"Roundheads and Ramblings"

cemetery research

The Conch Solution

Posted on Friday, December 09, 2011 2:36 PM

We're still spending most of our time in the sun, but I've had time to do a little research. We drove back out to the Union Army cemetery today to document what I had observed. The first surprise was finding that someone had planted American flags for each soldier. The second was more disturbing. A huge limb of the live oak tree which sheltered many of the graves I had studied had fallen during Wednesday's high winds. Very sad and spooky-looking with the Spanish moss now draped over the tombstones. I've probably been reading too much Gullah folklore, but the limb almost looked like it had come down to protect the stones from further intrusion.

While I'm posting pictures, I want to include one of the hand-lettered stones so prevalent in this cemetery. This one is simply made of cement and lettered before it dried, probably with a pointed stick. It speaks powerfully of the need to remember the dead, even though there is no money for a proper stone.

But here's the real reason for this post -- an explanation of why some graves are decorated with conch shells.

In this image one shell lies on top of the concrete vault while another is on the ground next to the vault. In Gullah folklore there is a famous saying: "Da water brought we here; da water take we home." The first reference is to the slave trade that brought the Gullah ("'Gola") people to South Carolina from Angola. The second water reference reflects that death will take them home again. The conch shell is a strong symbol of water and therefore the shells that protect the grave are there to take the spirit of the dead home. (Remember when you were a kid? You held a conch shell to your ear and you could hear the ocean? It's the same symbolism.) I was moved to see these symbols on graves of people who died in the late 20th century. That ancestral longing is still powerful today.

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A Touch of Cemetery Humor

Posted on Thursday, August 25, 2011 10:14 AM

While I recover from a slight case of food poisoning, (Never order a sandwich with sprouts in an unfamiliar restaurant!), I thought you might enjoy this little collection of tombstone humor.

Harry Edsel Smith of Albany , New York :

Born 1903--Died 1942.

Looked up the elevator shaft to see if the Car was on the way down.

It was.

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In a Thurmont, Maryland , cemetery:

Here lies an Atheist,

All dressed up and no place to go

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On the grave of Ezekial Aikle in East Dalhousie Cemetery , Nova Scotia :

Here lies Ezekial Aikle, Age 102...

Only The Good Die Young..

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In a London , England cemetery:

Here lies Ann Mann,

Who lived an old maid

But died an old Mann.

Dec. 8, 1767

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In a Ribbesford, England , cemetery:

Anna Wallace

The children of Israel wanted bread,

And The Lord sent them manna.

Clark Wallace Wanted a wife,

And the Devil sent him Anna.

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In a Ruidoso, New Mexico , cemetery:

Here lies Johnny Yeast....

Pardon him For not rising..

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In a Uniontown, Pennsylvania , cemetery:

Here lies the body of Jonathan Blake.

Stepped on the gas instead of the brake.

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In a Silver City , Nevada , cemetery:

Here lays The Kid.

We planted him raw.

He was quick on the trigger

But slow on the draw.

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A lawyer's epitaph in England :

Sir John Strange.

Here lies an honest lawyer,

And that is Strange.

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John Penny's epitaph in the Wimborne, England , cemetery

Passerby, if cash thou art in want of any,

Dig 6 feet deep and thou wilt find a Penny.

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In a cemetery in Hartscombe , England :

On the 22nd of June,

Jonathan Fiddle went

Out of tune.

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Anna Hopewell's grave in Enosburg Falls , Vermont

Here lies the body of our Anna,

Done to death by a banana.

It wasn't the fruit that laid her low,

But the skin of the thing that made her go.

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On a grave from the 1880s in Nantucket ,Massachusetts :

Under the sod and under the trees,

Lies the body of Jonathan Pease.

He is not here, there's only the pod.

Pease shelled out and went to God..

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In a cemetery in England :

Remember man, as you walk by,

As you are now, so once was I

As I am now, so shall you be..

Remember this and follow me.

To which someone replied by writing on the tombstone:

To follow you I'll not consent.

