All my grandparents were cremated, my parents are still alive. I don’t know where anyone else is buried, but if I did, I’d probably visit once just to see.
Yes, when I’m in town. One set of grandparents in Richmond, Il, parents, grandparents and one set of great-grandparents in Techny, one set of great-grandparents in Wilmette out where their graves can be seen, and from what I understand, some great-grandparents and other relatives under the parking lot in Wilmette when the church decided to pave. Other assorted relatives are in various cemeteries in Chicago, but I haven’t been there.
Nope. My parents were both cremated and the closest I could come to visiting their “grave” would be to take a swim in the closest beach to where my sister & I scattered their ashes in the ocean.
I don’t even know where my grandparents’ graves are.
Personally I do not understand going to a grave site and talking to the deceased. It just isn’t part of my culture. Well, I understand on an intellectual level that people feel comfort from it, but I don’t share the feeling.
I go with my father to visit the little plot by the church where my mum’s ashes are buried. On the anniversary of her death he puts flowers at the spot where she fell and then takes them there.
I volunteer at a local historic cemetery and we get frequent visitors to the graves. A lot of them are doing genaeological research and are interested in the inscriptions. The trust in charge of the cemetery does as much clearing and tidying of the graves as possible, some are inaccessible due to safety considerations. Last year I was touched to notice that an unknown person had planted bright gold crocuses by the memorial to a chap who died at the Somme.
I visit many of my family graves from time to time. I am the family genealogist so I try and find them and know where a lot of my extended family members are buried. I can go back 6-7+ generations. I should make it a tradition to put flowers on their graves, but as of yet I haven’t done it regularly.
So rarely as to fundamentally be “never”.
My paternal grandfather (who died when I was 5) is buried in a Catholic cemetery, no more than 3 miles from my parents’ house. Despite the fact that I go to see my parents every few months, I think the last time I visited my grandfather’s grave was around 1990 (and that visit was only because a number of my cousins were in town, and it was their idea).
My paternal grandmother died when I was 26. She’s buried about an hour north of where my parents live. I haven’t been there since the burial ceremony, though she’s buried in the same family plot as her parents and siblings (none of whom I ever met).
Both of my maternal grandparents were cremated, and I have no idea where their ashes ended up.
A few times, but I’ve never gone out of my way. Either I’ll be at that cemetery by coincidence or another family member will ask me to go.
If I want to be reminded of an ancestor’s life, the family keeps enough pictures, papers and things that I can go through. Visiting the cemetery simply reminds me of how they died and the day of their funeral.
My parents are buried in the same cemetery as two sets of 3xg grandparents and one set of 2xg grandparents, and it’s about 1.5 miles from where I live, so I stop in from time to time. I’ve got a plot waiting for me and the Mrs. in the same cemetery.
But I too am a genealogist, so have visited lots of other gravesites all over the county, region, nation, and a few places in Europe to check out the last resting places of ancestors.
In the case of Mom and Pop, the reasons are far more sentimental than genealogical, however.
I went to see my grandmother and grandfather’s urns last year, but it was partly that their ashes happen to be in a museum. I haven’t a clue about what happened to the remains of my other grandparents or those further back.
Have you put them on the website I linked to? I highly recommend you do so, as it’s a valuable database.
No.
I know roughly where my maternal grandparents and uncle are, but I haven’t been back there since my grandmother’s funeral.
I did visit the “family vault” where my grandfather and grandmother’s ashes were kept. It actually was a vault – one of those old-fashioned five-foot-high safes you see in old movies. When my grandfather died, he wanted to be cremated, but didn’t specify what to do with the ashes. My father put them in the safe in his store until someone decided. A little after that, my grandmother looked into the safe and found the ashes. She was shocked at first, but realized that my grandfather had spent his life in the store, and it was actually very appropriate. She asked to be kept with him.
My father died last December. As we prepared for the funeral, we discovered he had bought a plot in the town cemetery just last summer and never told anyone (it was odd, since, though he had been having health problems, they were not major and there was no clue that he might be going so soon). They decided to take the ashes from the safe and bury them with him. I was a bit disappointed, but it did make sense. But I haven’t had a chance to go back since the funeral.
I’ve visited grandparent’s graves only twice.
“The ones who love us best /
are the ones we’ll lay to rest /
and visit their graves on holidays at best.”
But of course. I just took a few volunteer photos this past weekend as well. The biggest problem that I have is that people begin to put graves in places they have no proof of. That and when I find graves and they don’t match they get upset. I’m not the one that put the dates on the stones, I merely report what I find on the stone.
Good on ya, mate.
Oh no you don’t! You’re not going to get away without explaining this post. (That is, if you feel like explaining it. It sounds like an interesting story.)
Family, friends – different people. Hope to get my plot in advance so I can get used to it beforehand.
when mom was alive, we did. most of the ancestral relatives are in the same cemetery in a little tiny burg over in central illinois (about 200 miles from where i sit typing this).
she is now buried there as well, and i admit to my shame i haven’t been back to visit since the funeral. that was seventeen years ago. 
Hey, that’s neat! I found my grandfather’s grave in Arlington National: COL Ralph Lamond Jr. (1915-2005) - Find a Grave Memorial
I was able to track down my great-grandfather’s anonymous numbered headstone in a cemetery in California by other methods. He was a Civil War veteran. It’s now posted on the Find A Grave website.
Sometimes. Both my parents are from Savannah, GA. Consequently, so are their parents. Whenever we’d visit for vacation, Christmas, etc…, my dad would get rakes and yard equipment and drag me & my sisters (or more often, just me) over to Bonaventure Cemetary to clean his family plot. He grew up on Bonaventure Road, about 1/2 a mile from the cemetary.
We’d trim, clean, rake, and remove the debris, plant new flowers and sit and reflect a while. It was always a chore, but the cemetary is quite beautiful any time of year, so it wasn’t all bad.
Later, as a teen, my friends and I would sneak in and camp down by the river and wander the grounds at night trying to scare each other. I had read that John Muir spent some time camping there long ago, and thought it seemed like an interesting idea.
My parents both died in 1999 and buried in Bonaventure, but I don’t visit often. We have a beach house in Ponte Vedra where we spend the summer each year, and we’d stop on the way to or from there. Well, we used to. I would get very emotional and my wife would get upset at me, and the kids would cry because daddy’s crying, so she refused to let me stop for several years. Hell, I’d start tearing up on the highway as we passed the signs for the Savannah exit, so it’s probably just as well.
There are six spaces left in the plot that are mine now, and it’s kind of comforting to know where your bones will rest for the forseeable future.
Since then, one of my sisters has moved back to Savannah, and we stopped to see her last year - at the cemetary. I was much better this time, thank you. Perhaps next year will be easier.