Cemeteries, Graveyards and the like
Most of us spend our lives trying to stay out of cemeteries. However, in your quest of finding long lost family members, a cemetery can be an amazing source of information.
The downside is some of the materials used in generations past were not able to stand the test of time and have either completely degraded or have lost their battle with the weather to the point where names, dates and epitaphs have been completely worn away. For the ones that have survived it is a treasure trove of information.
This past July, I attended a very informative tour of a local historic cemetery. Our town historian pointed out a family that was all buried together near the front. He was noting how sad it was that the family had lost four children at very young ages. It is a testament to the times in which they lived, where mortality rates were higher in children. I took some pictures of the gravestones, later that night I dug a little deeper and found that they had in fact had other children who had lived into adulthood. Another interesting and somewhat obvious, albeit ignored, fact jumped out at me. All the ones who had died young were born in between censuses. The reality of that moment of clarity hit hard. If one was doing a genealogical search on a particular family and traced all living relatives that appear on later censuses, these four children who were born, loved and lived for two, four, six or maybe eight years might never be found. If their tombstones did not still exist and were not legible, we potentially would have no record of them. There could be birth certificates, but, they could have been born in a times prior to that practice. There could be baptism records if the family went to church and if those records survived. It was surmised that the cemetery we were at predated the church. So yes, it might not be the only way to find these lost children, but it is the most dramatic. It is not family rumor or hearsay. It is carved in stone. They lived. They died. They were here. That made me think for a long while about how truly sad that is and while so many have been lost to time and memory it makes the work of a genealogist, either amateur or professional, that much more important. If you find a family on your tree that had many children over many years with some gaps in between the living ones on the censuses, it might behoove you to dig a little more and see if in fact there were children who were born, but unfortunately did not live a long life.
When you locate a cemetery or grave yard that your relatives have taken as their final resting place, make sure to take the time to look around or ask the administrative staff in the office if there are any other individuals with the same last name buried there. This may potentially leave out married daughters who are also buried there. However, if you happen to locate an obituary it may mention them and lead you back to the cemetery.
To the staff of cemeteries, volunteers and owners of websites (such as findagrave.com), I thank you for your time effort and energy in posting the information and pictures for us researchers to find and use. It has been invaluable in my quest. To those facilities who have yet to put their residents online, please entertain the idea (especially if you are in the northern New Jersey/ Paterson area (That is a personal request. There happen to be a lot of cemeteries in that area and I am currently looking for a needle in a haystack)). If a cemetery has placed a search online that is wonderful, but when we are researching families we don’t always know a location. Having it on a bigger collection like a findagrave.com helps us find them, which will lead us go the town they were in.
Bonus question: What is the difference between a graveyard and a cemetery?
Answer: A graveyard is a more random plot of burials (think down south where they would bury their dead in their front or side yard) whereas a cemetery is planned, usually landscaped, and maintained.
Happy searching!!
Most of us spend our lives trying to stay out of cemeteries. However, in your quest of finding long lost family members, a cemetery can be an amazing source of information.
The downside is some of the materials used in generations past were not able to stand the test of time and have either completely degraded or have lost their battle with the weather to the point where names, dates and epitaphs have been completely worn away. For the ones that have survived it is a treasure trove of information.
This past July, I attended a very informative tour of a local historic cemetery. Our town historian pointed out a family that was all buried together near the front. He was noting how sad it was that the family had lost four children at very young ages. It is a testament to the times in which they lived, where mortality rates were higher in children. I took some pictures of the gravestones, later that night I dug a little deeper and found that they had in fact had other children who had lived into adulthood. Another interesting and somewhat obvious, albeit ignored, fact jumped out at me. All the ones who had died young were born in between censuses. The reality of that moment of clarity hit hard. If one was doing a genealogical search on a particular family and traced all living relatives that appear on later censuses, these four children who were born, loved and lived for two, four, six or maybe eight years might never be found. If their tombstones did not still exist and were not legible, we potentially would have no record of them. There could be birth certificates, but, they could have been born in a times prior to that practice. There could be baptism records if the family went to church and if those records survived. It was surmised that the cemetery we were at predated the church. So yes, it might not be the only way to find these lost children, but it is the most dramatic. It is not family rumor or hearsay. It is carved in stone. They lived. They died. They were here. That made me think for a long while about how truly sad that is and while so many have been lost to time and memory it makes the work of a genealogist, either amateur or professional, that much more important. If you find a family on your tree that had many children over many years with some gaps in between the living ones on the censuses, it might behoove you to dig a little more and see if in fact there were children who were born, but unfortunately did not live a long life.
When you locate a cemetery or grave yard that your relatives have taken as their final resting place, make sure to take the time to look around or ask the administrative staff in the office if there are any other individuals with the same last name buried there. This may potentially leave out married daughters who are also buried there. However, if you happen to locate an obituary it may mention them and lead you back to the cemetery.
To the staff of cemeteries, volunteers and owners of websites (such as findagrave.com), I thank you for your time effort and energy in posting the information and pictures for us researchers to find and use. It has been invaluable in my quest. To those facilities who have yet to put their residents online, please entertain the idea (especially if you are in the northern New Jersey/ Paterson area (That is a personal request. There happen to be a lot of cemeteries in that area and I am currently looking for a needle in a haystack)). If a cemetery has placed a search online that is wonderful, but when we are researching families we don’t always know a location. Having it on a bigger collection like a findagrave.com helps us find them, which will lead us go the town they were in.
Bonus question: What is the difference between a graveyard and a cemetery?
Answer: A graveyard is a more random plot of burials (think down south where they would bury their dead in their front or side yard) whereas a cemetery is planned, usually landscaped, and maintained.
Happy searching!!
RSS Feed