Until I know which way you went.

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Carved on a Rock

Posted on Monday, March 07, 2011 11:11 AM

On May 5, 1868, General Logan, commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, issued an order declaring that Union and Confederate war dead would be honored on May 30 with flowers laid on their graves in Arlington National Cemetery. That was the origin of Decoration Day, or, as we are more apt to call it, Memorial Day. In cemeteries all over the country, small G.A.R. markers stand next to larger stones, and in May veterans and scouting troops plant a small American flag near each marker. There's no better time to go looking for a Civil War burial site.

My mother's family had its own Civil War soldier to honor, and, when I was young, Decoration Day was the traditional day for the family to gather in North Sewickley Cemetery, right outside Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, for a day of clean-up and family reminiscing. Five McCaskey sisters, accompanied by picnic baskets, flower pots, rakes, hoes, grumbling husbands, and assorted children spent the day moving from gravestone to gravestone, not mourning but celebrating the good times they remembered.

I learned my family's history during those yearly excursions to North Sewickley. There was the marker of the family matriarch, who brought her seven children from Ireland to the hills of Pennsylvania in 1795, traveling first in steerage, and then on foot. The stone bore only the single word, "Nancy," but it still stands firmly rooted on that hillside. A small stone marks the grave of cousin Electa, believed to have died in the flu epidemic of 1918 (although the stone says 1917); another grave memorializes a tiny James McCaskey, a victim of diphtheria at the age of two in 1896. By noon, the decorating crew had usually made its way to a circle of pine trees near the graves of the McCaskey sisters' grandparents. Lunch was spread on blankets while someone told the story of Sgt. James McCaskey, who died in defense of his country in 1862. Long before I found the official account of James's death, I knew the story of the brave young man left sitting up against a tree on the battlefield while he bled to death from cannon fire.

Cemeteries can prove to be a rich source for genealogical research.But as always, a researcher must accept any such evidence with a high degree of skepticism until it can be confirmed. Here are some suggestions for doing your own cemetery explorations.

1. Gather as much information as you can before you actually visit the cemetery, unless, of course, you're just curious and not looking for anything or anyone in particular. Assuming you are interested in specific individuals, start by asking questions. If you know the cemetery you plan to visit, check with the caretaker or sexton to see if there is a directory. If the cemetery is no longer an active one, look for the pastor of the nearest church. Or try the local history section of the public library.

2. An obituary from a local newspaper can tell you which cemetery to visit. That's how David Welch and I eventually found the grave of Nellie M. Chase. Her obituary, reprinted in a Reading, PA newspaper, said she was living in Paris, TN at the time of her death. It also suggested that she and her husband ran the railroad hotel there. The obituary noted that both of them actually died in Louisville, KY. That information led to a local newspaper article about yellow fever deaths in Paris, TN. Other yellow fever articles led to a book on their employer, the L & R Railroad, which in turn gave the name of the cemetery in which Nellie and her husband were buried. After that it only took a quick inquiry to the Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville to discover the exact location of their burial plots and to get a photograph of their joined headstones.

3. Take the right equipment with you. Plan to take notes on every headstone you identify, but also be sure to have a camera. Notes have a way of perpetuating small errors. You'll want a picture later to double-check the details. Traditionally, Christian graves are oriented toward the east; i.e., the headstone is at the west end of the plot and the foot of the coffin at the east end, in preparation for Resurrection Day. For that reason, inscriptions on a headstone will be clearer if the picture is taken in the morning.

4. Don't forget the insect spray. Mosquitoes can be formidable guards against your investigations. And unless the cemetery is very well maintained, take gardening gloves and pruning shears. I really wanted to try to straighten Uncle James's headstone, but a crop of fresh poison ivy dissuaded me. A spray bottle of water also comes in handy. Inscriptions are easier to read when they are wet, and you may need to wash away soil accumulations.

