Souls Abroad Tonight

Photo by Linda Xu on Unsplash

There was the Celtic feast of Samhain on October 31st. Then it was superceded by the Christian celebration of  'All Saints Day' on November 1st  and 'All Souls Day' on November 2nd. Now we have the secular festivities of Halloween, taken from Ireland to the United States and now back here, again on October 31st. Each of these have been in celebration of the dead, as they have been honoured in various ways for centuries; millenia even.

I have death and burial dates for many of my and my siblings' ancestors. When you have visitors round 'trick-or-treating', or even when you go out 'trick-or-treating' yourself, you may like to think of all these ancestors of yours. You will carry their DNA as well as the DNA of all those other ancestors whose dates, and even names, we do not know.

Reinhold Yarker de Laybourne, dd 1490
Anna (--?--), bd 14 Apr 1541
Thomas Yarker, bd 28 Apr 1549
Margaret (--?--), bd 6 Aug 1551
William Yarker de Laybourne, bd 5 Feb 1577
Michael Yarker, bd 14 May 1654
Jane Gregory (--?--), bd 28 Jan 1680
Agnes Nicolson, bd 29 Jan 1712
Stephen Osmond, dd 7 Jul 1713, bd 10 Oct 1713
Elizabeth Geater, dd 22 Sep 1717, bd 25 Sep 1717
Janet Wharton, bd 27 Dec 1727
George Richardson, dd 1732
John Eastland, dd 1733
Robert Fallowfield, dd 2 Feb 1750
William Piercy, bd  27 Mar 1750
John Yarker, bd 8 Oct 1753
Thomas Bishopp, dd 1754
Isabella (--?--), bd 27 Jan 1775
Matthew Wingrave, dd 16 Feb 1775
Elizabeth Rawlins, bd 2 Dec 1776
John Osmond, bd 13 Oct 1778
Mary (--?--), bd 16 Sep 1780
Edward Richardson, dd 3 Feb 1781
Susanna Crow, dd 6 Apr 1798, bd 14 Apr 1798
Robert Yarker, dd 1 Mar 1799, bd 4 Mar 1799
William Piercy, dd 4 Aug 1799, bd 7 Aug 1799
Thomas Cole, bd 15 Mar 1800
Ann Cripps, dd 2 Jan 1801
Sarah Harris, dd 3 Mar 1801, bd 6 Mar 1801
Sarah Brett, dd 30 Sep 1801, bd 2 Oct 1801
Edward Eastland, dd 2 Oct 1802
George Ellidge, bd 1806
John Osmond, bd 15 Apr 1808
Elizabeth Green, dd 17 Sep 1808
John Richardson, dd 2 Jul 1809, bd 5 Jul 1809
Stephen Bishopp, dd 23 Jan 1814, bd 31 Jan 1814
John Osmond, dd 1820
Sarah Jackson, bd 28 Apr 1825
Henry Yarker, dd 3 Mar 1826
Rev Richard Ellidge, dd 26 Oct 1832
Susannah Hill, dd 11 Feb 1833, bd 17 Feb 1833
Ann (--?--), bd 19 May 1833
John Bishopp, dd 24 Aug 1835, bd 29 Aug 1835
Sarah Kennett, bd 6 Feb 1837
Henry Hooper, bd 23 May 1839
Elizabeth Rawlings, dd 22 Nov 1841, bd 27 Nov 1841
Blythe Anthony, dd 1842
John Ware, dd 27 Sep 1845
Mary Goddard, dd 1849
Richard Piercy, bd 31 Aug 1851
Francis Dalton, dd 25 Dec 1853, bd 28 Dec 1853
Thomas Wingrave, dd c 1857
Edward Richardson, dd 2 Dec 1857
Benjamin Cole, dd 1860
Susanna(h) Plumtree, dd 1863
Margaret Mills, dd 26 May 1864, bd 26 Jun 1864
Ann (--?--), dd 1868
Sarah Yarker, dd 14 Jun 1868
Ann Pullin, dd 16 Jan 1869
Henry Yarker Richardson, dd 6 Dec 1870, bd 31 Dec 1870
Elizabeth Clements, dd 1871
Emma Oakes Ellidge, dd Jan 1871
Mary Poore, dd 1876
Richard Osmond, dd 22 Mar 1878  
Blyth(e) Cole, dd  4 Feb 1883
John Richard Bishopp, dd 16 Jan 1888
Edmund Osmond, dd 8 May 1889
Elizabeth Sarah Anne Ware, dd 6 Jul 1893
Sarah Hooper, dd 23 Mar 1896
Jeremiah Piercy, dd 14 Aug 1896
George Bishopp, dd 26 May 1903
Harriet Wingrave, dd 1904
Henry Ellidge Richardson, dd 20 Nov 1918, bd 27 Nov 1918
William Piercy, dd 30 Aug 1920
Matilda Jane Dalton, dd 13 Sep 1926
Thomas Hooper Osmond, dd 22 Mar 1929
Alice Maude Hunt, dd b 9 Jan 1935, bd  9 Jan 1935
Frank Piercy, dd 23 Apr 1952
Jessie Marian Bishopp, dd 20 Mar 1954
Alice Wingrave Richardson, dd 11 Jun 1966
Olive Elizabeth Osmond, dd 6 Mar 1974, bd 12 Mar 1974
Henry Graham Piercy, dd 11 Jun 1996

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The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living. 

Marcus Tullius Cicero

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