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Went home and spent a week with my sisters and they joined in the chase...
I've been looking for the gravesite of my great great grandfather. I had a very good idea that he would have been buried at a local church near him. There are no available transcriptions of the cemetery. So while I was visiting, I searched the cemetery.
Didn't find him.
BUT -- found my 3rd great grandfather there instead. Wasn't looking for him.... Gotta take the good with the bad.
Also spent some time in the Maryland Room at the Frederick Library. Didn't get much farther there, but the librarian gave me some good leads to search next.
Having done this in the age of the internet/computer... I can't even imagine the work it took in the years past.... Hours spent in the library searching and getting skunked...
The old church cemeteries are sometimes in bad shape and hard to read the graves.
I also always think that people were REALLY dedicated in years passed to do genealogical research. I started mine a little bit in 1996 and even from then to now it is much different due to so much being available online. I bought a lot of death certificates back then because only indexes were available online for me and just having familysearch.org saves a ton of money where I no longer have to purchase them.
It is just amazing how much is now available online...though even today what we have online is just a tip of the iceberg, so to speak, as compared to what is offline...many state archives have tons of records on paper and microfilm, yet to be scanned for online use.
This cemetery where you searched and found your third great=grandfather---is any death/burial register still available, kept by the church? Sometimes these old registers are in a state or university archive---though many times, unfortunately, they are gone, lost to fire, flood or thru carelessness or neglect. But its always worth asking. I find it common for family memebers, especially those of different generations to not be buried in the same cemetery...though if they stayed in the area, they might had been interred at another place nearby. Sometimes the marker is just gone, or was not ever put up for various reasons. If a burial register still does exist, it can help clear that up as most often it will contain names of those buried where no gravestone marks the grave (either because it never did, or has since gone missing).
It is just amazing how much is now available online...though even today what we have online is just a tip of the iceberg, so to speak, as compared to what is offline...many state archives have tons of records on paper and microfilm, yet to be scanned for online use.
This cemetery where you searched and found your third great=grandfather---is any death/burial register still available, kept by the church? Sometimes these old registers are in a state or university archive---though many times, unfortunately, they are gone, lost to fire, flood or thru carelessness or neglect. But its always worth asking. I find it common for family memebers, especially those of different generations to not be buried in the same cemetery...though if they stayed in the area, they might had been interred at another place nearby. Sometimes the marker is just gone, or was not ever put up for various reasons. If a burial register still does exist, it can help clear that up as most often it will contain names of those buried where no gravestone marks the grave (either because it never did, or has since gone missing).
I'm going to write them -- there was no one to ask there at the time -- a wedding rehearsal was taking place (although I think it was the music portion). A number of stones were faded out sandstone, so Grampy Ben might be there, under an unreadable stone. I haven't given up on him being there. No dates were on the granite stones of the others I found, but history says that church was a working church with cemetery at the date of his death in 1875.
I remember I found a map, and their lands were in close proximity of the church, and so was Ben's.... so it's sort of logical he's there... just as logical that he was buried on his property... and lost to us.
I'm going to write them -- there was no one to ask there at the time -- a wedding rehearsal was taking place (although I think it was the music portion). A number of stones were faded out sandstone, so Grampy Ben might be there, under an unreadable stone. I haven't given up on him being there. No dates were on the granite stones of the others I found, but history says that church was a working church with cemetery at the date of his death in 1875.
I remember I found a map, and their lands were in close proximity of the church, and so was Ben's.... so it's sort of logical he's there... just as logical that he was buried on his property... and lost to us.
Ya, they did sometimes inter people on their own property, especially in rural areas. But, more times than not, if a church was near, especially one they attended, they will be buried in that churchyard or some cemetery.
The burial register itself will tell more, if it exists. Some just list names and date of death/burial and other pertinent info., others describe the actual location of the grave in the cemetery.
You likely know all this, but for those that do not.
Among religious faithful it was important to be buried in consecrated ground. Public cemeteries often had consecrated ground portions and unconsecrated portions; whereas, enclosed church burial grounds were consecrated. Outside the enclosure sometimes members who were not eligible for burial inside were buried, such as suicide deaths in Catholic cemeteries.
Church records original or copies of may be archived in a regional repository. It may be at a University library many states away. Also fraternal organizations recorded burial rites performed and those may be archived locally. If you know the death date, old newspapers of the area are the best source of burial information clues.
Non church owned cemeteries had/have sexton or gravedigger records. These can be hard to locate, but try to discern who paid or appointed the gravedigger. If it was the county, then records are archived there. Each time someone was paid by the county (or town) a record was made.
I have also read site of burial on the executor of estate report as part of record of money spent.
The other source is funeral home companies. Some were acquired and then renamed. It can prove worthwhile to ask present businesses if they have old records from the time you are interested in.
Ohhhh... thanks. There is a local historical society to check for old church records.... look at you teaching an old dog some new tricks! LOL
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Gotta take the good with the bad.
