A Sexton Speaks - An Interview with Dan Wilson, Vincennes City Cemeteries

(Again, apologies for the delay in this post. I have been trying to get an audio interview on this blog for over 36 hours and I still cannot get Blogger to upload it.  This was a fun interview to do and I wish you could hear it.  I will post it when this situation is remedied.  Meanwhile, I have transcribed the interview below. If you have suggestions or ideas concerning Blogger and audio/video, please let me know!)

You’ve probably heard the terms cemetery sexton and sexton’s records.  But just what is a sexton?  And what kind of records would he or she keep? 

A sexton is actually the caretaker of a cemetery. The person who is in charge of making sure that all of the upkeep and maintenance gets done on a regular basis, along with maintaining the safety, security, and appearance of the cemetery.  And that includes overseeing all of the work that goes into preparing a grave for a burial, maintaining equipment, and preserving headstones, memorials, and mausoleums. Quite a job!  And even more so, when it involves the upkeep of a large cemetery or a combination of several cemeteries.

Sexton’s records refer to the cemetery deeds and plat books that the sexton or caretaker maintains.  These books offer the genealogist information about who purchased the plot, who owned the deed, along with any sales, transfers or inheritances involving a plot.  The Sexton is also in charge of the burial register that contains general information about the deceased including age, address, date of death, date of burial, plot number and section.    The Sexton can answer the 5 W’s for you, just like a reporter.  Who is buried here, when were they buried, where is the grave located, why is it located where it is and what were the burial details?

But there is more to being a cemetery sexton than just recording names and date, or overseeing maintenance and upkeep.  There is an understanding and appreciation for the job and the realization of how it will affect people for generations to come. 

Vincennes (Knox County) Indiana

I spoke with Dan Wilson, the superintendent, or Sexton, of the oldest public cemeteries in Indiana. Composed of Green Lawn Cemetery started in the 1780’s, Fairview Cemetery, which began in 1899 and Memorial Park Cemetery started in 1930 – all are a part of the Vincennes City Cemeteries located in Vincennes, Indiana.  Dan has been superintendent here for over ten years, but he’s been involved with cemeteries for almost 30 years.

While Dan can inform you about the general who-what-when-where and why of these cemeteries, he has taken his job one step further.  He makes it a point to know something about those interred here.  He loves the histories, the stories, not just of the cemeteries, but also of those under his care.

[ Transcript of Interview with Dan Wilson]

Dan Wilson:

I started collecting information about the families and the people who are buried there.  A lot about how they died and how they lived, so it’s kind of fascinating.  Not only do we have burial information on thousand of people, we have what they did for a living, their relatives, we have all kinds of information, cool stories. That’s the history part of the stuff I like.

I love information and I hate to see information die with the people.  So when someone comes out here and visits a grave, I can say, you know, 50 years after someone’s passed away, it’s kind of cool to be able to tell them a story about the person, some little something they did not know.

The funeral home is real nice. They give me these books to go through all their records and I pull information out about the people who are buried here.  And about their relatives…nothing like the kind of casket or vault or how much money they made, that’s not my interest.  My interest is, like even their street addresses, relatives, jobs, veteran’s status.  Something that a family is just going to love to know.

You do this kind of record keeping and the numbers and the statistics and where it happened, that always sticks in your mind.  Numbers tell stories.

Joy Neighbors:

You are the people putting this information together….

Dan Wilson:

Uh-huh..yes.

Joy Neighbors:

And all because you really have an interest in history?

Dan Wilson:

In history. And also, my guys who take care of the cemetery.  We only have two full time guys, and part time, but the full time guys love it because there’s not……….they go over a grave, they know something about the person.  You know, it’s like that guy owned that, or he did this.  And I’ll give you an example, there’s a lady buried down there by Raben Tires, interesting I think, a part of history.  She was a stripper.  And she was a stripper at Jack Ruby’s club in New Orleans.  And she was found dead in New Orleans like in 1968.  And, I won’t go into who she was, but to me that’s interesting.  That’s cool history.  I mean, you know, you actually have someone here who was involved with Jack Ruby, the guy that shot Oswald.  To me, that’s fascinating.

