Showing posts with label Genealogy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Genealogy. Show all posts

Monday, May 28, 2018

Memorial Day Memories


As a child, I remember going with my grandmother to the cemetery to "decorate the graves" as she called it. It was just something you did for the dead - cleaned off the stones, trimmed back the grass around "their patch," and lay fresh flowers on their graves. Although I was young and not much help, Grandma took me and let me play among the graves as she went about her work.

This may be where my interest in cemeteries began. I remember walking along the graves and being fascinated with the names: Aloysius, Edwina, Victoria, Nathanial. They all sounded charming yet old fashioned. As I figured out the ages of death from those stones, I wondered about the lives of the people with whose names. Had they married? Did they have children? Had they been happy? Had they had a good life? And then there were the epitaphs: Dear Brother, Remembered Aunt, Beloved Wife, and Our Baby – those were the stones that always gave me pause. It was the realization that, yes, children just like me could die. 

My grandmother told me stories about the family members she tended. “This was your great-great grandmother, this was my brother, this was your grandpa’s dad.” All these years later, I wish I had paid more attention to these family reminisces. If only I'd known how important they'd become ...

Today, the cemetery still holds sway over me. There is still that sense of discovery and surprise as I enter hallowed ground, wondering just what I’ll find beyond that fence, those gates, up the lane.

While the day will always make me nostalgic for those mornings with Grandma, Memorial Day also seems to be the perfect time to start the search, or recommit to discovering your family history. Their stories are out there, all we have to do is begin our search, and what could be nicer on a warm spring day than a stroll through the cemetery.
~ Joy

Friday, November 10, 2017

Help Preserve Our Veteran’s Histories


President John F. Kennedy
President John F. Kennedy said, “A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers.”
November 11 is Veteran’s Day – a day set aside to honor all American veterans who have served in our wars.  But time is passing and each day we lose more veterans, and their stories. 



US Department of Veterans Affairs
According to US Department of Veterans Affairs, the last WWI veteran died in 2012 at the age of 110. There are only 558,000 of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II still alive. A million and a half Korean vets remain. Surviving vets of Vietnam total 6.7 million while there are 7.13 million Gulf War veterans alive, and 4.5 million who served during peacetime. These stats are current as of September 2017. But how many veterans have we lost since then?
There are several groups and organizations across the country that take these interviews and preserve them for future generations. Here are just a few:

This popular genealogy site is focusing on saving the stories of WWII veterans before it’s too late.  Millions of records were lost in a fire in the National Personnel Records Center destroying about 80-100 pages per soldier. Information that included battles fought in, medals and honors received, occupations held during the war, diseases and injuries suffered, parental information, affidavits of character, photographs and letters from commanding officers - all of the details that make a service record a story. Ancestry provides a list of questions that can jump-start the conversation. All you have to do is capture your WWII veteran’s reminisces on video (Please edit it down to no longer than 4 minutes.) and upload it to the Ancestry site where it will be included in a free collection for anyone to view. 

It takes only one person to start a movement and that is what 20-year-old Rishi Sharma is doing. After graduating from high school, Sharma decided to try to preserve as many veteran’s stories about WWII as he could. With 372 of those vets dying each day, Sharma has his work cut out for him. Sharma began Heroes of the Second World War, a web site where the videos of these soldiers are available for viewing. He also makes sure the veteran, and his or her family, have copies of the interview. It takes between 4-6 hours to record an interview but Sharma intends to interview at least one WWII vet each day until the last one is gone.

In 2000, Congress created the Veterans History Project to preserve veteran’s personal stories. The VHP maintains not only video stories but materials veterans and their families donate including uniforms and medals. Each veteran has an individual web page that includes his or her service history along with other information provided. Check out the FAQ page before starting. Then visit the Participate page to take part in the project, and print out the VHP field kit forms. Fill them out and submit the entire kit with a video to the VHP for inclusion in the Library of Congress.

Witness to War is a non-profit private preservation organization that records the digital stories from veterans who served in all American wars. The interviews are then professionally edited into 2 to 5 minute war stories and are available on the WTW web site for viewing. The short format makes the interviews more interesting and approachable to today’s media savvy generation. The organization has an extensive collection of combat narratives - close to 1,500 interviews, and counting. To request an interview visit the WTW web page.

If you know a U.S. veteran, set a date, grab your questions and head out with your phone to capture his or her story for posterity. More than 600 WWII vets die each day … there’s no time like the present to get started.
~ Joy







My new book The Family Tree Cemetery Field Guide is now available at bookstores across the country. Click here for book information.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Skeletons in the Family Closet

 
Sunset
Tonight at 8 o’clock will mark the 125th anniversary of the evening my great – great – great - great grandfather, Peter Burkhart killed his wife of 43 years and then turned the gun on himself.  The reason given for the murder – suicide?  The newspaper called it a moment of insanity, a crime of passion.

I've Got a Secret...
If you’ve been involved in genealogy for very long, you’ve probably uncovered a family secret or two.  With the continuing popularity of the hobby, some sociologists are warning that if you dig too deep, you may get more than you bargained for.


