Person talk:Esther Hosmer (2)

Hester or Ester [19 November 2014]

Her name on her tombstone in Cypress Cemetery Old Saybrook is Hester. The H and E are pushed together so the right side of the H and the left side of the E are the same line. I have been to the cemetery and saw the tombstone, also look at the picture in Find A Grave Memorial# 10544231 [[1]]http://image2.findagrave.com]] and zoom in you can see how its printed.

Dave 21:36, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

Yes, I saw that. I'm not an expert on standardization of spelling of names (and of course, both Esther and Hester are well-recognized spellings), so you might want to check with Jaques to see if he knows more than I do. I would say, though, that if the primary name is changed, both the person page and the family page should be renamed to be consistent (although I suspect not everyone agrees with me on that).

BTW: I'm also not an expert on weathering of gravestones, but I have a suspicion that her gravestone is not the original, or at least has been re-carved since 1702. I have seen situations where the descendants have had the gravestone updated (sometimes completely replaced) and the wording has changed in the process because the original was too weathered to read properly. Regardless, you may very well be right that her name was spelled Hester within her lifetime. And now that I notice it, the transcription made in 1872 says Hester, and that would more likely be based on the original gravestone.--DataAnalyst 03:01, 20 November 2014 (UTC)

I would add that many gravestones in Connecticut, at least in the southeast quadrant, were carved in sandstone, and many of those, depending on the weather conditions in a particular graveyard, have essentially collapsed from the inside out over the years and are now completely unreadable. Those of us who are interested in families in that time and place are fortunate to have the Hale Collection of gravestone inscriptions which was gathered throughout the state in the 1930s. A prime example is the Old Cove Burying Ground in East Haddam, Middlesex County.--jaques1724 05:40, 20 November 2014 (UTC)