edward and kate

Early yesterday morning, I went to visit Edward and Kate Alkin's grave at the Lower Circular Road Cemetery, via the phulwallah at Lake Market.

The headstone has been cleaned, the lettering regrooved but without the need for reinterpretation. The back of the stone is polished to a mirror finish and some of the small plants are beginning to flower.

And although I know where his bones are now, I hope to find some more traces of his life still.

the armenians

These are the graves of Sarah Owen and Mack Owen, my Armenian great-grandmother and great uncle, at the Lower Circular Road Cemetery. My great-grandfather Joseph Martyrose Owen is buried in the grounds of the Holy Nazareth Church in Armenian Street. Its undergoing renovations right now so I doubt I can get in there.

Armenians are not ones for fancy stuff, it's all just plain and simple. I had the headstones cleaned and the letters re-done. One thing I didn't consider is that the person who repaired the letters on these headstones doesn't read English. There are a few interesting re-writes that I'll have to sort out when I come back ... like 'Faithful Hato Death'. Or maybe they can stay, hato is growing on me.

edward and kate alkin

On Wednesday, I went to the Lower Circular Road Cemetery in search of the Alkins grave ... my great great grand- parents. It was surprisingly easy as the records held in their office go back to the early 1800's.

So there they were, together under a very precariously balanced headstone.

The inscriptions are legible and it is true that Edward died in the vicinity of the Sunderbans, at a place called Madaripore on 18th December 1895. He was fifty-three years old. Although Madaripore is to the north and east of the Sunderbans (now in Bangladesh), it is still connected to the delta and waterways of the area. So did he die in the Sunderbans or in Madaripore. Maybe he was taken there and pronounced dead.

This small detail, the date Edward died, has opened up further avenues to explore. There are a number of archives in Kolkata and as I'm here for five weeks, it might just be possible to uncover some more of this story. I'm intrigued.