I have recently retired from teaching and now live in Wembury, Devon in the UK. I have a teaching degree in history and my main area of interest is British Social History in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This fits in well with genealogy and I began by looking into my own family history as well as that of my husband.

I live in a very beautiful part of Britain in an area designated as being an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Whilst looking at the Find a Grave Website, I realised that very few of the memorials in St Werthburgh's Churchyard had been recorded on the Find a Grave Website. The church stands on a cliff overlooking the sea and has an enormous amount of history behind it, both maritime and agricultural. I set myself the task of not only recording the graves but also researching into the backgrounds of the people living there.

I am very fortunate ito be living in Devon in that Parish Records are available online via the Find My Past Website, and I have access to scanned documents as well as transcripts. The Wembury Local History Society has also produced booklets transcribing all the memorials in the churchyard and these are also available online, together with a searchable database. This is essential for my research as with the sea air and storms, many of the memorial stones have now become very difficult, if not mpossible to read.

I will continue with my mission for as long as I am able, but it seems that there are over 2000 people buried in the cemetery in both marked and unmarked graves. Many will never be recorded as they are the bodies of unknown seamen washed up on the local beach after shipping tragedies.

My husband feels my hobby is a little strange. I say, the memorial stone is the door that I can go through to explore the life of the person gone before. To me, these stones now represent real people that I have become involved with.

Someone once said, "you are never truly dead until you are forgotten". I would like to think that I am bringing memories of these people back for others to discover.

I have recently retired from teaching and now live in Wembury, Devon in the UK. I have a teaching degree in history and my main area of interest is British Social History in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This fits in well with genealogy and I began by looking into my own family history as well as that of my husband.

I live in a very beautiful part of Britain in an area designated as being an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Whilst looking at the Find a Grave Website, I realised that very few of the memorials in St Werthburgh's Churchyard had been recorded on the Find a Grave Website. The church stands on a cliff overlooking the sea and has an enormous amount of history behind it, both maritime and agricultural. I set myself the task of not only recording the graves but also researching into the backgrounds of the people living there.

I am very fortunate ito be living in Devon in that Parish Records are available online via the Find My Past Website, and I have access to scanned documents as well as transcripts. The Wembury Local History Society has also produced booklets transcribing all the memorials in the churchyard and these are also available online, together with a searchable database. This is essential for my research as with the sea air and storms, many of the memorial stones have now become very difficult, if not mpossible to read.

I will continue with my mission for as long as I am able, but it seems that there are over 2000 people buried in the cemetery in both marked and unmarked graves. Many will never be recorded as they are the bodies of unknown seamen washed up on the local beach after shipping tragedies.

My husband feels my hobby is a little strange. I say, the memorial stone is the door that I can go through to explore the life of the person gone before. To me, these stones now represent real people that I have become involved with.

Someone once said, "you are never truly dead until you are forgotten". I would like to think that I am bringing memories of these people back for others to discover.