Genealogy thread

[tvguy]

So you don't trust the funeral home and newspaper obituary because the cemetery doesn't have a record and only 57% is indexed in FindaGrave?

I'd really trust the death cert and obituary to be accurate.

Any chance he was Catholic or had a funeral at a church? Catholic churches, Episcopal Lutheran and Presbyterian churches are often required to keep death record books with date and place of burial.

Also, there are often headstone records when markers are made, especially for military veterans. Many of these are in the Ancestry database.

Not a matter of trust. Just not sure it will be fruitful to go to a cemetery and walk 3,600 graves looking for someone the cemetery says isn't there. And from the notes on Find a Grave, others ahead of us HAVE done that and found nothing. This is a town with a population of just 2,600 today. I have no idea how many people lived there 100 years ago but it has been my experience that birth and death records can be sketchy in small towns that long ago.

 

[Southernmiss]

Not a matter of trust. Just not sure it will be fruitful to go to a cemetery and walk 3,600 graves looking for someone the cemetery says isn't there. And from the notes on Find a Grave, others ahead of us HAVE done that and found nothing. This is a town with a population of just 2,600 today. I have no idea how many people lived there 100 years ago but it has been my experience that birth and death records can be sketchy in small towns that long ago.

Gotcha.

I went back to my dad's home area in October and visited 4 cemeteries that family members are buried in.

It was in the Midwest and cold, windy and rainy the 2 days we were there.

I walked 3 of the cemeteries and found many of my family members and went back to one cemetery a second time.

But the 4th was very large and again it was windy, rainy and cold. I accepted that conditions just weren't conducive to getting out and walking that day and that just riding through and knowing that's where they are had to be enough. A few of those markers are pictured on FindaGrave. I'm disappointed I didn't get to see them up close, but there was not much else I could do.

 

[tvguy]

Gotcha.

I went back to my dad's home area in October and visited 4 cemeteries that family members are buried in.

It was in the Midwest and cold, windy and rainy the 2 days we were there.

I walked 3 of the cemeteries and found many of my family members and went back to one cemetery a second time.

But the 4th was very large and again it was windy, rainy and cold. I accepted that conditions just weren't conducive to getting out and walking that day and that just riding through and knowing that's where they are had to be enough. A few of those markers are pictured on FindaGrave. I'm disappointed I didn't get to see them up close, but there was not much else I could do.

We will be in he St.Louis area for a week heading as far east as Grayville, Illinois. We hope to find and photograph a number of headstones of my wife's family members. One of her cousins will be joining us. I have a Find A Grave account and have added photos to the page for friends. Just checking, someone added most of the headstones from a cemetery my wife's grandfather and step grandmother are buried in, but they are not listed as being buried there but we have been there and have seen the headstones so will add them. But that is a tiny cemetery.
The folks who take photos of headstones are appreciated, just seems on my wife side of the family their graves gets overlooked. My family, someone added a photo of my mom's headstone within a few months of her death. And at the same time, we put a headstone my Grandparents unmarked graves, and some one a few months later added a photo.

 

[Buzz Rules]

@Buzz Rules Okay, any suggestions on what appears to be a dead end, no pun intended?
My wife's Great-Grandfather's death certificate says he is buried at a specific cemetery.
The Funeral home records indicate he is buried there.
The newspaper article on his death says he is buried there.
The cemetery has no record of him being there.
Only other clue we have is several other people have reported the same dead end over the last 10 years. There are 3,600 graves at this cemetery.

Look at state requirements on death certificates and graveyard records (when laws were established/changed). Look at the history of the graveyard itself. Many records before 1950 may have had different standards compared to today. Call the county office of the graveyard's location for advice based on the laws from the death certificates time period. They should be able to direct you to the local historical/genealogy department. If that is a dead end, explore that state's website for it's records department and state historical department for further guidance.

 

[RUDisney]

@Buzz Rules Okay, any suggestions on what appears to be a dead end, no pun intended?
My wife's Great-Grandfather's death certificate says he is buried at a specific cemetery.
The Funeral home records indicate he is buried there.
The newspaper article on his death says he is buried there.
The cemetery has no record of him being there.
Only other clue we have is several other people have reported the same dead end over the last 10 years. There are 3,600 graves at this cemetery.

My Great Uncle Mike is buried in an unmarked grave. My grandparents knew the section he was in, so I have a general idea, but the church and cemetery have no records of the location of the grave. My great aunt was canoodling with her next husband when Mike died, so she didn't want to pay for a headstone for him.

No one thought much of future generations wanting to understand their roots and the importance of record keeping back then. I'm sorry that you're struggling in locating your GGF. At least we can visit that cemetery (my GPs and GGM are buried there) and face the general location and say a prayer for Uncle Mike.

 

[tvguy]

My Great Uncle Mike is buried in an unmarked grave. My grandparents knew the section he was in, so I have a general idea, but the church and cemetery have no records of the location of the grave. My great aunt was canoodling with her next husband when Mike died, so she didn't want to pay for a headstone for him.

No one thought much of future generations wanting to understand their roots and the importance of record keeping back then. I'm sorry that you're struggling in locating your GGF. At least we can visit that cemetery (my GPs and GGM are buried there) and face the general location and say a prayer for Uncle Mike.

I have a bit of experience with mysteries with my family as mentioned up thread. As in records either were destroyed or never existed in the first place, plus, not many in my family cared about family history. This is my wife's GGF, and we are at this point planning out where to go on this weeklong trip and whether it is worth the 300 mile roundtrip to only duplicate other people's failure to find anything. Still waiting to hear back from the Funeral Home and Cemetery (which is owned by the city and all records are at city hall) on our follow up questions.
We do have one cemetery where my wife has over 50 relatives buried.

