variety of stones, not many slate ones though. It’s not very easy to determine the growth of the cemetery as stones dated many years ago find themselves among more recent ones.

As I have mentioned before, FindAGrave supplies family historians with a place to search cemeteries for loved ones as well as to request photos of gravestones. It was with this purpose that we went today. “Cemetery Stomping” is a great activity during virus isolation. Armed with the FindAGrave list of about 55 photo requests, we started off in search of them. We were VERY lucky on this trip to have been able to fulfill 7 of those requests. It is not uncommon to leave a cemetery empty handed in the photo department, but today we were blessed with extraordinary luck.

I was even able to recognize some names from my own tree and took a couple of extra photos to add to the FindAGrave database.  Coincidentally, two of the names that we were not able to find on this trip included Nellie and Frank Tyne, the grandparents of my featured soldiers Jeffrey Gordon Tyne and Gordon A. Tyne. I guess we’ll be going back! I’d really like to locate the Tynes.

Fresh, Reasonably Priced, Super Tasty. It was great!

Markouk Bread

338 Main St

Gloucester MA

978-283-3500

Fresh, Reasonably Priced, Super Tasty. It was great!

Markouk Bread

338 Main St

Gloucester MA

978-283-3500

Fresh, Reasonably Priced, Super Tasty. It was great!

Markouk Bread

338 Main St

Gloucester MA

978-283-3500