This is likely where Grace’s discarded stone is!

Grace Spencer was born on July 27, 1674 in Connecticut. She was the daughter of John and Rebecca (Hayward) Spencer, they had five children; Rebecca (1666), Jerad (Gerard) (1669), Benjamin (1671), Lydia (1673) , Grace(1674/1677).

The Gerard (Jared) Spencer family from Stotford, Bedfordshire, England, with his five  sons, John, Gerard (Jared), William, Thomas and Michael, came to America in 1632 settling in Massachusetts and Connecticut.  All of the Spencer men were very active politically and militarily in early colonial New England. Grace was Gerard’s Granddaughter

Grace married John Day Jr. on January 21, 1696 in Hartford, Connecticut. John and Grace had eleven children; Lydia (1698)), Mary (1699), John, III (1701), Joseph (1702), Benjamin (1704), Editha (1705), Esther, (1705), Daniel(1709), David (1710), Abraham(1712), Isaac (1713).

Three hundred and six years ago today, Grace died on May 12, 1714 at the tender age of thirty nine leaving her husband with eleven children. She is buried in the Colchester Burial Grounds in Colchester, Connecticut.

Rest in peace, Grace!

Love, Jan

Grace is my first cousin eight times removed.

Rant coming

Nothing makes me madder than to see a photo like the one above.   Just because the tombstone is broken, do not move it…Leave it on the grave.. Notify the Cemetery trustee or the county or the owner of the cemetery. Most of the old pioneer cemeteries do not have maps or records which can accurately identify grave placement so once the grave stone is moved there is no way to know where it belongs.

I would rather see grass grow over the stone, though I think that is disrespectful too.  As a society, county, and town, it is our obligations to care for our cemeteries.   We owe that to our ancestors!  The correct amount of funds need to be set aside to properly maintain them. We need to preserve all of our cemeteries but especially our oldest.  It is very easy when the budget gets tight to cut funding for cemeteries.

It is nice to have these big memorials to our famous generals and presidents, after all they were great leaders but it is the common people who manned the militia, ran businesses and farms, cleared land and established towns and ran them, that really made this country what it is today.  These are the people buried in these cemeteries.    Their final resting place should be their place of honor.  A place where any and all can come to see.