 

[tvguy]

Look at state requirements on death certificates and graveyard records (when laws were established/changed). Look at the history of the graveyard itself. Many records before 1950 may have had different standards compared to today. Call the county office of the graveyard's location for advice based on the laws from the death certificates time period. They should be able to direct you to the local historical/genealogy department. If that is a dead end, explore that state's website for it's records department and state historical department for further guidance.

Like I posted above, this is a city owned and operated cemetery and all records are at city hall and posted online. It was 1924 when the death happened and because of how he died in a town that today only has 1900 residents makes it odd that this could slip through the cracks unless we aren't looking under the right rock, so to speak. He was killed when is car was hit by a train. So the published information is more about the crash, the funeral arrangements are kind of a side note but seem to be supported by the death certificate and the funeral home records.

 

[tvguy]

Look at state requirements on death certificates and graveyard records (when laws were established/changed). Look at the history of the graveyard itself. Many records before 1950 may have had different standards compared to today. Call the county office of the graveyard's location for advice based on the laws from the death certificates time period. They should be able to direct you to the local historical/genealogy department. If that is a dead end, explore that state's website for it's records department and state historical department for further guidance.

Rootsweb had as index for the cemetery by section, rather than by name. Peeling the onion I may have found a clue.
It says

Unknown (George)

x

Orig

D

21

18

of

27

George was my wife's Great-Grandfather's first name, but not sure how far the cemetery went to try and find anything about this grave, if anything or how they got the name George associated with it
It is interesting to see some of the notes on some of the graves.
Things like:
Unable to locate. This was on a grave where there Is a name associated with the plot, date of birth and date of death but it is a bit concerning since this isn't an ancient internment, the woman died in 1985!
UNKNOWN
OPEN, POSSIBLY
OPEN, POSSIBLY RESERVED
RESERVED
OPEN
UNAVAILABLE

 

[Buzz Rules]

@tvguy , honestly, an Ancestry expert might be your best bet to solve this issue.

 

[tvguy]

@tvguy , honestly, an Ancestry expert might be your best bet to solve this issue.

I have heard a lot of negatives about them. Not sure what they could do that we can't do in person when we go.

 

[Praying Colonel]

With St. Patrick's Day coming, how Irish are you?

My mother's maiden name is O'Brien and we have several other Irish surnames on her side (Murphy, McGuire, etc.), but my Ancestry DNA results say I'm only 10% Irish.

 

[EllieJedi]

With St. Patrick's Day coming, how Irish are you?

My mother's maiden name is O'Brien and we have several other Irish surnames on her side (Murphy, McGuire, etc.), but my Ancestry DNA results say I'm only 10% Irish.

I ordered my Ancestry DNA kit this week. I have Irish ancestry on both sides, both also Scottish and English so I’m going to be very curious how the DNA results compare to my family tree.

 

[Buzz Rules]

Questions for today?

 

[hmsTigger]

With St. Patrick's Day coming, how Irish are you?

My mother's maiden name is O'Brien and we have several other Irish surnames on her side (Murphy, McGuire, etc.), but my Ancestry DNA results say I'm only 10% Irish.

Interesting if you research Irish genes and look at the genetics of Ireland, you will be surprised to see migration patterns and the people from all over Europe arriving to Ireland over hundreds of years. Interesting read.......

https://blogs.dnagenics.com/irish-b...e still present in the Irish population today.

 

[RangerPooh]

With St. Patrick's Day coming, how Irish are you?

At this point, probably a low percentage. That side of my family arrived to the states in the mid 1800s. DH is first generation Irish American on his mom’s side. So our kids have a good amount of Irish genetics.

 

[RUDisney]

Funny thing is an ad popped up when I opened this about MyHeritage. It said, "I found my grandparents' wedding certificate!"

Well, in doing my research on my family and my DH's, I found his parents'. Turns out there were shotguns involved in their wedding, though no one talks about it and I never even mentioned it to my DH. They were married in November and he was born at 6-months gestation in March. Ooh... the family scandals! haha

 

[Kennywood]

 

[Leventerso]

Hey there! Genealogy is such a cool hobby, isn't it? I've been digging into my family tree lately and it's been a wild ride. Happy to swap tips and tricks anytime!

 

[tvguy]

Well, just back from a week long trip with my wife and her cousin across Missouri and Illinois tracing their genealogy. Mostly successful. One relative is supposed to be in a cemetery and as I have noted, there is no record of him being buried there at the cemetery, and no head stone. The cemetery was abandoned by a church and taken over by the city decades ago, and the records handed over are a mess. The Funeral Home used 100 years ago is still in business and still owned by the same family, and we visited with them and even if they still had their records from back then it would not list plot information.
Two other cemeteries of the five we visited had amazing records, but one is a National Cemetery, so I would expect that.
The last two cemeteries were in the same city, with a very strong genealogy society and an entire building dedicated to those records and a librarian who did nothing but maintain those records. However, they didn't have plot maps either, but those cemeteries were easier to navigate. The Librarian who runs the genealogy program says they are about to start trying to catalog the numerous inactive cemeteries in their area. There are many. Most were abandoned by private owners and became the property of the local government, but are not maintained. The biggest issue is, physically getting to them. Many have no access roads, and are surrounded by private property owners. So first they have to pinpoint where the cemeteries are, then get permission from surrounding property owners to go in. Amazing to me that there is no easement on the property to allow access to the cemetery.

 

[hmsTigger]

So sad that they are not maintained. Local municipalities are responsible in our area and it is thru the efforts of volunteers that many are maintained. Also, churches maintain cemeteries located on their property.
The record keeping is an entirely different issue.
Thankfully, there are dedicated people like your librarian who keeps records in order.
Good Luck with finding your loved ones.