Rubbings on Faded Tombstones
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In reply to:
Re: Photographing Faded Tombstones
Jessie Hamill Fondy 6/07/00
Hello fellow family researchers,
just surfing around & caught some of your postings here & had to send you a NEW tip
I've found that works great..
You can buy a roll of paper from the tombstone companies..it is blue like the kind they make blueprints on sort of..
The monument company will use it to make drawings on or rubbings with when they need to add a name or date or etc to a stone & need to know just where the new writing or drawing is to be placed.
A roll of it will do lots of stones so if you want to order some get some friends together to purchase a roll of it.
Our local little genealogy society in Caddo County purchased a roll of it from a monument company & I bought the surplus from them.
I sent off some of it to one of my distant Ralston cousins in PA & he went to the old cemetery in WV where my GG & GGG & GGGG & GGGGG grandparents are buried & did some rubbings for me...HOW EXCITED We were when it helped bring up the date of our early Joseph Ralston who died in 1843 at AGE 78 so now we know how old he was & a date of birth to work with for him..YEA!!!! We have his will that listed 16 kids, whew..
Before I found this paper I used some newsprint paper you can get from a Newspaper company (they usually have small bits left from the end of the rolls they use) & some will sell it for small price. WE used a black crayon to do the rubbings & taped the paper to the stone. You have to be careful cause this kind of paper will tear easy.
BUT THE BLUE PAPER FROM THE MONUMENT COMPANY IS THE GREATEST....works like a charm..
Happy RUBBINGS &
Many Happy TRAILS on your researching,
Kim Ralston Dresser
editor of the Western Plainsman
Custer Co OKLA