Tales of A Mad Genealogist: When I Couldn't Find A Non-Military Flag Holder, I Got Creative

For the past month, I had been wanting to visit the graves of several ancestors. I had bought several Swedish flags that I wanted to place at the graves of my Swedish ancestors to honor both them and their Swedish heritage. In the time leading up to the visit, I had been trying to find non-military flag holders to put the flags in. After much searching, I was unable to find anything and thus decided to become creative.

I decided to look around and see what I could find that could be used as a flag holder. I wanted something that I could use without it looking tacky at the grave or being too expensive.

Soon after beginning my search, I found what I was looking for at Home Depot in the form of a 3/8 in. O.D. x 20 in. Chrome Plated Copper Tube Toilet Supply Line. It was only $3.98. Having brought the flags with me, I put one inside of it and it was an almost perfect fit. The design of the tube went well with the flag and I felt that they would look good beside the headstones I had in mind for them. I went ahead and got three.

3/8 in. O.D. x 20 in. Chrome Plated Copper Tube Toilet Supply Line

As previously mentioned, the hole was almost a perfect fit but still a bit too big. The flag went into the hole a bit more than I preferred. To solve this problem, I bought three washers, the smallest ones they had available. The hole of the washer was smaller than the hole of the tube. I put the washer on top of the tube, above the hole. I then inserted the flag through the washer and into the tube. The washer's smaller hole made it so the flag did not go in as deep as it previously did, thus solving my problem.

A few days later, on July 3, I went to the cemeteries with the tubes and washers in hand. Like before, I placed the flags through the washer holes and down the tubes. Once pushed into the ground, I stepped back to view them and was very pleased with how they looked.

One thing that should be noted about these tubes is that they are bendable, given the purpose that they were originally created for, and that one might bend it slightly without trying or realizing it (I did so while washing one). However, the tubes can easily be re-adjusted if and when this happens and are still durable, reliable and dependable when put into the ground.

Below are several shots I took showing the final results. I didn't take any close-up shots of the flags/tubes themselves (it didn't occur to me to do until after I had already left). As I said, I quite liked how they looked and, if needed, will be using these again in the future.