Cemetery Research can be an Adventure

We genealogists have a lot of investigating and verifying to do when searching for our ancestors.  We know about finding birth certificates, marriage certificates and death certificates.  We know to check birth, marriage and death dates to validate if this is our forebear.  But there are other records available with cemetery connections that can help us gain more knowledge and a better understanding of our ancestors’ lives.

Cemetery records include church burial records, Sextons records, cemetery deeds, plot or plat records, burial permit records, grave opening orders and gravestone inscriptions.  Also of note are funeral home records, church and religious records, family bibles and cemetery associations.  All are a wealth of information and we will look more in-depth at each of these records in upcoming blogs.

Notice the death date for William has been scratched in

Tombstone research can provide a lot of information.  The usual birth and death dates should be given.  Although, not always the way you expect.  

Social status, Organization affiliation &
Military service are shown

Many times a marriage date is also listed.  But gravestones can also help us identify the deceased’s occupation, religion, military service, social status or sentimental regard held by others.

 Though it is exciting and thought provoking to locate your ancestors grave (and that alone may be enough reason for making the trip,) remember that you may gain more out of your excursion if you know what you are searching for.  It could be as simple as just wanting to visit the site or town.  Or it could involve searching for other relatives who may also be buried here, possibly infants or female relatives you were not aware of.

My Great-Grandmother Rachel (Gladish) France

Keep in mind too, that some older cemeteries are very difficult to locate.  They may no longer be in use, they may be on private property, they may have been relocated, or the name may have been changed or varied.  When my great-grandmother, Rachel (Gladish) France, died in 1970, I was extremely saddened to have lost one of my closest allies. As a child, I noticed few things about the day of her funeral, except that we drove for a long time in the country to get to a cemetery called Beatle.  Years later, when I started my genealogy research, I searched for Beatle Cemetery without luck.  The local genealogical society had no records on the name. I then approached the funeral home where the service was held, although it had changed ownership.  They were able to produce a copy of Rachel’s funeral card that showed interment in Biddle Cemetery.  After more research I discovered that it was actually Beadle (Beedle) Cemetery and it was located in an adjoining county, hence the long drive in the country.

My Great-Grandfather Marion France

Once there I remembered it and that hot August day, long ago.  There was the stone for Rachel along with one for her husband, Marion France, a great-grandfather I never met, but whom I was told I had a temper like.  (Quick to rise, quick to pass.)  That is when I discovered Jesse France, a child of my great-grandparents that I had never heard of.  

Paternal Great-grandparents Thomas & Sarah (Perry) Ready

And to end the day on an even more surprising note, I discovered that my paternal great-grandparents, Thomas and Sarah (Perry) Ready, were also buried in this cemetery, cat-a-corner from the Frances.  These are the only two groups of my relatives I am aware of that are buried in what is a family cemetery for the Beadle (Beedle) kin.  

Maternal Great-Grandparents stones in front,
paternal Great-Grandparents stone in back, toward left

Why both sets of great-grandparents are here, I have yet to find out.  But that is part of the fun of genealogy research; you never really get all of your questions answered.  Just enough to keep you looking backward and moving forward.

~ Joy

Cemetery Symbols of Love

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and with it, thoughts of love.  Love for a spouse, a parent, a child, a sibling, a friend.  As the song says, “Love makes the world go round….” And that is true, even in death. 

There are numerous symbols used on gravestones that represent love.  Some are obvious to us, two entwined hearts or two entwined wedding rings.  But other symbols from Victorian times had meanings that are a bit more obtuse at first glance. For example, a tied knot signified marriage and unity. 

Let’s let the photos and the captions explain more about these symbols of love.

The two clasped hands of a man and a woman indicated marriage and a unity,

 even after death.

A dove represented purity of spirit but also devotion. 

An arch joining two columns represented a gateway to eternity and is commonly found where a husband and wife are buried side-by-side.

An urn with a flame denoted undying remembrance and eternity.

A fleur-de-lis represented passion and dedication.

The letters F – L – T with a linked chain was the symbol of the 

Independent Order of Odd Fellows and represented Friendship, Love and Truth.

A dog embodied loyalty and characterized someone worthy of unconditional love.

A weeping willow symbolized remembrance.

 Of course, the language of flowers has always spoken of love in all of its many aspects.  Most people know that a rose stands for romance, passion and true love.  In Victorian times joined roses epitomized a strong and loving bond between two people.  Honeysuckle signified the bonds of love and affection.  Ivy had many meanings including devotion and faithfulness.  Pine also stood for fidelity.  And the lily, which has many religious depictions, signified beautiful thoughts and emotions.

And, as this stone shows, even in our modern times, we still use icons that are special to us and that tell our stories to symbolize our eternal love and devotion. 

Regardless of the symbol used, the reflection remains the same – 

Love does indeed transcend death and the grave.

Enjoy a happy Valentine’s Day with someone you love!

~  Joy

Lawn Cemeteries

The third type of gravescape in the U.S. is the lawn cemetery.  (The first two being graveyards and rural cemeteries, which we discussed last week.) The lawn cemetery, or modern cemetery as it is also known, gained favor around the end of the Civil War.

Highland Lawn Cemetery, Terre Haute, Indiana

As the name suggests, a lawn cemetery is covered with grass, with small tombstones and markers used to designate burial plots instead of large monuments and statues.  This is thought to present a more solemn and aesthetic visual appeal of the grounds to visitors, and to create a cemetery that is much easier for the groundskeepers to maintain. 

