Sunday, May 27, 2012

What's with the rocks & the Jewish names at the cemetery

What's with the rocks & the Jewish names at the cemetery...
And better yet what's the whole story behind the one winged angel??






Schwartz Family...
1 stone...


















1 rock, a river rock maybe...








Weill family...
have a curbed off plot, which I'd never seen before in a cemetery












Kahn Family...
have a crypt, a bit art deco flower/trim - but it's the name I think straight away of Star Trek & the evil Kahn (perhaps spelled differently I don't know, but it struck me that of all the names I would recall reading this it would be from the Start Trek shows & then a movie...)






Mother...
(later I'll see a few more 'mother' & 'father' memorials...not just the spectacular one under the stairway to the angel, with the 'mother' & 'father' wreaths in the hand of the adoring one below on the steps...)










Feitel Family...
the giant oak tree limb is having a rest on their marker - is it heavy...
(he's not heavy he's my tree branch) & what about that last name, never heard of it before...






?? family...
what happens when there's no one to clean the stones - do they disappear?
now this marker is what you typical think of in an old cemetery, covered in mold, surrounded by dead leaves--all that's missing for a haunted horror story hand to come up out of those leaves on a dark & dreary night, with the mists rolling over the ground & up into the ancient oak trees all 'round...oh too a hoot owl somewhere in one of them & possibly a bat swooping by, at least once--all set--Action?!






steps & drapery--what's with that, don't know...
nor have I seen this many column type markers or are they to look like urns or vases or lamps?














favorite epitaph...

Manly Man
Loyal Friend
Loving Husband
And Father

(back in the day I realize being called a 'manly man' must of been a compliment--now I can only think of joke shaving commercials on TV or YouTube when reading that description...)













steps & drapery--drapery with fringe & tassles...
this column/urn/lamp though is the only one with such drapery hanging down from the top - was it a shroud or a veil maybe instead from the adoring wife & daughter perhaps...








Henry's family...
this column looks medieval for some reason...
or mortar shaped or somehow resembles a 4 arched hat, nearly Bishop-like...
(which wouldn't fit at all in a Jewish cemetery...)







Kaplan family...
which I thought was a Cajun name...
here a series of stones - this bringing & placing of stones on cemetery grave markers has been something I don't understand & have not heard (yet) a good explanation for the 'tradition'

Noting the first time I ever saw stones being brought to a cemetery & placed on a grave was in a Holocaust movie, Schindler's List, where I thought it was that everybody came back with a stone from their hometown to place on his tomb (I'd have to re-watch that part again or borrow the book to read that part to hear their explanation for this tradition...)

It could also be 'not' just in Jewish Cemeteries, because I've seen it done in Paris, France - in at least 2 cemeteries (Pere Lachase & Montparnasse...) though didn't take note of all the names on the markers if they may have been Jewish, if there's not a certain section or a certain cemetery for those of the Jewish faith - am not certain how this ancient cemeteries were set up & then were changed as time passed...











only 2 stones? or bricks? no markings...
and yet they're left here to hold the space for the marker of whose grave?





Levy family...
but only guess from the marker in the middle & not the 2 larger ones on either side - they're no longer legible, unless they can be power blasted in order to read the names/dates on them if they even remain...


Infant of  L. Levy
Died 1900
such a tiny marker, why not born/died - maybe they didn't do that back in those times...
(it's sad & I knew right away, I walked over saying to myself--that's Momma/Poppa & Baby in the middle & then read it to see it was...)









J.P.
that's all, just initials & just a brick or a board really, as I see how long it must be to be above & below the ground this much - again I'd never seen markers like this, unless they were boards & there were a crossed one above kind of thing...







metal cupid...
only metal decoration in this cemetery & I've seen very others, flat like this on any other tomb or crypt...


Abraham was in WWI in what looks like a Louisiana 110 Signal Battalion maybe...
(I'm no good with military ranks or organization so I can't say for sure...)









Mose Immergluck (sp?)
I took note right off where he was born....
Krakau, Austria & that he died in Crowly
(is that German or is that Poland or is that Austria - would I have to read all the history or all of Wiki to find out...Auschwitz would come later in time than 1917, after the Nazi's came in 1939, during WWII - but then I'm back to Schindler’s List, the movie once again...later still in 1978 UNESCO made Krakow - spelling different - a World Heritage Site...all this taken from the Wiki history...)




D. Frank family...
only dove I can make out, think of doves still as peace doves...
although the bird could be another bird, a pigeon or a mockingbird or some other Southern Bird - for a small tombstone this one was ornately outlined, had a bird inset at the top, the family name in a folded ribbon at the middle & so allover a bit fancier than the ordinary...


Hebrew writing up at the top of the flat stone...
so worn can not make any English words out until you get to near the bottom & it may have a line that starts with 'Died' - if this tombstone were power washed it might be the lettering would be gone...after seeing so many worn like this & hardly legible was wondering if not just cleaning would help to be able to read them again, but if you could just do paper & pencil or charcoal rubbings of them in order to be able to read the words on them again & soon too before they're all lost to time...


Clare Fish Heimendinger...
that's a humdinger of a last name, then I started thinking about the middle name & wonder of course is that a middle name for real or a last name used as a middle name or a maiden name--but Fish? I've never known a person with the last name of Fish (so starts the name game questions...)



Rest in Peace...
There were not as many of these phrases as you might suspect on the tombstones I saw this day, nor R.I.P. either (am guessing that underneath the phrase it's repeated in Hebrew...)





