When I learned that my 9th great-grandfather, Rev. Thomas Carter was buried in the Old Burying Ground in Woburn, Massachusetts, and I knew I had to go find his tombstone. Although Woburn is about a 40 minute ride from my house, I had never been to the cemetery, but I have been to the library where I did a post on their genealogy holdings.
I thought I had two things going for me for this cemetery visit. I knew it was a small cemetery and FindAGrave (FAG) had a picture of the tombstone. Below, is the FAG grave photo I used with the app on my iPad. It's always a good thing to take along the picture, if you are fortunate enough to find one on that site.
The search proved to be more difficult than I expected. As you can see from the below photos, the cemetery was on a steep hill, which made walking a tad difficult, and I couldn't locate a stone looking like the FAG photo of Rev. Carter, shown below.
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| Photo from the FindAGrave iPad app. |
After much searching, I found a similar, yet taller stone, which I couldn't read, but thought it could be the same as the one pictured on FindAGrave because of the shape and broken edge on the left side, but they weren't the same size. I couldn't read it until I got home and used Adobe Photoshop for tweaking, then I was able to partially read the engraving. I am not sure why the FindAGrave image looks so short, but this proves another photographer's shot can be very different than yours.
What did I discover when I compared pictures and facts? This is not the stone for the Rev. Thomas Carter, who died in 1684. I believe the entry on FindAGrave is incorrect for two reasons. First the stone states this person died in March (not the correct date of September 05, 1684). Second, there is no entry for Rev. Thomas Carter in the book, Woburn Records of Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Marriage Intentions, from 1640 to 1900 by Edward F. Johnson. (Includes a listing of all the burials and epitaphs.) See write-up of the oldest John Carter stone in the cemetery, shown below. Since Reverend Carter died in 1684 and there is no stone for him, nor mention in the above book, I believe the photo shown is incorrect.
TRANSCRIPT OF EPITAPHS IN WOBURN FIRST AND SECOND BURIAL-GROUNDS.
There were several plaques in the cemetery, one bearing a relative's name, Eleazer Flagg Poole.
1775 1783
IN MEMORIAM
REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIERS
PARK STREET BURIAL-GROUND
BALDWIN LOAMMI
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1807
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POOLE ELEAZER FLAGG
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1776
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BROOKS ZACHARIAH
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1792
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PORTER ASAHEL
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1775
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BURBEEN JOSEPH
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1794
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RHODES JACOB
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1776
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FOWLE JAMES
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1779
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RICHARDSON EBENEZER
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1783
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FROTHINGHAM THOMAS
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1776
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RICHARDSOSN STEPHEN
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1783
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GARDNER SAMUEL
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1790
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RICHARDSON STEPHEN
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1787
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LAMSON JOHN
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1776
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SIMONDS BENJAMIN
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1783
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THOMPSON DANIEL 1775
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In Memoriam
Deacon Edward Convers
Born W. Kerry, County of Northampton
England, January 30, 1590
Landed: Salem, Mass. June 12, 1630
in company of Governor Winthrop
Died Woburn, Mass. August 10, 1663
Founder: City of Woburn, Mass.
And First Church, Woburn
Forefather of
The Converse Family in America
Erected in his Memory
By His Descendants
The Converse Family in America
1962
First Burial Ground
1642 Until 1794
Daniel Thompson and Asahel Porter,
Both Casualties of the Battles
of Lexington and Concord
Lie Interred Here and Many
Important Early Woburnites
There is a nice blog post about Rev. Carter done by cousin Pam Carter, in her My Maine Ancestry seen HERE.