Family Secrets
Family secrets can run the gamut from the relatively tame taboos (in today’s world) of cousins marrying cousins, illegitimate children, interracial or interfaith marriages, to criminals, bigamy, mental illness, even into the darker depths of incest, suicide or murder.


We all begin our genealogy journey wanting to discover who our people were, (especially in relation to who we are,) but when we discover a family secret, we need to be prepared handle the information. 

It’s important to remember that every family has a story – some of it good, some not.  And there are skeletons in every family’s closet.  Think about what you will do when you open Pandora’s Box.  What to do will depend on several factors, the most important - Who will it affect NOW?  


Most genealogists abide by the standard rule - do not publish anything about a living person. If someone is still alive that the secret involves directly, or who will be devastated by it, it’s best to keep the status quo, for now.  That does not mean that you are altering your family story or rewriting history. It simply means that you have decided to respect someone’s right to privacy.  But, that also does not mean hiding it forever.


Family secrets and skeletons in the closet are not the same as information that you just were not aware of before.  Secrets are kept hidden, on purpose.  They are an attempt to withhold information about an event or person because family feels shame and/or fears what others will think.

Peter Burkhart
Farming in the 1800's
According to the biographical sketch in the History of Pike County, Indiana, my ancestor, Peter Burkhart was a model citizen.  He had the reputation of being “the greatest hunter and of always keeping the largest number and best bred hounds of any man in the county…. He succeeded well as a farmer.”

The book went on to describe his family - “Elizabeth Snyder became his wife April 1, 1844. They became the parents of nine children, eight of whom are married and living within three miles of their father.  They all have families but none of their children have died.  The family history presents remarkable instances of longevity.”

The sketch refers to Peter as having “always been a Democrat in politics and served as township trustee six terms…. He has been one of the most successful office holders and prominent pioneer citizens in the county.”



Summer Wheat
Pike County, Indiana
Everything in the biography fits with what I know – My family was a pioneer family in Indiana, settling in Pike County near the town of Petersburg because the land was rich and farmable.  Raising dogs for work and companionship goes back through the generations. Longevity has always been a strong suit – with some members making it just short of 100.  Even the prominence of leadership qualities has followed through. 

But newspaper headline that read “Died By Own Hand – Peter Burkhart Kills His Aged and Faithful Wife and Then Kills Himselfsuddenly presented me with information that had not been discussed in the family.  A story I want to know more about.



A Pike County Homestead
The Pike County Democrat newspaper declared this “The most startling case of _____ and suicide which has ever taken place in Pike County.  Peter Burkhart shot his wife, Elizabeth with a shotgun.  She ran out on the porch, followed by Burkhart.  He placed her on a chair where she soon died.  He then took the same gun and emptied a load into his own body.”

The newspaper goes on to report, “It seems however, that without cause he had become jealous of his wife and crazed of the ‘green-eyed monster,’ committed the awful crime which human conscience refuses to commute.  Mr. Burkhart left a piece of writing in which he accuses his aged and faithful wife of marriage infidelity.  This must have been the result of a crazed brain from some accountable cause….”


Peter and Elizabeth Burkhart
Close Up of Their Stone
I know the family had many reasons for letting this family secret pass quickly and quietly into history. But unfortunately, with all of the main family gone, even my grandparents, who would have known parts of the real story, I must now figure out a way to contact cousins to find out more.  And even in this day and age some will want to ‘protect the family secret’ of a murder – suicide that happened well over 100 years ago.


Family Tree
Gathering Storm
But this is what genealogy is all about, researching and discovering facts about your ancestors. That includes the hardships and decisions they made, what circumstances they endured that made them who they were.  I don’t know the end story of Peter Burkhart or why he decided to act as he did that fateful July night in 1887, but I intend to find out all that I can to help me understand it. And who knows what other family secrets I may uncover...

Key in Lock
Remember that if we continue to keep those family secrets, key components of family history will never get fully revealed or stand a chance of being explained.  That could leave us with a large gap in the understanding of who our ancestors were, and the real information that could help us make sense of them could end up lost forever.


As George Bernard Shaw said, If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.”

~ Joy

Friday, May 20, 2011

Planning a Cemetery Trip

There comes a time when a trip to the cemetery is in order to advance your genealogy research.  Some people take it as par for the course; others dread the thought, and then there are those of us who don’t need any excuse to set out for a cemetery.  But in order to make this a worthwhile adventure, there are some points to remember.

Getting Ready
Start with Research -
Find out what county the cemetery you’ll be visiting is located in. Discover what type of cemetery it is, rural, suburban, urban and plan accordingly.
Here are just a few sites to help you find a cemetery:
Find A Grave:         http://www.findagrave.com/
Interment              http://www.interment.net/
RootsWeb               http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/
USGenWeb             http://www.usgenweb.org/

If it is a city cemetery, you will be contacting the cemetery sexton/superintendent or cemetery staff for information.






If it is a small, rural cemetery or one not found on the Internet, the county trustee is whom you should search for. 





If it is a church cemetery, you will need to locate the current clergy for information.






