Colma, California - City of the Dead

Colma: The Musical

Amazon Price: $17.99 (as of 11/11/2009)

[By The Bookenator] I enjoyed this film. Anyone who grew up in an irrelevant place can relate to the characters. They know they live outside the main action happening elsewhere. The film explores the sense of stagnation people feel when they're ready to move on, and also tackles the darker emotional issues that drives one character away from the friends he grew up with.

Nevertheless, the film tries to capture what beauty there is in this overlooked suburb. The shots of the cemetery, swirling fog and eucalyptus trees are lovely.

In the end, the case is made both for the friends who leave for better things, and for the perhaps even more courageous young woman who decides there's no place like home.

Colma (CA) (Images of America)

by: Michael Smookler

Amazon Price: $15.59 (as of 11/11/2009)

The official slogan of this quaint and curious town proclaims, "It's great to be alive in Colma!" In no other city in the United States would such a slogan have the meaning that it does here. Colma, only 2.25 square miles, has 1,500 living residents but more than a thousand times that in its deceased population. Seventeen cemeteries cover 75 percent of Colma's land. There is, however, more to Colma-formerly named Lawndale-than its cemeteries and monuments. A vibrant community, it boasts a rich history, including agricultural and business history, sports teams, schools, a theatre, and drayage businesses. Together, these components comprise a unique and important town and a critical part of San Mateo County's heritage.

About the Author
Michael Smookler, a docent at the Colma History Museum and author of San Mateo County Coast, shows here in vintage images how a farming community founded by gold prospectors in the 1850s gradually became a necropolis as the dead were Â"evictedÂ" from San Francisco cemeteries at the turn of the 20th century. Working with the extensive photograph collections of the museum, along with those of longtime area families, Smookler depicts ColmaÂ's surprising evolution over time.

The American Resting Place: 400 Years of History Through Our Cemeteries and Burial Grounds

by: Marilyn Yalom

Amazon Price: $19.80 (as of 11/11/2009)

To rescue the dead from oblivion, examine America's ethnic diversity and highlight shifts in cemetery mores over time, cultural historian Yalom (A History of the Breast) and her photographer son (Colonial Noir) traveled to more than 250 American cemeteries across the country. From the ancient Native American Etowah mounds in northern Georgia (abandoned around 1550, when the tribes were presumably destroyed by European diseases) to Rhode Island's Touro Jewish Cemetery, established in 1677 (it inspired a moving poem by Longfellow), Yalom examines the ways gender, class and culture affected how people were buried. New Orleans's cemeteries, for instance, show discrepancies between white and black residents: whites were buried in aboveground tombs, blacks in soggy earth that sometimes forced remains back up to the surface. Chicago's Waldheim holds Gypsies and anarchist Emma Goldman, while the moneyed aristocrats Marshall Field and Cyrus McCormick ended up in Graceland Cemetery. While rich, interesting nuggets abound, the mount of time and territory covered results in some shallow analysis. 80 b&w photos. (May 15)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Stories in Stone: The Complete Guide to Cemetery Symbolism

Amazon Price: $16.49 (as of 11/11/2009)

Stories in Stone The Complete Illustrated Guide to Cemetery Symbolism The language of symbols is one that has been with us from the beginning of recorded history. Our everyday life is full of symbols. We see many of them when we are driving: arrows point us in the right direction, upside-down pyramids tell us of slow-moving vehicles, and octagons caution us to stop. There are multitudes of business symbols we encounter everyday: a stylized pair of golden arches indicates there's a McDonald's restaurant located nearby; a checkmark called a "swoosh" subtly informs that its owner is wearing a Nike product; a polychrome apple with a bite taken out of it whimsically announces that its product is an Apple computer; a storefront displaying a symbol of three balls shows that its business is a pawn shop. The meaning of most symbols has remained fairly consistent through the centuries: crosses for Christians, six-pointed stars for Jews, the yin-yang symbol for Buddhists-and hearts speak of love, lambs of innocence, and circles of completeness and immortality. But, nowhere is the language of symbols more apparent than in cemeteries. Dead men may tell no tales, but their tombstones do. Besides informing us of people's names and dates of birth and death, tombstones often tell us what religion they affilated with, what ethnicity they descended from, what clubs and organizations they belonged to, what occupations they worked in, and what thoughts they held on the afterlife. Journey with us now into the little-known world of cemeteries. The author provides fascinating information and stunning full-color and black-and-white images of funerary architecture designed for eternal life, from mausoleums, chapels, and offices, to tombs, sculptures, and memorials. He then draws us into the very personal area of stone relics designed especially for the deceased, from likenesses of plants, animals, mankind, and mortality, to icons of religion, societies, clubs, and final impressions of how the occupant wanted to be remembered.

Your Guide to Cemetery Research

by: Sharon Debartolo Carmack

Amazon Price: (as of 11/11/2009)

Slogging through graveyards armed with a camera and notepad may sound morbid, but it is high adventure to most genealogists. Indeed, according to Carmack (Organizing Your Family History Search), cemetery research provides valuable information about the dearly departed, and it can actually become a family tradition. Carmack begins her demystification of the process with a discussion of the various records created at the time of death (death certificates, funeral home records, and more) and the task of locating an ancestor's grave or cemetery. Once a burial site is established, a visit to the cemetery is in order. Carmack details the different kinds of cemeteries, grave decorations, and veterans' markers and explains the benefits of analyzing a cemetery's "community." A very helpful chapter on capturing a tombstone's information follows. Carmack covers American burial customs and the value (and pitfalls) of cemetery transcription and preservation projects. Finally, she offers ways to make cemetery visits a family affair. Examples of the artwork, epitaphs, and poetry found on tombstones are provided, as are an appendix of symbols and their meanings, a historical time line of America's epidemics and disasters, and a medical glossary. Genealogists and local historians of all stripes will find this book invaluable. Highly recommended for public and genealogy libraries. Elaine M. Kuhn, Allen Cty. P.L., Ft. Wayne,
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Rest in Peace: A History of American Cemeteries (People's History)

by: Meg Greene

Amazon Price: $21.78 (as of 11/11/2009)

From unsanitary pits to today's "green" cemeteries, Rest in Peace explores the evolution of burial practices and how they reflect the history and culture of the United States. Interspersed with primary source quotations and fascinating photographs, the book offers an unusual window in to the expression of American cultural identity across the ages.

Where the Bodies Are: Final Visits to the Rich, Famous, & Interesting

by: Patricia Brooks

Amazon Price: (as of 11/11/2009)

Lives well-led are commemorated by gravesites, memories, and books like this. Where the Bodies Are takes the reader on a tour of the final addresses of the rich, famous, and interesting, revisiting their claims to fame with evocative, succinct biographies.

Cemeteries and Gravemarkers: Voices of American Culture

Amazon Price: $22.45 (as of 11/11/2009)

[Cemeteries and Gravemarkers] makes it clear that the dead have by no means exhausted their potential to enlighten--and, at times, chasten--the living. In fact, the singular strength of [this book] is the opportunity it has provided for new voices to be heard -- Omega: Journal of Death and Dying, 1990

Product Description
Meyer examines burial grounds through the centuries and across the United States to give a different view of the history and cultural values of America.