Adolph Strauch has been called the  ‘father of the lawn cemetery’ because of his work on Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Strauch was a well-known landscape artist of the nineteenth century who designed many parks in Cincinnati and Chicago.  He assisted in recreating Spring Grove Cemetery and Chicago’s Graceland Cemetery into modern lawn cemeteries by reducing the spate of monuments and statues found there, and by including lakes and trees on the grounds.

Stone railing separating family plot from cemetery

But this pleasing appearance of expansive landscapes does come with some drawbacks.  The disadvantages of the lawn cemetery includes the fact that cemetery authorities may restrict or forbid plot owners from altering the gravesite with plants, flowers or railings.  They may limit the size and/or shape of the stone.   And they may also refuse to allow any flowers or decorations to be used at a grave, thereby creating that uniform appearance most lawn cemeteries have.

Advantages of the lawn cemetery includes the creation of pleasant, approachable landscapes, the absence of pretentious monuments used to express a family’s social station in life, and the economy of allowing cemetery authorities to use and maintain the land in the most efficient manner, therefore reducing the cost of the plots themselves.  With these approaches, lawn cemeteries found a way to set themselves apart from the elements associated with graveyards and rural cemeteries.

Monument at Oak Ridge in Springfield, IL

They are the status quo of gravescapes used in the U.S. today. But while there is much to recommend them, lawn cemeteries still lack a certain sentimental appeal that attracts those of us searching for those qualities of nostalgia, melancholy and romantic sensibility in our cemeteries.

 ~ Joy     

Graveyards of the Past

As I mentioned earlier this week, there are three types of gravescapes that have been used in the U.S. since the early 1600’s - graveyards, rural cemeteries and lawn cemeteries.

Today we’ll take a look at the graveyard. 

Cemetery in Terre Haute, Indiana

Just the name conjures up visions of an old, desolate hill with worn headstones, heavy shadows and forbidding trees.  

(Cue the Hollywood lightening and howling winds.) 

The word graveyard, according to wikipedia.org, comes from the Anglo-Saxon words of  ‘graf’ meaning a pit, 

and ‘yairden’, which means an open place or garden. From the settlement of the U.S. through the 

eighteenth century, graveyards were what we called the places where we buried our dead.  

White River Chapel and cemetery, Bowman, Indiana

Many graveyards were located adjacent to churches and burials there were at the invitation of the church leaders.  Other graveyards were dedicated family plots. Family (or private) burial grounds can still be found in rural areas, but health codes have led to their diminishing numbers. During the settlement of this country most rural families had a burial site on the family farm.  Or early settlers would gather and select a plot of land on which to bury their families together.  Depending on necessity, it may have been on the first farmland settled in the area, or in a wooded area or on a hilltop not far from their homes.

Hamer Cemetery, Mitchell, Indiana

Graveyards were maintained in the American countryside until after WWII when they eventually fell out of favor.  Several reasons have been given for their demise, including the lack of space for new burials, the opportunity for contagious diseases to spread quickly throughout a community, and frequent requests for churches to bury those who were not their parishioners.

Finding my Great-Great Grandparents,
Pike County, Indiana

Regardless of how you view graveyards, there is no adequate way to describe the feelings that surface when you finally locate your family’s graveyard and stand among your ancestors.  Here is their final resting place, near the land, the people and the community they loved.  A gravely awe-inspiring feeling of connection – 

of coming home to your roots!

Rural Cemeteries

I read something today that I found intriguing.  There are only three types of gravescapes that have been in use in the United States since the 1700’s.  During the colonial period it was graveyards, with most attached to churches and known more for their efficiency of task than their modest memorials. 

Then, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, rural or garden cemeteries came into vogue.  Here was a place to ‘take the air.’  A genteel way to see and be seen.  It was a chance to escape from the dirt and noise of the city for a few hours and enjoy a contemplative stroll among exquisite sculpture, interesting architecture, and acres of rolling hills and valleys.  A ‘rural’ cemetery was not just a place in the country to bury your dead; it was an attraction, a landscaped area that appealed to those nineteenth century traits of nostalgia, melancholy and romantic sensibility.

Highland Lawn, a rural cemetery in Terre Haute, Indiana

Then, with the twentieth century, came the lawn cemetery; everything kept low and confined.  They’re easy to build, easy to tend, and easy on the eye – if not a bit mundane.

Mourner at grave

 I, for one, am a big proponent of the rural cemetery. These are the cemeteries I love to wander in; where you set off to explore one area and end up a mile away, having never realized how far you’d traveled, too caught up in the sites and sounds of this quiet, peaceful world. Where the structure of a mausoleum is more dramatic and pronounced than your child’s school or your place of worship.  Where entire life stories are told with just a few stones, some symbols and a statue.  We lost an interesting connection between life and death, a sharing of two worlds, when we stopped erecting sculpture depicting family weeping at the gravesite, obelisks soaring to the heavens, and empty benches awaiting a visitor. 

Bench at Highland Lawn Cemetery

 So, one of my goals this year, is to visit several rural-garden cemeteries.  Many that are not well known and three that are, including Woodland in Dayton, Ohio, Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky and Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.  What better place to explore and enjoy such ‘A Grave Interest’ than in a rural cemetery!