I’ll tell you another one that I like.  There was a husband and wife, and the lady died in, like, Oklahoma. And the guy bought her a coffin with a glass lid and he put her in the back of a pick up truck and was taking her around to different areas and was showing her for, like a nickel a peek, back in the twenties, right?  Well, Gardner Mausoleum has like three mausoleum crypts in the basement that you can slide a casket in, you can seal the door.  And the guy went to Gardner and wanted to know if he could see that this was a good Christian woman and that she deserved better? The guy was out of money.  He said 'Can you keep her here a little bit until I come back?'  I’ll get the money and I’ll bury her.  Well the Gardners’ are nice people and they said sure.  Well she stayed up in the mausoleum for like, ten years. They tried to research the guy and finally found him.  He was in a prison for the criminally insane in Washington D.C.  And when I was going through the records from Gardner’s, there’s a letter that was there from J. Edgar Hoover saying that’s where this guy was. So Gardners tracked him down and he wrote them a letter back saying she was a wonderful woman.  She deserved a lot.  Please give her a nice Christian burial. So they buried her out here.

It’s fascinating to me, the people who get killed on the railroad tracks. Not crossings, but fall asleep on the railroad tracks. It’s like, that had to be uncomfortable.  Why would you ever think of falling asleep on those rocks?

Joy Neighbors:

Who do we have buried here that’s semi-famous to famous?

Dan Wilson:

Red Skelton’s father, buried right over here, which is an interesting story.  They never met.  I think Red’s mother was pregnant with him, but he died before he was born.  And see, he never knew him.  His name was actually…It’s not Skelton.  His tombstone will say Skelton, but that’s not what it is.  It’s Joseph Ehart.

Joy Neighbors:

What are some of the superstitions connected…?

Dan Wilson:

Superstitions?  Are we talking ghosts and stuff?

Joy Neighbors:

Any realm of it.

Dan Wilson:

Green Lawn Cemetery

Whenever I started here, we were over in the Green Lawn Cemetery, which was the old part. 

And I would go over with a recorder, like that one, just like that one and I would record what I would see on stones.  And I would sit and write this information down so I’d physically have something to bring back and put in the computer.  Not just scraps of paper but notes cause I’m not very smart, I gotta have notes.  And there were times I was in the cemetery and I would hear a voice say my name in my ear and it would happen so fast you would think did you really hear it? 

The other day one of the superintendents’ grandsons came here, and this superintendent just passed on last year, named Jack Anderson.  It was really weird; the grandson sat there and said that his grandpa used to have the same thing happen to him.  He would be over there and he would have people whisper in his ear just the same.  And that just gave me goose bumps because the same thing I’ve experienced another superintendent before me, twenty years before, had experienced the same thing. 

In the thirty years I’ve been doing this work, the cool things are the relatives who get visited in hospitals by dead relatives right before they die.  All the time.  I mean, all the time.  And you can contribute that to drugs or an altered state of mind, or what ever you want.  But when you hear the same stories over and over, that’s a little too coincidental.

I honestly think death is just as natural as the geese, when they used to fly south, or the birds.  It’s just…it’s scary to us because we don’t know.

I’ll tell you something that fascinates me, the unknown people.  The people that no one knew who they were. There’s like 40 or 50 people here who are unknown.  And you just wonder who they were.  There’s like seven or eight of them that we got stone for and most them are children, so we got stones for these kids.  One stone I think is cool, it says ‘unknown stranger” and has a big question mark.

But we’re proud of our records.  I’ve been working on them straight, almost every day, here and at home.  I just like to keep the stories, any thing people know about their relatives.   And every day, when someone dies now, we enter them in every time, like the obituary in the paper, it’s in there every time. The whole obit.   Believe it or not, that’s one of the reasons I do what I do.  I think we owe those people their history.

If you are trying to locate records for a cemetery that does not have a sexton, start by contacting the office of Country or Town Clerk.   Also check with local funeral homes.  They know where many small cemeteries are.

Next Tuesday, we’ll explore death and mortality records.  Enjoy your weekend!

~ Joy

Update

Apologizes for the Friday post not being up yet.  I am having problems getting Blogger to accept audio or video, but we're working on it.  Any one have ideas?

Church and Religious Records

Church and religious records are considered to be some of the oldest, most detailed but “forgotten” genealogy records that exist. While not considered a primary source of information, church records can prove to be an excellent source for names, dates, relationships, and other crucial information.

If a parish had a burial ground, they should have maintained burial records and plot maps.  These records can include not only the name and dates for the deceased, but also burial information on other family members located in the same cemetery.

