St Patrick's Cemetery - Ship Cove

Just down the road from Ship Cove, is St Patrick's Cemetery.  I had never been to this cemetery before, but I had done some research through the Newfoundland Grand Banks Genealogy Site. So I knew,  I would find my grandmother's family,  Tobin, Follett and Coffey relatives buried here.  Also, I had this photo of Great Grand Dad Tobin standing by his wife's headstone, Mary Bridget Follett.

My time on "The Cape Shore" was limited, needing to get back to St John's by early afternoon and the weather was not very cooperative this day. ( I will tell you about Newfoundland weather a little later!) Today, it was raining and the wind was fiercely blowing, I thought having had lived in Chicago which is considered to be "The Windy City" would of helped prepare me for the wind in Newfoundland. But the wind in Newfoundland is much more intense than in Chicago! Being so close to the shore and being on an island in the Atlantic Ocean makes the wind much more prominent, I guess.

Aunt Doris found it hard to believe that I was stopping and actually getting out to take a look around the cemetery, she decided to stay in the truck and make a list of things she needed to do instead. I quickly made a plan, starting in the front on one side, heading toward the back and then coming back up the other side. I found a few familiar headstones, but not nearly the all the ones I wanted to. Dripping wet from head to toe, I headed back to the truck, disappointed I had not found my Great Grandparents, The Tobins, The image of Great Grand Dad standing by his wife's headstone flashed in my head. Remembering the shape of her headstone,  I turned and took one more look back at the cemetery, and there it was, over to the left of center!  I went back and I was right, Mary Bridget Follett and next to her, was her husband John W. Tobin, my Great Grandparents!

St Patrick's Cemetery, Ship Cove, Newfoundland - May 2013

Looking over the photos I took at the cemetery, I realized there were not any of older generations, John William Tobin was the third generation of the Tobins to live in Ship Cove.  John and Alice Skerry (the first settlers), Patrick Tobin and Alice Skerry Tobin, and Patrick Tobin and Alice O'Rielly.  I realize they may of had wooden cross marking their graves that at deteriorated over the years.  But I wonder, if possibly there is an older cemetery I may of over looked.

John W. Tobin
1874-1960

Mary Bridget Follett Tobin
1874-1948

A Headstone of a "Patrick Tobin" that had sunk into the ground
making it difficult to read.

As I was walking back to the truck, I thought, I am probably related to most of the people buried in St Patrick's Cemetery in one way or another, but that will need to be figured out the next time I return to "The Cape Shore"!

                                                              Elaine