If it is a private cemetery, you will have to discover who owns the land and get their permission to enter.

Check with the county library, local genealogical and historical societies, and local funeral homes for cemetery locations and directions. Remember too, these are great resources to check out for records on your ancestors while you’re in the neighborhood.  Even local newspapers may provide obits with a mention of the cemetery.

But be aware of the spelling of a cemetery name – locals may pronounce and spell the cemetery name differently than others.  Both sets of my great grandparents are buried in Bedell Cemetery, far out in the country in southwestern Indiana.   In my research I’ve found the name spelled as Beadle – Beedle – Biddle, all indicating the same cemetery 

Now that you have a physical address, get a map and directions.  Many cemeteries have maps on their web sites.  Plan to use your GPS or get a map from the Internet.  Two great map resources are:
MapQuest:              http://www.mapquest.com/
Google Maps:          http://maps.google.com/


 Plan, Plan, Plan –
Decide what you want to accomplish.  Are you looking to confirm birth and death dates?  Do you want an actual photo of the grave?  Is this your chance to look at burial and plat records?  Once you know why you’re going to the cemetery, what you’re looking for and how to achieve it, you will find that you get much more done. 

Schedule Appointments – 
If you intend to speak with the cemetery sexton, cemetery trustee or funeral home personal, set an appointment. Schedule time if you want to look through the burial records, cemetery deeds or see death certificates. Most of these people will be happy to meet and talk with you, but please have the courtesy to work with their schedules.

What To Take

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words -
Take a digital camera, an extra memory card and LOTS of batteries.  While stone rubbings and transcribing stones may be useful, you can’t argue with a photo.  This is exactly what was engraved on the stone. Be sure to get at least two shots of each stone.  One should be a long shot to include the general area and the other a close up.  You may also want to zoom in on symbols or epitaphs in order to see them better.  


Always check the backs of stones for any additional information recorded there. Go ahead and shoot surrounding stones.  These could be unknown children, in-laws or neighbors.  And be sure to shoot all of the stones you find that have the surnames you’re searching for.


Pack Your Bag -
Grab a reusable shopping bag and make it your ‘cemetery bag.’  In it, be sure to include a soft paintbrush for dusting grass and dirt off of stones, a soft toothbrush for cleaning out mud-filled lettering, and a spray bottle filled with water.  This will help to clear soil from the stone and allow for easier reading of inscriptions. Pack a notebook or cemetery log to record findings and descritions. Ancestry Printing offers a detailed downloadable cemetery log for free at: http://www.ancestryprinting.com/cemetery%20log.pdf

Also be sure to take some food and water.  Nothing fancy, unless you’re planning a picnic.  Crackers or granola/candy bars are fine, just something to take the edge off of hunger.  And take plenty of bottled water to keep hydrated.

C’mon Partner –
Be smart!  Ask a friend to go along.  While we tend to think of cemeteries as peaceful, quiet vistas, you will find some located in remote, isolated areas, or in questionable urban locations. If the area does not look safe to you – DO NOT continue on. Follow your instincts.


Do not keep anything of value (computers, cameras) within sight in your vehicle.  If you intend to wander far, lock your vehicle and set your alarm. Be aware of your surroundings and those around you.  Be sure you have a charged cell phone on you at all times.  If you have to go alone, tell someone where you will be and when you will return.   ALWAYS REMEMBER - it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Dress Accordingly –
Wear comfortable clothing and dress for the weather.  You’ll more than likely be wandering around all day, so wear comfortable shoes and jeans.  During the warmer months, take a long sleeved shirt or jacket with you.  Carry insect repellent, keep an eye out for snakes, and do a tick and chigger check when you get home.

 The Cemetery
At the Gate -
Before you enter, take a photo of the cemetery sign and any buildings located at the entrance.  This will help you keep locations straight and provide you with a great record of your trip.  If there is a cemetery office, stop in and see what resources they offer.  Check for maps, brochures, notable burials, any tours offered, and get the general history of the cemetery.

Once, from the Top -
Take the time to make a general drive or walk through the cemetery before you get involved in your research.  That way, you know the general layout and have a feel for your surroundings. Find out the cemetery hours and abide by them.

Be Respectful –
Remember, you are in a cemetery.  Treat stones and markers with care.  If a service is going on near your destination, show respect and reroute until it is over.  Avoid doing anything that could damage stones, trees or plantings.  Check with the cemetery office regarding the rules.  Some cemeteries will not allow picnics, pets or photography!

Be Skeptical –
 Just because something is engraved on a stone does not make it so.  Check your cemetery findings against primary sources when you get home.  Gravestones can contain mistakes, just like any other secondary source.



Have FUN!
Take time to admire what’s there.  If the cemetery offers walking or driving tour maps, grab one and get going.  Once your research is done, plan some time to just enjoy being outdoors.  Shoot what you find interesting.  You will be amazed at what you can find in a cemetery – exquisite artwork, interesting architecture, landscaped grounds, poems and prose, the rich and famous; you can make it a day’s worth of interesting and enjoyable pursuits with a little planning.

It’s the weekend – go visit a cemetery!

~ Joy