The Transcriptions

There are nearly 500 inscribed stones located within the BRMA:  both “rude” (simple, hand-carved fieldstones) and “proper” (professionally-commissioned and carved).

Transcriptions for all stones have been rendered in their entirety, including the stone’s verse, typically located on the bottom portion of the stone.  We have tried to remain as true to the structure and composition of the stone’s inscription as possible, given the limitations of plain text, occasionally using a text editing program to “tweak” various elements for artistic accuracy.

Though every available technique for reading gravestones has been utilized, it is a sad, inescapable fact of cemetery studies that some stones or portions thereof can simply no longer be read.  In the event of a stone with a missing or illegible portion, I have elected to use James N. Arnold’s transcriptions from the 1890’s to complete the missing data, enclosed in [brackets].  I chose Arnold’s transcriptions for two reasons:  First, the timeframe in which they were recorded (closer to the date they were carved, and therefore, in theory, less deteriorated); and second, because he recorded stones verbatim as well, a fairly uncommon practice, even now.  However, as Arnold only visited 20 of the 39 lots whose locations are presently known and registered within the BRMA, various other secondary sources were also consulted.  These will be indicated by {curly brackets}, and the source material that’s been used will be indicated in the footnotes.  Transcriptions containing “…” indicate a missing or illegible portion with no reliable secondary source available.

The diagrams are designed to be as detailed and intuitive as possible, insofar as space, scale and terrain will allow, without “cluttering up” the page with extraneous detail.  A key has been embedded into each diagram, detailing the meaning of all symbols you will encounter.

Facing east, burials are recorded and numbered beginning with the leftmost grave in the first row, generally the northwest corner of the lot, and ending with the rightmost in the final row, or southeast.  Each burial is represented by a burial number in bold, indicating its corresponding transcription in that cemetery’s transcription pages.  Burials that refer to inscribed stones are enclosed within a red text box; plain, unmarked fieldstones are enclosed within a black text box.

Instead of a burial number, you will occasionally find burials marked by a letter.  Letters indicate one of two possibilities:  First, something within the cemetery that is not a burial, per se, but is still of interest.  For instance, in the northwest corner of the Preserved Hall Lot [West Greenwich, Rhode Island, Historical Cemetery No. 23], a pile of many of the lot’s missing footstones can be found.  Unfortunately, since they are also buried under several broken gravestone bases, and therefore essentially inaccessible, we were not able to record them properly, hence why they were assigned an "A" as opposed to a proper burial number.

Second, letters could also refer to burials that were once located within a particular cemetery, but are no longer present, as is the case with the John Andrews Lot [West Greenwich, Rhode Island, Historical Cemetery No. 25]:  Though James N. Arnold recorded 16 burials here in the late 1800’s, they were all removed to various other cemeteries in the early 1900’s.  Since they are still on record as being in WG025, however, we located, transcribed, and photographed them all in their current locations.

Headstones as well as footstones are marked for easy on-site location.  Too frequently overlooked in similar works, footstones are a crucial piece of a cemetery’s puzzle, both because they enable the user to gain a clearer understanding of the lot’s overall layout, but also because it provides a means of accounting for burials whose headstones are no longer in evidence, displaced or removed from the grounds in centuries past, leaving only its footstone behind.  Missing head- and footstones are also marked, as it helps bring the methodology behind the numbering of the burials into focus.  That being said, though, it should be noted that numbering the burials necessarily becomes something of a judgment call when dealing with unmarked fieldstones in certain lots, for the simple reason that it’s occasionally not always clear what is a footstone and what is a headstone.  This is particularly true with cemeteries that have undergone extensive vandalism or displacement, like the Laban Matteson Lot [West Greenwich, Rhode Island, Historical Cemetery No. 26].

Diagrams are .jpeg images located just above the Transcription Galleries.  You can click or tap on it to view fullscreen.  Or, since they are meant to be used in correlation with the Transcription Galleries, a link is also provided below the .jpeg which enables you to open it in a new tab or window so you can view the diagram and transcriptions simultaneously.