Country diary: Looking under lichen for a stranger's name | Derek Niemann

Beckington, Somerset: We're digging up the past in a rural churchyard, connecting people to their long-lost family membersA "ten-pound pom" left Glasgow for Australia after the war and never saw her family again. My gran's little sister occupied an empty space for me until last year, when a couple of enterprising women posted a photograph online that they had taken of a tombstone in a Tasmanian cemetery. It would bring me in touch with a second cousin I never knew existed.We came with camera to an English churchyard intending to reciprocate across the continents for the Australians, Canadians, Americans and others who request a picture of their own ancestors' final resting place through Findagrave.com. Success feels like giving a kind of life beyond death, especially when an inscription with character warms the heart. But we had learned from experience not to be too hopeful. Continue reading...