Burrillville, Rhode Island

In the Arms of Angels:  His epitaph reads: "In the Arms of the Angels." These are the words that were left by his survivors over (epi) his tomb (taphos). Enjoy the angelic hug Michael: Enjoy it as an introduction to the posts for the rest of this week. St. Patrick's Cemetery. [2019]

Woonsocket, Rhode Island

Defined by Our Duds:  The doughboys were the GIs of World War I. (No, not that kind of doughboy.) As soldiers, they were decked out in military duds appropriate for the age. Here's one in action. He seems to have died in his thirties, shortly after he served on the battlefield. He may have been born in Quebec or shortly after his parents arrived to work in the mills of Woonsocket. Immigrants they were, and proud to send their precious blood into battle to fight for the freedoms they loved in the country they came to call home. Precious Blood Cemetery. [2019]

Middletown, Rhode Island

Free-Range Figurines:  Finally, after almost a month, we have some real figurines. But, all of them seem perfectly content to stay exactly where they are: in a wagon that will never be animated by the boy who had his whole life ahead of him. Masonic Lodge Cemetery. [2008]

Burrillville, Rhode Island

Headstone Sculptures:  Granite slabs are easily transformed into books. In fact, the Book-of-Life idea is fairly widespread across the country.  Unfortunately, granite books can't be opened, but St. Peter will have read every word when you show up at heaven's gate. St. Patrick's Cemetery. [2019]

Woonsocket, Rhode Island

Headstone Sculptures:  Mourning angels have been denizens of cemetery environments for as long as there have been headstones, from the colonial era to the present. Fine sculpture like this is reflective of the wealth that poured into New England during the era of water-powered textile mills. Today, the mills are gone, but the angels look as timeless as ever. Precious Blood Cemetery. [2019]

Newport, Rhode Island

Adjacencies ~ Storefronts:  What is adjacent to the cemetery? In the older parts of towns all across America, historical cemeteries are bordered by rows of storefronts. Land use changes, but sacred ground remains sacred ground: never erased. These are the cemeteries, frozen in time, that date the neighborhoods which embrace them. Burial Ground. [2008]

North Kingstown, Rhode Island

One of Many ~ The Boulet Clan:  A name with obvious French origins should map onto the Francophone settlement pattern of the United States, and it does. On a choropleth map generated from the 1920 Census, Boulet families are most numerous in Louisiana and on the border with Canada. Sources are unclear about the meaning of Boulet, but someone who speaks French thinks immediately of a ball. Portrayed on the headstone is not the shore of Normandy (likely the origin of the first Boulets to North America), but the shore of the Narragansett Bay. Quidnessett Cemetery. [2009]

Ancestry.com
http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/