Home burials (Daniels, Middlebourne, War: houses, live, club)

[riverbottomkidok]

I would like to know if anyone can provide information about retrieving home burial records. I know of several relatives who have buried their loved ones at home but without traveling to West Virginia I don't have a record. If anyone can point me in the right direction it would be appreciated. My first trip to West Virginia was a few years ago and I have to say.........you guys have a different way of doing things. LOL! On our way into Glen Daniels, about 1:00 a.m., our first OMG was when we passed a locked cemetery, just off the road, with a casket, yes, a casket, on the ground, outside the gate, in a parking spot. We had to stop and stare! I know I got a little off the subject but, wow! Then my grandmother had two graves on the top of her property. So I need a little point in the right direction.

[BJC]

I dont think leaving a casket in a parking lot out side a cemetery is something that happens often. Perhaps it was a prank.

Anyway check with the local court house, they will have records even in the person is buried on pvt property.

[riverbottomkidok]

Thank you very much BJC. I have contacted the Raleigh County seat and they were not much help. Are West Virginia courthouses by county or is it local? Every state is different. My mother thought perhaps the casket was there because of an early morning funeral and was delivered due to time constraints. She told me that it was not a common practice as well. Thanks again.

[BJC]

the court house is located in the county seat

[David Kennedy]

I've spent countless hours in courthouses pulling records and know that public employees don't want to do much in the research fields.
Making a copy of a record is another thing...they can charge you for that.

I would suggest you get in touch with the local history club , most often at the local library and hire a person to physically go out to the desired location and record the tombstones.
In some instances, if the cemetery is very old, data has already been recorded to a certain year and is on file.
Better and cheaper than making a trip across country and spending thousands.
I did all that when I was 30...was out of work for about a year and collected our history, glad I did it then.

[snorpus]

Genealogy groups also will often have cemetery records, obtained by sending someone out into the field and writing down what they see on the tombstones, as DK did.

My paternal gramdparents are buried in a small, informal cemetery on a corner of their farm, along Eight Mile Ridge between Reader and Middlebourne.

[wolfeyes]

You can call any funeral home and get burial records (this is permitting the records have not been destroyed in a fire) as long as you have the names of person or persons your searching and possibly the date of birth/date of death....Court Houses usually don't carry those types of records.

[Retired Navy]

Originally Posted by riverbottomkidok

Thank you very much BJC. I have contacted the Raleigh County seat and they were not much help. Are West Virginia courthouses by county or is it local? Every state is different. My mother thought perhaps the casket was there because of an early morning funeral and was delivered due to time constraints. She told me that it was not a common practice as well. Thanks again.

Are you sure you saw a casket?? I'm guessing you probably saw a vault which goes in a grave before the casket and then is sealed to protect the casket, and it's inhabitant, from water damage.

[BJC]

retired navy, very good point!

[David Kennedy]

Yes, I'll agree on that one too...you saw a vault. That casket willge us a reputation for grave robbing if it get out..

and Snorpus? ANY Straits, Mayfields or Kennedy's in your family...???

We could be cousins...would be 1830 for the Straits, 1850's and later for the Mayfields..Dr. Sam Mayfield and family prior. He was a Union Civil War surgeon, 90 days of training and sent to the field hospitals.