{"id":372,"date":"2016-10-10T20:46:10","date_gmt":"2016-10-10T20:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/?p=372"},"modified":"2016-10-10T20:46:10","modified_gmt":"2016-10-10T20:46:10","slug":"making-the-most-of-your-research-trip-part-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/?p=372","title":{"rendered":"Making the Most of Your Research Trip – Part 7"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 31 Aug 2016.<\/p>\n

I was on the way to visit the home of a minister who had old cemetery records from a previous church that was no longer in existence. \u00a0I’m a farmer’s daughter so driving down country roads and acclimating myself to finding directions isn’t that big of a deal to me. \u00a0I was pushing the speed limit, though, as the Reverend had not wanted to meet with me today as he had other plans and I didn’t want to hold him up. \u00a0In about 20 minutes I whizzed past the turnoff. \u00a0I call it a turnoff because it wasn’t a named street. \u00a0It was a gravel drive that appeared to belong to one family but after making a 3 point turn I realized that several families lived on this lane. \u00a0An elderly gentleman flagged me and I rolled down the passenger side window and asked him if he was the Reverend. \u00a0He asked why I wanted to know (so clearly, he wasn’t or if he was, he had a serious case of forgetfulness.) \u00a0I told the man I had an appointment with the Reverend. \u00a0He looked skeptical and pointed down the road, informing me that the Reverend lived behind the barn. \u00a0I drove off and was soon flagged down by an older woman who looked like she stepped out of the 1800’s. \u00a0I again rolled the passenger side window down and told her I was meeting with the Reverend. \u00a0She shook her head like she didn’t believe me and pointed behind her. \u00a0The lane curved slightly between her home and the large barn. \u00a0I came to the end of the lane and parked; I knew this was the Reverend’s place as I recognized the truck from that morning when I had been in the cemetery.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I was<\/p>\n

There was no doorbell so I knocked firmly on the door. \u00a0No answer. \u00a0I knocked again. \u00a0No answer. \u00a0It dawned on me I should go to the back door and not the front door. \u00a0I walked around the house and the Reverend was coming in from the field. \u00a0I gave him a perky hello but he was not too keen to see me. \u00a0He immediately said, “My wife looked and didn’t find the people you wrote in your note. \u00a0They aren’t buried there.” \u00a0I told him I believed his wife had done a great job but I wanted to see who was buried next to the Pentz’s as I had found the people I was looking for in the cemetery that morning. \u00a0He looked surprised. \u00a0I whipped out my phone and showed him the tombstones. \u00a0He shook his head and invited me in.<\/p>\n

The Mrs. Reverend and daughter were baking and it smelled wonderful! \u00a0I said hello and mentioned how good it smelled. \u00a0Neither responded.<\/p>\n

I followed the Reverend through the dining room and into the living room. \u00a0He told me to sit at a table and he would bring the maps and book. \u00a0We looked through the book and found no one named Pentz. \u00a0He asked me if I was sure that I had been in his cemetery and not some other cemetery. \u00a0I was not only sure, I produced the Find-a-Grave page for the people I was looking for. \u00a0I pointed out the background that clearly showed the other church so it had to be his cemetery.<\/p>\n

He was quietly pondering how this could be when he asked me to point on the map he produced where I had found the graves. \u00a0He asked me if the plots were near the apple trees. \u00a0I hadn’t noticed apple trees. \u00a0I told him it was close to the smaller, fenced cemetery, three rows in from there. \u00a0He replied, “Well, that explains it. \u00a0I don’t have records for that part of the cemetery. \u00a0That’s the old cemetery. \u00a0My records start in 1897.” \u00a0The tombstones I had photographed were from prior to that.<\/p>\n

I asked where I could find the older records. \u00a0He said there weren’t any. \u00a0Huh? \u00a0Evidently Price’s Church kept no records or if they ever did, they were long gone. \u00a0He said they all knew where everyone was buried or married to so they didn’t need records. \u00a0Great! \u00a0So I would not be finding a marriage record for my Ancestor 1’s sister, either.<\/p>\n

The Reverend could see I was deeply disappointed and asked me why it was so important that I find this information. \u00a0I told him I was a teacher and was going to be retiring soon and was planning a second career as a genealogist. \u00a0I needed the records for a paper I was writing to become certified. \u00a0He informed me his daughter was also a teacher. \u00a0He thought for a moment and said he had been told by elders that there were no burial spaces remaining in that older section. \u00a0It was possible that the stones for the people I were seeking were sunken, which would have explained why the area looked depressed to me. \u00a0He said there had been several problems with sunken stones in that area. \u00a0He suggested I go back and look carefully at the ground to see if any remaining part of a monument might be visible. \u00a0I mentioned that the stones had deteriorated a great deal since the picture had been taken and placed on Find-a-Grave. \u00a0He suggested I spray the stones with bleach water and lightly brush the lichen off. \u00a0I thanked him for his time, said good-bye to the family, and was on my way.<\/p>\n

I stopped back at the cemetery and kicked with my foot into the ground to see if I could feel a stone. \u00a0Nothing but the area was clearly sunken.<\/p>\n

I examined a tombstone closer and could see that it had sunk:<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

When I had visited in the morning I thought that the stone was on a pedestal but that’s not the case. \u00a0Upon closer inspection, and moving the dead grass off the base, I discovered that the death date is below the ground level. \u00a0I would return with bleach and a brush first thing the next morning!<\/p>\n

On my way back to town I stopped at a third cemetery – Burn’s Hill – hoping to check records in the office as I have never been able to reach anyone by phone. \u00a0When I arrived I realized why – there is no office. \u00a0I drove through and found lots of Harbaugh’s but the stones were all newer than what I was looking for. \u00a0On to the library…<\/p>\n

I made one last walk through of the stacks to make sure I hadn’t missed anything from the visit yesterday. \u00a0The volunteer genealogist still hadn’t come in and there was no telling when he would. There were different librarians on duty so I asked them where I could find the Union Cemetery records. \u00a0Checking the database I wasn’t surprised to get the same response as yesterday – we don’t have them. \u00a0I signed on to a computer and finished searching the newspaper archives that had been digitally uploaded. \u00a0Nothing discovered. \u00a0I asked where I could find the newspaper that had been mentioned on the pedigree chart in the museum. \u00a0They had no idea. \u00a0I was calling it a night. \u00a0Hopefully, I’d find something tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 31 Aug 2016. I was on the way to visit the home of a minister who had old cemetery records from a previous church that was no longer in existence. \u00a0I’m a farmer’s daughter so driving down country roads and acclimating myself to finding directions isn’t that big of a … Continue reading “Making the Most of Your Research Trip – Part 7”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[208,200,321],"class_list":["post-372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boots-on-the-ground-researching","tag-cemetery-records","tag-research","tag-tombstone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=372"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":373,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372\/revisions\/373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}