Genealogists are known for their LOVE of dead people...does that sound morbid? I feel like it sounds morbid, but in all seriousness we are those people you see wandering aimlessly through the cemeteries while you are visiting your loved ones, looking at plot maps, and squinting off into the distance....I've been known to jump up and down yelling 'YES! FOUND THEM' and drawing the awkward stares of those around me.
There is something satisfying in finding the family plots of your 5x, 4x, and 3x Great Grandparents along with their children, siblings, and nieces and nephews. A recent trip I had to Sparta, Michigan to visit the little sleepy town that my ancestors settled and built in the 1840's emitted such a reaction. To begin, I have a very loving and accommodating husband, so I am going to give him a quick shout out, because he literally was driving me everywhere and handling our three children (who were 3 years old, 2 years old and 5 months old at the time). My husband's family only lives about 30 minutes away from Sparta, I had a spur of the moment decision that we were going to make the trip over there on a early Monday afternoon after spending the weekend at his parents house (it was just after Thanksgiving). Monday was my jackpot day, the local Historical Society has group meetings that day and the head of the H.S. pulled all the folders and photos they had of my family, this included my 4 times Great Grandparents, along with my 3x Great Grandpa Peter Myers 9 siblings and their children. To say my Family Historian heart was racing would have been an understatement. To place faces with these names I had been researching and adding information to for decades made my thumper go about a hundred miles a minute. I was in that building chatting with the members for a good hour and a half, while my dear and loving husband handled our kids in the truck.
Okay, let's skip ahead to the cemetery, after hours of research and a trip to the family schoolhouse museum we drove to the cemetery (which is also named after my family). I have been a Genealogist for almost a decade now and there are a few things I want to share with my budding Genealogist that will help you in the long run when it comes to cemetery research. So here is my list of MUST TAKE PHOTOS:
1. THE CEMETERY SIGN
You may wonder why the cemetery sign is so important, and there are several reasons. First, it will help you keep organized. It's very easy to put photos of headstones in with others that aren't from the same cemetery, especially if you visited several cemeteries in the same or same town. When you get up into the thousands (it's so easy to do when you start branching out from your main limbs). Second, it's not uncommon to have cemeteries named the same especially if you are in a town that was settled by an ancestor. You can come across and exclusive family cemeteries generally ones that are on private property that once belonged to your ancestors, and then ones that are named after them because they built the town. When I take photos at cemeteries I categorize them behind the corresponding cemetery sign. And third, it also gives you a starting point for return visits. You can pinpoint locations of plots from the location of the main sign.
2. A WIDE PHOTO OF THE CEMETERY
This is just a much to get your bearings and remember your location as the cemetery sign. Doing this every few plots will help you when you come back to find your ancestors and where you left off if you didn't find all of your relations the last time (trust me you will find more which will evoke more trips back). When you go to a hundred cemeteries in a year they can all end up blurring together, and maintaining a organized journal from your visits will save you a lot of stress later.
3. THE ENTIRE HEADSTONE
This is really self evident. You take a photo of the entire headstone to get all the core information listed there i.e. Name, date of birth, date of death, spouses name (if there was one). There is something beautiful and artistic in those old hand carved headstones also. I love finding similarities between them.
4. THE CLOSE UP
Now you may not think you can find anything else if you have a photo of the full headstone. But many older headstones (1860's and such) also have epitaphs inscribed down near the bottom of the head stone. Also make sure you take pictures of the sides and back of the headstone also. Some of the smaller print on older headstones wrapped around the sides because of space, there is also sometimes a list of children etched on the back of headstones, especially if a child died in infancy or as a child and there is no marker.
5. THE GROUND
You may be wondering why you should take a picture of the ground, many many headstones have fallen over the years and the earth has grown up around them. So don't forget to look on the ground near older headstones. I found a child of my 4x Great Grandparents that died when she was a child near my 5x Great Grandparents Graves. I would have missed it entirely if I hadn't been looking at the ground.
6. THE NEIGHBORS
Don't forget to photograph the neighbors even if you don't recognize the name. If you are new to genealogy or really haven't branched up from your direct line but I wanting too this is essential. More than likely especially in older cemeteries where people were buried in family groups those neighbors are probably distant relations. 3x Great Aunts and Uncles, first cousins four times removed, their children etc.
This photo is of George Thayer and his wife Elizabeth, prior to branching out I had never heard this name before. Elizabeth was actually my 4x Great Aunt, she was the older sister of Peter Myers and her husband I learned was the best friend of Peter. They joined the Union Army together, in fact my Great Great Grandfather (Peter's eldest son) was named after his dear friend, George Nathan Myers.
So I will conclude this blog post with this, happy searching, get excited about your finds, and don't give up the research. A gold mine of knowledge is just waiting for you. And when you throw up the occasional first in success, think of me ;-)