I know this is a strange subject. Who goes around talking about cemeteries? Well, if you grew up in my family, it seemed visits to graveyards appeared on our schedules. As a writer of historical fiction, I find cemeteries and records as an excellent source for plots, dates, facts, and characters.
A recent conversation at my local post office started me thinking about this subject and how other people might view cemeteries. The conversation went something like this:
Post Mistress: I saw you walking this week.
Me: I’m not surprised. I love to walk around the neighborhood.
Post Mistress: But I wouldn’t do that.
Me: Oh, I don’t go at night unless I’m with my husband.
Post Mistress: I wouldn’t walk where you walk even with my husband at any time of day.
Me: Why not?
Post Mistress: The cemetery. How can you walk around it? I hate even driving around it.
Then, I understood. It wasn’t the time of day or the neighborhood or walking alone. The cemetery was the culprit and all that it symbolized in her thoughts. I wanted to give her my positive spiel about all my fun experiences associated with graveyards, for I realized she had her own opinions for a reason. So, I chuckled to myself as I left the Post Office and went for a walk around the cemetery.
My experiences with cemeteries go way back to childhood as my parents, my sisters, and I explored family plots, old cemeteries in foreign countries and domestic destinations, even catacombs in Rome and Paris. Nothing scary or Halloween-like.
“Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here.” Luke 24:5-6
A promise of resurrection from Jesus for His followers. Not anything to fear! His promises always come true.
So, I continue my walks around the cemetery. I’m on our old cemetery’s board where I get to care for the headstones and the grounds. My parents and my faith provide a healthy relationship with cemeteries where memories, tears, prayers, and history collide…but not fear…
What are your thoughts about cemeteries?
I usually have to wait until the summer or Christmas break to read and study all the books for a new project. A blessing during quarantine has been my research on 1740s France during the Enlightenment era with characters such as King Louis XV, Rousseau, Voltaire, and Madame Dupin and her salons. I chose the period before the French Revolution to add a glimpse of what led to the downfall of the monarchy.
I set my new work at the Chenonceau château–my favorite place on earth! No, really. This castle is called the Ladies’ Château for most of the owners have been women. In 1740 the famous woman was Louise Dupin who is known for her enlightening salons where celebrated and want-to-be philosophers met and expounded on their thoughts and theories. I’m using this search for knowledge and truth as the background for my characters facing “truth” in its many forms.
Even though I’ve started writing my novel, I continue to research. When I rewrite it, I’ll include any tidbits that I need to ground it in history. I always feel down when I’ve finished a research project.
Oh, and did I mention that part of my research always includes a personal visit to the sites that I include in my novels? I continue to show up on the Chenonceau property to wander the rooms and stroll the avenues and gardens.
I take a walk through history as much as I can. On vacation. On walks in my hometown. Through old houses. Through old photo albums. In the pages of books. I’m enthralled with history. With that comes a desire to understand the people in those communities that seep through the time warp into my present mind.
My characters attend St. Philip’s Church, a Church of England congregation. The importance of their participation with this group of citizens molds their lives. They find the community of faith a stronghold in their dramatic lives in the pre-revolutionary and revolutionary stages. Marriages, burials, baptisms, worship, dinners, celebrations all revolve around the group of people they share through affiliation of the church. I read a very informative book about St. Philip’s and her growth and influence in the community 
Well, maybe not for every soul. But for me, research is a thrill. It always has been even way back in junior and senior high. I even went back to school for graduate work and concentrated on the areas of research. I thought about getting another masters degree in order to research some more. But, I stopped with my MA in English. After all, I can research on my own…whatever topic I want.
I’ve found many ways and places to satisfy my deep desire to learn something new or to delve into a topic whether for a new novel I’m writing or a new interest. The library is always a top choice–the smell of old books and the feel of aged paper as well as the thickness of the volume or the well-used softness of the paper. The internet offers many resources too. I’ve found recently that archives in state libraries and museums are an awesome source of information.
Recently I joined my three sisters on a much-needed vacation and sister time in Charleston, South Carolina. We always include yummy restaurants and a beach journey if possible. After walking and walking in this beautiful, historic city, we enjoyed the relaxation each evening with a movie in our little rented house with a coveted dessert or two.