Rest in Peace...
the larger tombstone - also curious on this one it states how old the person was when they died, so states: "Aged 57 years" (which obviously I would think is still very young?!)


Nowland Family...
Toerner Family...
both names I've not heard of before & as far as 'Now-land' goes I often in joking will add -land to words due mostly to dealing with places like Disney-land or Candy-land...





Nowland/Toener Family...
looking somewhat like a casket is just barely down in the cement/ground, it's the right shape for the lid of what I would guess is a modern day casket & not just a wooden box or a crypt where say the bones of familes are put - what little I know of the 'deathly arts' it seems (now I recall there's a Funeral Museum in Houston, TX - but can't say where you'd go for such questions here...)




Hipolite Jagou...
Really? Wow--what a name...have heard of neither of these for a first or a last name, should maybe keep track of these & consider as names for characters in a book...



Thelma Jagou...
now Thelma I have heard of before as a first name...
am curious about this rust looking growth on these family set of tombstones, is it just mold?




Rosa Fortune Jagou...
What a lovely, lucky name--have to wonder did it help her at all in her life to go through it with such a name, though I still haven't a clue about Jagou as a last name (if it's lucky or not...)





Jagou Family...
a separate, just for the family plot marker...
and at the bottom as I pass I see pennies are tossed there it looks like, nowhere else in the cemetery but here...also looking rather curious after seeing the copper colored growth on all these grave markers & then the copper pennies there in the same place (why pennies? or why rocks? more questions to add to the list?!)








G.S.
simply initials, there are only a few of these in the Jewish Cemetery...







Sophie...
Wife of Jacob Isaacs...
Alsace, Germany...
Nov 12, 1882
Aged 52 years...




Sophie...
Top 1/2 of the epitaph/inscription is in Hebrew (or I'm guessing that's what those characters are) & the other bottom 1/2 in English (am always curious about translations or if perhaps they added something extra in the original language that was not included in the translated to language...)











In Honor of Governor Alexander Mouton
Donor of the Hebrew Rest 1869
(first time I'd ever heard mention of a cemetery being called a 'Rest' - but as they'd say 'Rest in Peace' then perhaps it makes perfect sense & some of that 'Now I lay me down to rest,' only it's the 'last' rest in life this one...)













Always...always...stop & smell the roses...











2nd fav/most intersting angel in the Jewish Cemetery...
at least I've heard part of her story - it seems she's a One Winged Angel...
It's been told the angel fell & her wing came off & it was never found -
so now we also have another mystery on our hands (but what foder for a story - like all these marvelous names aren't enough...now we have a 'missing wing' angel?!)
I'm fascinated & I want to know more?!








Stone etched flower...
at first I was thinking 4 leaf clover - but then see it's 5 petals & they all look like hearts, what little real wild flower looks like that, or was it made up with the hearts & the number 5 means something...





Tartak Family...
another last name have never heard of & it's all I can do not to think about Science Fiction again...




Lang/Levi Family... or Julie & Jules...
noted: she/beloved wife was born in Epig, Alsace (sp?) 1878
died in Jeanerette, LA 1954




Jules & Julie...
noted: he/beloved husband born in Romansw---er Alsace 1867
died Patterson (sp?) 1984




Ancient oak, shading those at rest here for now how many years? a hundred?



Justin Weil...
so many stones, so many people have come to visit, from where - where are these stones coming from & why (some too have spilled off, but I was afraid to pick any of them up to put them back at rest on the grave marker--that would be for the family to do...) And this was a rare young person, compared to earlier infants, if  he was born in 1978 & died in 2007 - maybe the family is still mostly alive & well here in Lafayette or LA at least to be able to tell 'why the stones?'


WWII Veteran in the US Army - especially now over Memorial Day weekend you'd like to see someone come to visit with a flag for him, maybe by Monday they will...


for some reason they made another marker for Nathan Mulnick...
another fabulous/loving epitaph/inscription: "Sleep Like a King..."




Mulnick Family...
again another last name I don't know - also took note, or started to, all the different Stars of David, is that what they're called--I think so & noting a few stones were on both new markers...


Trevithick Family...
another Star of David, done I suppose in a modern form as he passed in 2001, & another last name I have never heard of before--so many today, I lost count...






Sandman/Udes Family...
Husband & Wife - and he not just a husband, but a Rabbi...
so simple a grave marker for a Rabbi, or is it something typical to do this - I just don't know...
but I adore the last name & am curious where it comes from, because as a child of bedtime stories I of course only know the one & only 'Sandman' who comes to help us all to dreamland right?!

~~~
Link to find out more about finding a grave...
http://www.findagrave.com/
(used this link when looking up famous folks buried in famous Paris, France cemeteries - like those buried at Pere Lachaise or Montparnasse Cemeteries...)
Note: believe it or not, this is not all the photos I took this day...after the giant cement angel at the front section & then the one winged angel at the back section & then all the Jewish names or epitaphs/inscriptions or stone etchings, in the middle, there was more--I just had to stop taking photos, enough stories were gathered right there in the over 200 photos I took in the span of a few hours of one day & it's a small space for a cemetery compared to some...next step, how to answer all those questions--or I'll just go visit yet again another cemetery, take another 100 or 200 photos...(think I may have taken 400 in a certain famous Paris cemetery) - because I hear there are other 'Rests,' at least one more, out & about in Southern Louisiana?!

Mon dieu...