adding names to gravestones

[wimsey]

this may be a daft question

clearly gravestones often 'commemorate' or mention several family members, not just the original person buried. I was just idly wondering how this works - I guess a family member decided how many names would eventually be on the stone and then ordered an appropriate size to accommodate all future additions - is that how it works ? or do stones get regularly replaced to add names ?

perhaps it varies from case to case, family to family

[Lesley Robertson]

I think that it varies depending on the area and who owns the burial ground as well as who owns the stone... These days, there's often reports in the media about family not being allowed some sort of trim or wording on a stone.

In Scotland, it's been traditional to list family on a stone, no matter where their body is (I have a couple of folk in my OPS who are listed on more than one stone). Take a look at stone number 49 on my site HERE , for example. The family has overflowed onto 47 and 48 as well.I've sometimes had a twinge of guilt over the large stone on my grandparents' grave with just their two names on it, but to add more we'd have to find the certificate of ownership of the stone, get permission from the Council and presumably consult our cousins (AND decide which of the Black Sheep's wives to list).

If you're interested in a particular graveyard, it would be worth asking the local council about it. Most of their websites have a section on cemetaries these days.

[wimsey]

Thanks.

I hasten to add I'm not myself planning on having additional names added to any existing gravestones, I was just intersted in the amount of forward thinking or planning that must have taken place when some gravestones were first put in place.

[Megan Roberts]

I don't think there's much planning involved.

When my grandfather died, my grandmother, might have thought that one day she would be added to the headstone, but I am sure that she didn't think that it would need to be big enough to add her son to. So when he died 15 years after she did, my father had the whole stone redone, so that the spacing could be altered.

Similarly when my mother died, suddenly, Dad, I know, knew that he would one day be added to it, but never gave a thought, as to how much space would be needed, so because, Dad had had a poem inscribed, when he died, we had the stone, re-laid out, so that he was'nt tucked on the end like an after thought, and hidden behind the flowers.