As we were traveling through mid-America, I was navigating through an unfamiliar city. While looking at my map on my phone I noticed a star. Several months or maybe even a year or two before, while doing some family history research, I had placed the star there. We were noting family history sites on the map including cemeteries. As I was navigating, the star that I saw was one of those cemeteries. The driver, my wife, asked if I wanted to go there. So, we quickly whipped off the freeway.
We followed the route to the cemetery, but as we made the last turn it looked like we were entering a private drive. There was a big stone with a family name on it. But I thought maybe it was the name of the neighborhood, so I suggested we keep going. We started to go on but my wife decided we shouldn’t. As she was turning around, I noticed on the Google Map listing that there was a brief explanation of the site. The cemetery was on private land, but the homeowner had described the cemetery and offered to allow people to come see it. They put their phone number right in the listing in Google Maps! So as we were pulling out I phoned the number. I left a message. We decided to stay close by for a few minutes just in case my call was returned. Sure enough the homeowner returned my call. She said she would be home within a few minutes, she would meet us, and we were very welcome to spend time in the cemetery.
When we were there it is was fairly overgrown. The homeowner said they usually keep it well, but there had been a lot of rain and the family had been unusually busy. Still we could see several head stones and discern a few of the names.
A record had been kept of the people who were in the cemetery. It was compiled, saved, carved into a stone which was fixed into the ground. All the names and the years of birth and death for each were on the stone. We were told that a local boy scout troop did all the work and funded the carving of the stone.
The cemetery was established in 1850. It contains head stones with several surnames, though most are from the same few families. We spent some time there reading the stones and taking photos. We compared the names and dates to those in our family tree. It was such a great experience. We are so glad we had researched and were prepared so that when the opportunity was presented we had the star on our map. We are so glad and grateful to the family for providing access and tending to the final resting place of so many of our family members. And, we are amazed and grateful that the family communicated to us via Google Maps that we were welcome to visit.
What about you?
Genealogists and family history researchers often spend time in cemeteries. What cemetery stories do you have? Share with us
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