It has been awhile since finishing the Genealogy documentation of the children buried in the Point of Graves. But was I truly finished? There is a memorial on Find a Grave for a 16 year old boy named Stanley W. Shattuck as being buried in the Point of Graves. The problem is that the year of his death was listed as 1972, and the last known burial in the Point of Graves was the later part of the 1800’s. I set out to find the truth and if necessary, make the correction to his memorial.

I first contacted the Manager of Stanley’s memorial on Find a Grave. She sent me an online copy of the newspaper article that lists the details of Stanley’s death and where he was interred. Stanley tragically drown, May 24, 1972, while boating with friends. The article listed his place of rest to be the Point of Grave in Portsmouth. Both the Memorial Manager and I wanted to make sure of that information, though.

It was several months of research, footwork, and emails in my quest for the truth. I am sure many people thought I was nuts or questioned why I should care. The church that Stanley’s family attended in Maine had a record of them, but no one could remember the circumstances of Stanley’s death. The records of burial permits in Portsmouth, NH had long been either lost or purged. I received no answer from the funeral home listed. In desperation, I even emailed the Principal of the school Stanley had attended, in hopes that someone there would remember or connect me with someone from his graduating class. No reply back.

By now, I am frustrated and feeling that we should be resigned to never know where exactly Stanley rests. The night of July 24, 2016, I made a visit to the cemetery to see if I could make some kind of connection. If I felt at peace with the information I had gathered, then so be it. Search over.

I didn’t feel that Stanley was physically buried there, but I could feel his ‘presence’. Maybe his ashes were spread there? I stood under the large tree where I had picked the leaf last summer and heard “Don’t forget the Children”. Had Stanley been forgotten?

I left the cemetery and suddenly felt sick to my stomach. Something within my energy field was off. My husband and I decided at the last minute to take a scenic way home through the countryside. Turning down a road, I glanced at the street sign… SHATTUCK. It felt like a sign from Spirit. (It is interesting that as I write this, the exact moment I typed SHATTUCK, the time was 11:11.)

I continued my search the next day, but asked for Divine assistance, because frankly, I was stuck. On a nudge, I did a search for Stanley Shattuck on Ancestry.com. There was ONE family lineage with his name and correct info. The administrator hadn’t signed into Ancestry in over a year, so I wasn’t too encouraged. I took the information given and searched Google and then went to Facebook.

I found a listing on Facebook that could have been one of his brothers. Then I found one that could have been his sister. Although her last name was not Shattuck, her first and middle name were the same [unusual] spelling. I sent her an inquiry message. YES, her maiden name was Shattuck and she had a brother named Stanley that drown. A conversation ensued and she gave me the information that I had been seeking.

Stanley is buried in the family plot in the Rye Central Cemetery (Rye, NH). His father, mother, grandfather, and grandmother are buried there as well. I had the honor of visiting the cemetery, taking photos, and paying my respects. The family now has memorials on Find a Grave and Stanley’s information has been corrected.

Why was I feeling Stanley’s energy in the Point of Graves? I think it was because of the story that he was buried there. Even though it was incorrect, the BELIEF gave rise to the energy. Its an example of how powerful our words and thoughts can be.

Thank you for the lesson, Stanley. And I won’t forget the children. I promise…

Last weekend’s warmer Spring weather gave me the long anticipated opportunity to visit the Point of Graves to take photos of the stones. I had gotten an LED light stick earlier in the year and was anxious to use it for night photography… hoping to be able to read the stones where the inscriptions were eroded.

I am super excited to report success! The results were better than I could imagine. I got confirmation of the Elizabeth and James Drisco stones. Also, Nathaniel Marshall and several others that were faded and difficult to read in daylight.

It is interesting how nighttime photography shows details one misses during the day. As an Artist, I was taught to turn my project upside down for a different perspective when I ran into problems with design and balance. Our human eye/brain sees what it thinks it should see based on previous experience and often fills or replaces what it doesn’t comprehend in order to made sense of what it is seeing. When you change perspective, flaws or other things generally dismissed become glaringly obvious. Nighttime photography took away all the surrounding clutter and focused only on the stone.

By illuminating the stone with the LED light stick from the side, I was able to clearly see the shadows of the inscriptions. I am told that one can get the same results using a mirror in the daytime. I felt it safer to use a light at night than attempt to transport a huge, breakable mirror.

My camera is a Pentax X-5 digital, set on automatic with no flash. I am not that tech-savy and still haven’t figured out how to really use my camera after all these years. I’m a ‘point and shoot’ kind of person. I do repeated shots of the same subject in an attempt to get an in-focus one, so I’m always surprised by what may show up.

The inscriptions of the stones in the nighttime photos are clearly readable without any manipulation of the photos. I later used Picassa photo editing to lighten the pictures, just to see what would happen. That made the inscriptions stand out even better, I think. Other than an occasional cropping, no other manipulations were done to the photos.

Night Photos 3-26-2016

I will be going back to the cemetery soon to document more stones at night. I am that impressed with the clarity. If you see two dark figures with a light wandering around, don’t be alarmed. It is probably my cemetery buddy husband and me. But then again…