Naked and Beheaded: Memorial Monument Analysis

Children's graves in the South Eastern corner of Ross Bay Cemetery

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1)   Eleven children’s graves in the Roman Catholic, Anglican and general use sections of the South Eastern corner of the Ross Bay Cemetery comprised the data set for my “Memorial Monument Analysis” group; however we did record a twelfth grave which was the deceased adult twin brother of one of the children. For our analysis, we chose to try and include a children’s grave only if the child was under ten years of age when they died. However there were a few exceptions, two of the graves did not include the age or date the child died but did address them as “baby”, as well we recorded the adult twin brother (as mentioned above) of one of the children.
   Throughout the field research we identified a few different limitations to our study that are important to consider when analyzing the data. These limitations include: the scope of our study (e.g. small sample size and small area surveyed), missing information on graves (e.g. cause of death, year of death, age), our limited historical background and limited knowledge on different religious burial practices.


2) Possible Research Questions:
- What is the distribution of children’s graves in the South Eastern section of the Ross Bay Cemetery?
- How do the children’s graves sites and markers vary from one another (size, shape etc.)?
- How are the children’s graves aligned? Is the alignment consistent or how does it vary?
- When did the children die? Is there a particular year that repeatedly comes up, perhaps because of disease or certain historical event?
- Is there a consistent timeline of children’s graves or are there gaps in time? If there are gaps, why weren’t they buried at Ross Bay Cemetery?
- Are there other clusters of children’s graves found within Ross Bay Cemetery?

3)   When thinking about cemeteries and burials, most people may think about an older generation passing on after having a long life. But in fact, there is a great deal of age variation within cemeteries ranging from young infants to the elderly. Although North American society has, for the most part, come a long ways in health advancements and longevity, there is no way to know how long each individual will live.
      Graves sites and grave markers come in all different shapes and sizes, ranging from large to very small ones depending on the cultural burial practice or religious view of the people at the time. In the Ross Bay Cemetery, small graves were sought out in hopes that they were children’s graves; not all of the children’s graves were small but this method helped to find many of the sites. In the St. Thomas Anglican Churchyard in Ontario, Canada, excavators found that the size of a coffin usually corresponded with the age of the individual inside, however the shape of the coffin did not (McKillop 1995: 82). The “Monument Analysis” group did not know at the time what to look for, but McKillop’s idea (though much more extensive) loosely supports the simple way the Ross Bay Cemetery analysis began.
      When examining the Ross Bay Cemetery, the main research question posed was: what is the distribution of children’s graves in the South Eastern corner of this cemetery. This section of the cemetery was mentioned in one of the group members Medical Anthropology classes as having a large amount of children’s graves and was the driving factor for selecting this area for survey and analysis. Although the group was able to find numerous children’s graves, there did not appear to be any particular spacing, patterning or distribution to them, although they all were lined up East to West (with the grave marker on either end). After conducting some additional research, the group realized that overtime the cemetery had changed it’s segregation of religious backgrounds and beliefs. Originally the group had found an older map and thought that the area surveyed was strictly Roman Catholic, which did not seem to fit the graves sites and markers that were found. But, a more recent map was later found which revealed the survey area to contain Roman Catholic, Anglican and a general use section. The group then postulated that perhaps there was no noticeable distribution pattern because of the change in different religious practices within the survey area. However, just as there was no particular distribution at the Ross Bay Cemetery, this observation was similarly recorded in St. Thomas Anglican Churchyard, where the children’s graves were found in a variety of different locations within the cemetery (McKillop 1995: 88), as well as Indian Knoll in Kentucky and Dickson Mounds in Illinois where both children and adults were mixed in the different grave clusters (Rothschild 1979: 671). Therefore, children may not have been segregated within the cemetery on purpose.
      One very interesting observation that was made in the Ontario churchyard excavations was that children were not always buried in association with their mothers but they were in family plots near other relatives (McKillop 1995: 88). Similarly, during the Ross Bay Cemetery survey, the group found one child, Mary Elizabeth Rickard, who was buried in a family plot but were unable to tell who her mother was. After reading McKillop’s article, the group survey observations seemed much more logical.
      When comparing the group’s data from the “Monument Analysis” in Ross Bay Cemetery to other field work in different parts of North America, across different cultural groups and across time, it was very interesting to note the similarities between them. With this in mind, cross cultural comparisons can be considered very useful when trying to interpret data. Children were not found to be segregated from the rest of the population in any of these surveys and therefore the question could arise as to why this may have been. Perhaps keeping the children with the rest of the population was a way in which the living sought to protect their children and a way to make the deceased children feel safe.


Works Cited

McKillop, H. 1995, "Recognizing Children's Graves in Nineteenth-Century Cemeteries: Excavations in St. Thomas Anglican Churchyard, Belleville, Ontario, Canada", Historical Archaeology, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. pp. 77-99.

Rothschild, N.A. 1979, "Mortuary Behaviour and Social Organization at Indian Knoll and Dickson Mounds", American Antiquity, vol. 44, no. 4, pp. pp. 658-675.