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Find out about the
society's work

by Melissa
Hills

Families looking to trace their
Gravesham ancestors are being given access to gravestone notes made
more than 100 years ago.

Volunteers from the Kent
Archaelogical Society (KAS) have spent the last eight years
meticulously transcibing original notebooks which contain
information recorded from Kent’s gravestones.

The handwritten works contain
details of memorial inscriptions from gravestones in cemetries
across the county, with those from Gravesham the latest to be
uploaded to the organisation’s website for all to see.

The logs, originally compiled by
two men who took on the job as a hobby between 1892 and the 1920s,
provide genealogical information from gravestones, which may have
since become illegible or removed altogether.

Visitors to the KAS website are now
able to read the gravestone inscriptions for individuals and whole
families dating back more than 150 years. And surfers can search by
family surnames, particular locations, known churches or Kent
villages.

Information relating to
neighbouring Dartford’s gravestones was added to the website in
2001.

Now more than 900 inscriptions from
gravestones in St Botolph’s Church, Northfleet and St George’s
Church, Gravesend have been transcribed from Colyer- Fergusson’s
notebooks and placed online.

The information from Gravesend was
added in February while Northfleet was the last to be completed in
May this year.

There are also entries for other
Gravesham villages including Chalk, Meopham and Luddesdown.

Amongst the notebooks, were
original photographs, including two which depict an unsucessful
search in 1923 for the remains of Princess Pocahontas.

Legend has it that the Native
American Princess was buried in the grounds of St George’s Church,
Gravesend after falling ill on a boat travelling down the River
Thames.

Following a visit to England,
Princess Pocahontas together with husband John Rolfe boarded a ship
in London in 1617.

But whilst on board the princess
developed smallpox and she is understood to have been taken ashore
in the borough where she died.

It is a popular belief that her
remains were buried at St George’s Church, in Gravesend’s town
centre.

The photographs, uncovered with the
notebook of Colyer-Fergusson, show an unsuccessful attempt to find
her remains which to this day have never been found.

KAS volunteer Ted Connell, of Manor
Forstall, said, "I have been a member of archaeological societies
since the 1960s and by putting the notebooks on the Internet it
gives people the chance the try and discover their ancestors. Young
people can just google us and we are the first site that comes
up."

Mr Connell, added: "I recieve
regular emails from people all over the world thanking us for our
website."

To view the names of the people on
the memorial inscriptions go to www.kentarchaeology.org.uk and
click on ‘research’.

If you would like more information
or help in finding your Gravesend ancestors please contact Ted
Connell on 01474 872 763 or email ted.connell@btinternet.com