OMG..I THINK WE FOUND A GRAVE IN OUR BACKYARD! "UPDATE PAGE 11"

[purplepeep]

Quote:

BAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I love it! Thanks for the chuckle

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

Ok My turn

this is pic heavy...

This cemetery is down at the end of a dead end road (the end of our road). The area was settled back around the Late 1700's and early 1800's and many of the original settlers are buried here.

A little background... In our area (wide area, like counties, state, etc...) folks REALLY take care of their people's graves. Many of the graveyards are on their own property, and you can still bury your folks on your property - I intend to be buried on our property, and my hubby and our kids, if they so choose. There are a lot of homes here with small family graveyards - all well kept and very nice looking.

This particular graveyard, being so old, must have gotten away from being cared for, as there are a lot of the graves buried under brush and trees and go right back to the fenceline of the property behind. Many of the graves however, have been "reclaimed" and cleared of trees and brush. Some of the stones are merely slate or limestone fieldstone to mark the spot. In the cow pasture behind is an old log cabin, probably built and lived in by one of those buried in this cemetery.

Ok, here's the cemetery...

Gravestone on the side of the dirt road - I hope it was replaced and not just displaced.

Someone from one of the families (on three headstones) came back after the stone had been placed and carved, and added their own hand carved inscriptions. I had to use chalk directly on the stone to be able to read them - and the chalk washed off - so no, I didn't de-face them for too long.

"death is eternal life, why should we weep"

"he is not dead but sleepeth"

had a very hard time reading this one... what I can recall of what it said (is easier to read in person) is "The sweet home ?? Home is high up Heaven. A husband kind and father dear"

I adore this cemetery. It is very peaceful and secluded and I believe that those who are buried there are pleased that their bodies can rest in the place they loved and worked so hard to build. There are more stones than these, many young women and baby stones, and a few war stones. I believe the last person buried there was in the mid 1970's - and it is still visited by the newer grave folks and kept up.

It is next to impossible to get to, or find if you don't know where it is - the road turns into dirt, then into a two track that you can barely get down. The names of the people on the stones reflect the names of the roads and townships in this area. I know a few of their decendants who still bear those names.

When I found this cemetery (by accident

) I fell in love with it, and visit it as often as possible with my busy schedule - I try to get down there a few times a year to just wander and soak in the atmosphere.

meri

 

[charmed one]

Way cool, Mojo!!

 

[MaggieRae]

During the 18th and 19th centuries, it was a common belief that people didn't die. They just went to sleep for a looong time. So, almost all the engraved tomb stones are enscribed with something about 'he is only sleepith'... Something like that.

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

I'll have to see if I can find the pic of my Ingall family stone - it is a huge tree trunk with an anchor and chain on it and the family name (eta- and a vine)- I know all the parts and pictures on them mean different things - old tombstones fascinate me. The separate personal stones to this family are all little logs with their names and dates on them (as if they had been cut from the tree).


eta - found the pics...

the anchor is broken, but recognizable.

example of the "log" personal stones - this one is Carrie May's stone...

Carrie May was my GG Grandfather's little sister who died when she was 10 years old. My GG Grandfather and GGG Grandfather were clearing a field to plant - pulling stumps, cutting trees and brush and putting it all in a pile and burning it. Carrie May got too close to the burning pile and she caught on fire and burned. Their clothes at the time had tons of hook and eye closures and buttons (and massive amounts of undergarments) and my GG Grandfather tried to get her out of her clothes to save her but couldn't. Horrible way to die, and I can only imagine how my Grandfathers felt trying to save her and knowing it was probably a lost cause.

meri

 

[PunkerTechnoRoo?ter]

My grandmother lived in a very rural part of south Georgia, it use to be a town called Union. Ironically (I think its irony) it was burnt to the ground by Sherman's men during his march to the sea. My dad says there are cemeteries every were in the woods and swamplands out there, cause it was a main town in that location. My uncle and him found one so deep in the woods once while hunting that massive pine trees had embedded the grave stones in the trees themselves.

 

[bettisworth]

Hey get a load of this. My exwife had a small peice of property, with a 5 acre pasture. I was on the back side of the pasture one day, and noticed these 2 square stones with a groove in the top of them, piled against a tree. After looking at them on several different occasions i thought "gee these things look like the base stones to old tombstones". A few days later, I was talking to her ex father in law (she was married once before me). He was an "old timer". I told him of my discovery. He says "Yeah so and so owned this place years back. He got tired of the tombstones being in his way while mowing. We loaded the gravestones into a pick up, and hauled them off and threw them in a ditch". I WAS FURIOUS!!!!

I'm into geneolgy for one thing......and there is absolutely no sign of this graveyard anymore....imagine digging and finding bones..

Sorry I must vent here.....

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

Quote:
I understand your anger (genealogist, here, also).

My ancestors, dead though they may be, are real to me. I know their stories, I have their pictures, I carry their legacy.

I would no sooner desecrate someone else's ancestors graves than my own.

People like that deserve to be forgotten, themselves.

meri

 

[cw]

hey mojo,
i have a great grandfather and all his bros had tombstones like that, they were members of the woodsmen,(like the masons from what i understand )dont know much about them

 

[Birdgirl]

I know some people think its "creepy" but I used to play in the grave yard. Had lots of fun in them.. LOL I know I know and no I didnt do anything disrespectful. I think its really neat looking at the stones and thinking about what it musta looked like when they died, what they left behind, What they died from. What their clothes looked like.
I like the one up above with the ivy one it, dont see many think that!