Halloween. October 31st. There are some families in Australia who have good reason to pass on their ancestral Halloween traditions to their children while the Christian community celebrates October 31st it in its own way as All Hallows Eve.
Usually it is a most unremarkable day in Australia.
But in other parts of the world it is a time for black cats, bats and spiders, ghosts, skeletons, witches and wizards; or pumpkins, cobwebs, haunted houses and graveyards
So this Halloween let us glide over to the graveyard at The Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Caldecote, Huntingdonshire, a few miles south of Peterborough.
The church has now been converted into a private residence after having been de-consecrated in the mid 1970s and the headstones have been stacked against the church wall the last time I heard.
Perhaps the ghosts rise up on the night of October 31st to protest at having been disturbed. There might even be some Tanseys and some Lawsons among them. A perfect setting for all things supernatural.
This lonely church is where my grandfather’s grandparents, Thomas Tansey and Rebecca Lawson, were married in 1834 Later they were buried there after all twelve of their children were christened there and five of their children buried there.
There are three different spellings for the same person’s surname. Thomas signs Tanser, the Curate writes Tansor and the headstone says Tansey.
But when Thomas was born in 1813 in Whittlesey to the east of Peterborough he was christened as Tansey. That was the year that Richard Wagner was born, Napoleon invaded Russia and the USA declared war on the UK, a war which lasted 2 years
Further links to the colourful Halloween card can be seen at this week’s Sepia Saturday post
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