Part of my research for my books and for genealogical information included searching the cemetery at St. Philip’s for ancestors. I had done this before with my husband with no luck. Finding a tombstone that is legible from 1760-1780 is difficult. My father had seen it around 1952 and later in the 1960s. But the church has no records of where my relatives were buried just the fact that they were buried in the cemetery.
How I love summer! I use the time to do something different from teaching. Since I have completed the preliminary draft of a novel and submitted it to the publisher, I’ve been thinking and planning for my next novel. I spent a week in Charleston, S.C. with my sisters for four days then myself for three days. Beautiful, inspiring, lots of ideas!
So in the month of July, I’ll read and highlight my new books from Charleston. But the first book I am reading is an old 1906 book that will not receive any highlighting because of its value. Charleston The Place and the People by Mrs. St. Julien Ravenel is a treasure, one found in my parents’ library. I’m sure there are quite a few interesting observations discussed by Mrs. Ravenel.
Research–I LOVE the process. I’m rubbing my hands together in excitement wondering which book I’ll read first.
Happy Summer! Since I am a teacher, I’m enjoying every moment, storing up energy for the school year that is only seven weeks away. I started my summer vacation with a sisters’ trip to Charleston, South Carolina. The four of us spent four days eating, laughing, crying, sharing, walking, movie watching, eating more, shopping–forming memories that can never be taken away.
Once I left Charleston at 6:00 p.m. for Atlanta, I still had that monstrosity of an airport to maneuver and a ticket to secure. The attendant was very proud that he found a seat for me on the 12:17 a.m. to Jackson.
Twenty-four hours late, I arrived home (without my bag) and praised God for a safe journey, one with a few delays and cancellations. No harsh words or annoyed facial expressions. This is part of traveling.
Do you want to know a great blessing I have? Well, I have three younger sisters! We are the best of friends and love our time together. Yes, I’m the oldest, and I know that is the best place to be! Haha! Any oldest siblings out there? I know all other positions think they are the best too. Anyway, the four of us like to choose a destination and meet there to relax, catch up, talk about everything–just exist together in the same place.
This year one sister suggested Charleston, South Carolina. Why? Because she had just finished Bring Me Near, my Revolutionary Faith Book Three. “I want to see all those places in the books.” As well she should. Charleston holds her roots as much as mine. How could I refuse being a book tour guide to my very own sisters!
I plan on showing them the different houses featured in my books, including the Lestarjette house on Church Street. We’ll include a cemetery search behind St. Philip’s Church for Elizabeth Elliott’s parent’s tombstones. Also, on the tour are the college, the Exchange Building with the dungeon ,and most likely a house tour.
There is no way I will pass up a chance to research. I decided to stay an extra three days giving a few hours to research at the South Carolina Room in the Charleston County Public Library and the South Carolina Historical Society. A quick trip to Orangeburg will add an additional dimension to my research as that is where Louis and Elizabeth are buried.
Do you have a favorite city or destination to which you repeatedly return? Charleston is that for me. 
Just me. Alone. With my research box, my computer, books, pens, and a great view. I am on fall break from teaching. I asked my husband for a getaway, and he couldn’t leave work. So, here I am in a comfy room with a view of a huge lake and nothing to do except what I want. Three nights and three days.
I’ve needed time like this to organize my thoughts and make some progress on my current writing project–Draw Me to Your Side, Revolutionary Faith Book Four. I’m so excited with high hopes and lofty ideas of progress.
In July on vacation with my daughter, I included a two-day research option in Bordeaux, France. Family oral stories relate that Louis Lestarjette (the male protagonist in my Revolutionary Faith Series) sailed from Bordeaux to South Carolina around 1770. Also, one oral source remembered seeing Lestarjette on a storefront in the city. It was a place to start since my internet research had come to a halt.
Another family story places Louis’s mother under the guillotine’s blade, beheaded during the French Revolution. I didn’t want to find her name on a list, but I knew I must research it. At the Conciergerie in Paris–the prison that once housed thousands of people facing executions during the Revolution including King Louis and Marie Antoinette–a room has been designed with all of the names of the executed on the walls and in a hands-on computer data base. We searched and found no Lestarjettes. I’m glad. Yet, people all over France were executed outside of the Conciergerie.
Connect in Fiction with Marguerite Gray 