GOOD MORNING, SUN SPOTS! In response to the tombstone found in an Auburn home (Dec. 5 column), there are two possibilities.

One is that the name of the deceased was later added to a family monument and the individual stone removed from the family burial plot.

Sometimes vandals remove a stone and keep it as a trophy. It will take some effort, but anyone with a list of local cemeteries and transcriptions may be able to help. It would be a lot easier if one knew the stone came from Auburn. It could have come from surrounding towns.

The Maine Old Cemetery Association has tried to inscribe every stone in every cemetery in the state and digitize them, but is it a big job and we can always use help. Roland Jordan ([email protected]) is a busy man. He does the bulk of the work digitizing and he may be able to help.

I did check the only cemetery I have listings for, Riverside in Lewiston. There are many Perkins there, but none that would seem to fit.

It is always satisfying to return a stone to its proper place memorializing the life of someone who was loved. My great-granddaughter did that for a stone taken from a local cemetery on Halloween, which had remained in the school basement for many years. It was a neat experience. — Marilyn Burgess, vandalism coordinator, MOCA, [email protected]

ANSWER: Many readers responded to this query — too many for one column. Sun Spots is amazed and grateful at all those who took the trouble to track down the missing information.

DEAR SUN SPOTS: I have checked on Ancestry.com, and the tombstone found belongs to the Samuel J. M. Perkins and Emily Beals Packard Perkins family out of Minot. The child was born Sept. 5, 1869, in Minot and died June 20, 1871, in Minot. I assume buried in a gravesite there. I do believe that the grave could be found by contacting someone in Town Office. — Robert Allen, Turner

DEAR SUN SPOTS: I think I found the family plot for the George F. Perkins, the infant whose tombstone Laura found at her new home in Auburn.

According to www.findagrave.com, there’s a Perkins family plot in Center Hill Cemetery in Minot. The father, Samuel J. M. Perkins, died Feb. 9, 1902, aged 73; his wife, Emily, died Jan. 4, 1917, aged 80. It looks like George was their only son. He died in 1871.

The grave can be viewed here: http://tinyurl.com/k68pfy9.

I’d guess your reader found an earlier marker that was later replaced with the family marker on the passing of George’s parents.

As to where it could be returned to, I’m not sure. — James Myall, coordinator, Franco-American Collection, [email protected]

ANSWER: How sad to lose your child and then face the additional loss of having him be your only one. 

DEAR SUN SPOTS: If you click on http://tinyurl.com/k68pfy9, it will take you to the Find A Grave memorial page for George F. Perkins. As you can see, he is buried with his parents, Samuel J.M. Perkins and Emily Packard Perkins.

Since his gravestone was found in another house, I would assume that he was buried originally in another plot and moved to this plot to be buried after his parents died. They probably just discarded the old tombstone.

It seemed to be common practice if a body was moved to another cemetery or plot, then the original stone would be placed on the new grave. However, since he was buried in the same plot as his parents he was included on the new stone.

It was also common practice for some larger cemeteries to remove very old gravesites to make room for new graves. In these cases, the older bones were moved to family graves (if possible) or to common graves. The stones sometimes were just discarded. I have read of a large cemetery that had a stack of old gravestones piled up behind an old building.

I hope this solves the mystery. — Marsha Mitchell, Farmington, [email protected]

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