Each religion had its own types of papers and records deemed important to that faith.  The most prominent church records to search for include baptism, christening, confirmation, marriage and banns, along with funeral and burial. Most of these records are kept in bound church record books. But be sure to check for any and all religious records available.  These could also include membership lists, meeting minutes, 

lists of communicants, church bulletins, church photos, newsletters, newspapers and missals.  Also search for tombstone inscriptions, pew rentals, bar and bat mitzvah records, published congregational histories, biographies of clergy or prominent church members, church correspondence and clergy papers.  Churches also kept records on families that moved with transfer of membership records.

Many frontier churches have vanished, but there is still hope in locating their records. Start by searching for the original church.  If it no longer exists, check for other churches in the area of the same denomination to see if the records were transferred there.  If not, search for a central repository, a main church archive, or possibly a church-affiliated university or library.  State repositories or national holdings may also hold the records you seek.

If you are not sure of an ancestor’s religion, an obit or tombstone symbol could lead you to the correct faith.  It is also worth noting that in the 1930’s and early 40’s, the Federal Writers’ Project of the WPA – Works Projects Administration – put together inventories of religious archives across the country.  These compilations were then published and could include information such as the name of the church, denomination, location, district, association, clergy, even if the church bell still worked.  Although over 80 years old, these can still be a great source for local and state religious information of the time.

Religious records do have their problems since many were written by hand and then transcribed and typed up years, even centuries later.  But they can also contain the only informational glimpse we may get into our forbearers past.  In America, frontier families moved in groups.  If a settlement only had one church or religious meeting house, your ancestors probably attended, regardless of the faith practiced.  One advantage to the early church records is that the people who moved together also spoke the same language.  This means that there is less of a chance that a name was misspelled or an event was misinterpreted.

There are numerous sites on the Internet to search for church and religious records.  Here are just a few to get started:

https://www.familysearch.org/

http://www.CyndisList.com/religion.htm

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/usgenweb/churches/

Friday, I'll have an interview with Dan Wilson, superintendent of the oldest public cemetery in Indiana!

~ Joy

Gravestone Inscriptions – The Final Say

Gravestone inscriptions are the text we find on headstones, monuments, memorials, and tombstones, those epitaphs that honor the deceased.  An inscription may be as basic as a name, birth and/or death date.  Or it may include more information such as a relationship, an age, an occupation, organizational membership, military service, religious affiliation, even immigration. 

 

  

All of this information is valuable to the genealogist.  Especially when you consider that these inscriptions may be the only proof you will find of those obscure female ancestors and children who died young.  Many times maiden names are shown, marriage dates are listed, spouses and children are named.

A stone, which indicates a relationship such as Mother, Father, or Sister, helps us establish the fact that there are more ancestors in this lineage.

An occupational symbol can give you insight into how your ancestor earned his or her living, but also, the fact that they were proud of what they did.

Fraternal organizations are often specified on gravestones.  This information can lead you to further searches within these groups and their records

Military service can be indicated in a variety of ways and can even identify what unit was served in and what rank was held.

Religious affiliations can be denoted by special symbols, images, even the actual location of where someone is buried.

Symbols and icons are also used as a silent language that can tell us more about the deceased and their beliefs.  For example,

Conch shells indicate wisdom and man’s earthly journey.

A book can indicate an individuals profession, such as a writer or publisher, or may depict the book of life or the Bible.

 A lamb usually indicates the grave of a child and stands for innocence and purity.

 A lion indicate courage and power.  He is the guardian of the grave.

A draped stone signals the death of an adult and deep mourning, the last veil between life and death.

Even the headstone itself can indicate something about the deceased just by the size, shape or type of stone used for a marker.

The best and most accurate way to record gravestone inscriptions is with a camera.  With digital cameras, and now cell phone cameras, there is really little reason not to use this method to document your ancestor’s stone.

Again, a reminder – Never trust the information on a stone to be completely true.  There is always the possibility of errors having been made. Treat gravestone inscriptions as another wonderful research tool to keep you looking in the right direction.

~ Joy

Ready to get started but not sure where to look?  

Here are just a few sources that provide an abundance of cemetery records online:

http://www.cyndislist.com/cemetery.htm

http://www.interment.net/

http://www.findagrave.com/

Cemetery Records – And the Plot Thickens……

There are several records that genealogists search for in regard to a death.  These include cemetery records (and grave inscriptions,) church records, sexton’s records, funeral home records, death records, and mortality records.  We will take a look at each, in turn.  Today, let’s investigate records from the cemetery.

