Daily AncestorShoes
A pair of shoes on a gravestone usually marks the death of a very young child, often under one year old.
Small empty shoes say that the child never grew into them. A researcher writing for the New England Historic Genealogical Society notes that most stones with carved shoes are for children who died before their first birthday.
Shoes also sit on carved empty chairs, a sign the child would not reach adulthood. Because so many infants died between censuses, the stone may be the only record of the child; look for a church baptism or burial entry too.
As seen in a recordTown or church cemetery, 1870 to 1950
Pair of baby shoes carved on a small tablet: Infant son of Carl and Hilda Swenberg, 1912
Sources
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Shoes." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/gravestone-symbols/shoes. Last checked 2026-10-15.