The (catholic) village of Volendam has a quite abundant cemetery, situated on the rather small church grounds. The graves are kept for 13 years and they are cleared after that to make space for new burials. Almost all graves carry a picture of the deceased, and besides their names there is also a lot of additional text and information on the graves, giving them a personal touch. There are signs of extensive grave visits. There is a seperate plot for the 14 victims of the so called ‘new year’s fire’ in café ‘t Hemeltje of 01-01-01. There is a seperate plot for urn-burials (20 years). Children are buried on seperate plots also and these graves are not cleared. Also on old children’s grave there are fresh flowers.
Interesting is the striking contrast with the sober (Protestant) cemetery of neighbouring Marken.
I love the pictures of this cemetery – I visited very quickly last October. The write-up was great to learn additional information. Problem for me – what is the name of the cemetery/church. I’m categorizing my pictures and don’t have any information on the cemetery/church. This is your November 2015 field notes.
Thank you for any information you can provide.
The name of the church is St. Vincentiuskerk, people refer to the cemetery simply as kerkhof [Churchyard] Volendam. Did you also visit the cemetery of Marken?
No, we were on a bus tour and had limited time. I just jumped up into the churchyard when I noticed the cemetery. I’ve being doing our genealogy for a few years now, and we have become interested in cemetery even if our ancestors aren’t there. When I get some more positive information on burial ground in Europe we will start visiting them. Thanks for the info. We live in Las Vegas, NV