Don't Do What I Did When Visiting A Parish Church and Graveyard

I could kick myself! I thought I had it all covered. I was doing so well in checking off my list of things I wanted to research, take pictures of, visit relatives, get together with friends, etc. while we were visiting Lincolnshire, England. 

Well, I got my two days of research in the Lincolnshire Archives and  "checked off" getting the maiden name of my seventh great grandmother Syllina Birkett - check! That was the best check off. Next I spent majority of two-days time reading and ordering about 20 Wills of various Lincolnshire Portas Testators from the late 1500s to mid-1800s. That was fun - check! I've since transcribed about four...the older they are, the harder to decipher. 

One of the boxes I wanted to check off was a visit to the North Cotes parish church where my 4x great grandparents William Portas and Elizabeth (Knight). I've been there before, but I thought it would be nice to take some pictures of cousin Alan and I next to the headstones of our 4x great grandparents. I also wanted better pictures of those headstones to put on Find A Grave. 

Bob and I were with 4th cousin Alan and his wife Ellen. The four of us had just left our 7th cousin Margaret's and we were heading for supper at the Splash which is a lovely restaurant in Little Cawthorpe. To get to the restaurant, you have to drive through a creek running over the road. Good thing it wasn't a heavy rain that day.

On our way from Margaret's to the Splash, we stopped at North Cotes parish church. Camera in tow, I was determined to check off another box on my list.

I took a picture of the church sign for St. Nicholas in North Cotes.

I took a picture of the church...

I took a picture of a black cat in the graveyard... scary

I took a picture of veterans' graves which included a couple German soldiers' headstones...

I took a picture of graveyard flowers...cute little things

All these are fine. Okay. I get that. The four of us got into the car and headed for the Splash, where we enjoyed a lovely supper and conversation. We really enjoyed being with Alan and Ellen and for this trip being the first time we met, we hit it off as if we had known each other since we were kids. We weren't at a loss for words.

The next day was our last day in Lincolnshire. We did a little sightseeing after going to the Lincolnshire Family History Society research center. Then went to say goodbye to Alan and Ellen and take pictures of their gardens.

Lovely, both an ornamental and an edible garden.

The next day we headed for Manchester airport and checked into the hotel next to the terminals. The flight home was good. Weather was good even when we got home.

The day after we got home, I downloaded and looked at my pictures again separating out all my Lincolnshire images from the Germany and Italy ones. As I went through and labeled them...I got to the North Cotes few -- you got it! There were NO pictures of William and Elizabeth's headstones, there were NO pictures of Alan and me with those headstones! I totally forgot to do what was the main reason for stopping at the church in the first place!

Don't do what I did. I didn't even remember to look at the checklist I had on my iPhone! DAH! It took me looking at the images when I got home in the USA to realize my mistake. Should I blame the black cat in the graveyard?

Oh well, whatever, I guess I'll just have to go back!