5. Be alert to the clues on the stones themselves. Carvings on the headstone may provide clues to religion or military service. Children's markers are likely to have flowers or small animals. I like to think this little figure on cousin Electa's stone is a rabbit.

6. Tombstones frequently bear birth and death dates, although birth years are less to be trusted than death years. An inscription reading "Beloved Wife" usually means the woman's husband was still alive at her death. Stones reading "Mother" and "Father" confirm the existence of children alive at the time of the parents' deaths.

7. Unmarried sons and daughters are more likely to be buried near their parents. The graves of a woman or a couple near small unmarked stones may indicate the deaths of unnamed infants. Death dates can tie a victim to a natural disaster such as an earthquake or an epidemic of influenza or yellow fever.

8. Note the names on graves close to those of your own family members. You may be looking at their friends and neighbors. Cemeteries have many stories to tell. Let the stones speak to you.

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Who's Buried in Uncle James's Grave, and Where's Grandpa?

Posted on Wednesday, March 02, 2011 11:17 AM

I have learned a lot about cemetery research from a mysterious headstone that bears the name of my great-uncle James McCaskey, who was killed in the Civil War. After much searching, I found this marker in the same Pennsylvania cemetery where many of my other McCaskey ancestors are buried. It reads:

James McCaskey

Born

April 12, 1839

Died

June 16, 1862

James Island, S.C.

Those details are all correct; the military action on James island was the Battle of Secessionville. The problem is that the notification of his death says that his body was never found. The official records say that the Confederate troops buried the Union soldiers killed in the battle (some 509 of them) in unmarked graves on the battlefield. North Sewickley Cemetery records indicated that the headstone was placed in 1875, after Mrs. Jane McCaskey purchased three adjoining plots and ordered three matching stones — one for her recently deceased husband John, one for herself, and one for her missing eldest son James.

Sure enough, the marker next to the one for James marks the grave of my great-grandmother Jane McCaskey. But on the far side of her grave, the ground has been cut away, and a gravel road lies several feet below the resulting ledge. So where is Great-Grandpa John? There is no sign of him or his tombstone at all. Was he ever there? Did an earthmover carry him away when the road was put in? Or is he in the plot marked with his son's tombstone? At this point the solution to the problem becomes too macabre to consider, so I am willing to accept what I THINK I know without further investigation.

Lesson Number One: A tombstone does not always equal a real burial. Obviously, James's headstone marks an empty grave, a not uncommon phenomenon during a war that swallowed up so many young men on distant battlefields. The Grand Army of the Republic honors James McCaskey's service every Memorial Day by placing a flag on the grave site, but even their records stop short of stating that he is actually buried there.

Lesson Number Two: The lack of a headstone does not necessarily mean that no grave ever existed. As time passes, stones crumble, weeds take over, land subsides, new demands for grave sites force owners to change the layout of their cemetery plots. In this picture, you can see that Jane McCaskey's stone now teeters dangerously close to the edge of the cut-away bank. In fact, it is largely supported by the roots of the tree in view just behind the stone. John's grave would have been on the far side, since wives were nearly always buried to the left of their husbands. John has disappeared, but we know from court records and other documents that he was buried in that location in 1875.

Lesson Number Three: Burial practices change over time. While I was planning this blog post, I received a message from another genealogist, a distant cousin of my husband's, who had found the graves of my husband's grandfather and great-grandfather. I was astonished to learn that both men were buried in the same grave at St. Mary Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio — one above the other. The cemetery records show John Christoph Schreiber (1845-1889) in section A, lot 48 North grave 4 E.D. (which stands for extra deep, or at about eight feet). His son, John C. Schriber, Jr. (1867-1928) is in section A, lot 48 North, grave 4 O.T.(on top, or at about 4 feet).

Cemeteries can tell us a great deal about those whose lives we are researching. Sometimes, perhaps, they tell us more than we really wanted to know!

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cemetery research

The Conch Solution

A Touch of Cemetery Humor

Carved on a Rock

Who's Buried in Uncle James's Grave, and Where's Grandpa?