It was a dark overcast day this past July 4th in the Boston area, but I was quite confident my husband and I could locate three cemetery stones in the Old Burying Ground at Harvard Square, Cambridge. Even with an image from the 1902 book "The Manning Families of New England." and FindAGrave photos, it took us over 30 minutes to locate the two stones. Based on the 1902 photo, you could see a church, but there are two churches adjacent to the cemetery and all the trees were full with new leaves. We couldn't figure out which church to use as a guide. Many stones were hard to read, and the book photo didn't show the walkway, as shown below. At last, the two stones were found, shown below, are in the center, and other Manning stones on both sides of the walkway, at the foreground. Since it was so dark, I had to lighten the individual photos quite a bit.
I just found out about William and Dorothy Manning, my 9th great-grandparents, in late June. Below, you'll see the difference between the old cemetery photo and my current one, both taken near the same spot.
HERE LIES Ye BODY
OF WILLIAM
MANNING AGED
76 YEARS
DECEASED Ye 14
OF MARCH
1690
HERE LIES Ye BODY
OF DOROTHY
MANNING WIFE OF
WILLIAM MANNING
AGED 80 YEARS
DIED JULY 26
1692