Permit for Disposition of Human Remains

Even if you already know the date of death for your ancestor, cemetery records can offer you much more information about them.  For example, burial permits can be a wealth of information.  The boards of health of a state have been granting these permits for over 90 years. A burial permit gave a funeral director or undertaker authorization for the burial to take place. The information on a burial permit includes the name of the deceased, date of death, city of death, date of burial, and plot number and section where the grave is located, along with the name of informant and their relationship to the deceased.  That’s a lot of information!  But keep in mind it was supplied by an informant and is subject to errors. Burial permits are now known as Permits for Disposition of Human Remains. This form also allows for the cremation of remains.

Burial plat map

A burial plot (plat) map shows the ownership and the specific location of the plot.  It may also include additional details concerning the individuals buried there; depending on what that particular cemetery collects as information.

Burial or Interment Register for a National Cemetery

The burial or interment register is a record of burial for the deceased.  It includes the name of the deceased, age, address, marital status, date of death, date of burial, burial lot number and section where the lot is located for each individual.  When dealing with cemetery records, remember that the date of death and the date of burial are usually different. It is easy to confuse the two when you are involved in the thrill of finding that elusive information.

Private cemetery

Remember, cemeteries may be public or private.  A public cemetery is funded by taxpayers dollars and is under the jurisdiction of a governmental entity, be it local, county, state or federal.  A private cemetery is just that - private.  Private monies and contributions fund it.  You must have the permission of the governing organization in order to view their records. Privacy laws may limit what can be shared with the public.  Private cemeteries can include those with religious affiliations, organizational ties, fraternal groups and family cemeteries.

Friday we’ll take a look at grave inscriptions, discover what to search for, and decipher how to read them to learn more rare information about an ancestor.

~ Joy

Random Acts of Cemetery Kindness

Yesterday was Random Acts of Kindness day.  If you’re a genealogist, you’ve probably encountered Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness.  So I thought, why not random acts of cemetery kindness?  What could we do to help assist, maintain, and preserve our cemeteries?

Here are just a few of the ideas we tombstone tourists could implement for the betterment of cemeteries and burial grounds.

•  Help keep the cemetery clean.  Pick up trash and dispose of it properly.

• Offer to take photos of gravestones for other genealogists who live far away. Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness http://www.raogk.org/ can help you get started.  So, too, can your local genealogical or history society.

• Search for death records, cemetery records or wills for other genealogists in need.

• Offer to assist in documenting a cemetery for genealogical purpose.  Help your local or state society put that information on the Internet so others may use it to locate their relatives.

• Offer to conduct walking tours for school groups and visitors at the local cemetery.

• Place broken monument parts by their stone.  Let the Cemetery Sexton’s office know about it.  If they cannot make the repairs, offer to assist or find someone who can.

 

 • Check with the cemetery sexton/groundskeeper to see if you can assist with any grounds cleanup projects.  Many times small cemeteries welcome help with mowing, trimming, weeding, raking and fence repairs.

• Are you good at surveying or platting?  Volunteer your services to a cemetery.

 

• Contact a veterans group and volunteer to assist them in placing flags or wreaths at the graves of veterans.  Memorial Day, Veterans Day and Christmas are some of their busiest times.

• If you are a veteran, offer to serve in a military funeral honor detail.

• If you can play the bugle, offer to play Taps at a veteran’s funeral.

• If you know of an abandoned or forgotten cemetery, contact the preservation society in your state and let them know where it is.

• Take a cemetery restoration workshop.  Most states offer this training.

• We can sponsor a section of roadway in order to keep it maintained, so why not consider sponsoring a section of a cemetery? Your company, society, church, organization or children’s group can assist in keeping it well tended.

And it goes without saying; if you find any signs of illegal activities or vandalism, report them immediately to the cemetery sexton and the authorities.

Contact your local genealogical society, historical society, veterans association, or cemetery sexton’s office and offer to assist them in doing whatever is needed in the cemetery.

Want to do even more?  Join a cemetery association locally or where your ancestors are buried.  Contact your state’s cemetery preservation association for opportunities and training.  And consider joining a group like the Association for Gravestone Studies http://www.gravestonestudies.org/welcome.htm

According to President, Ian W. Brown, in his welcome message, “If you share an interest in art, history, genealogy, archaeology, anthropology, conservation or material culture” then you are invited to join in their efforts.

Remember, random acts of kindness make us, and others, feel good about the world.   So let’s offer some random acts of cemetery kindness in the spirit of giving back to those who’ve gone before us, to the land, and to our ancestors.  You know they would be proud!

(Can you think of more Random Acts of Cemetery Kindness?  Please, let’s hear them!)

~ Joy