{"id":374,"date":"2016-10-10T20:47:27","date_gmt":"2016-10-10T20:47:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/?p=374"},"modified":"2016-10-10T20:47:27","modified_gmt":"2016-10-10T20:47:27","slug":"making-the-most-of-your-research-trip-part-8-last-of-a-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/?p=374","title":{"rendered":"Making the Most of Your Research Trip – Part 8 – Last of a Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 4 Sept 2016.<\/p>\n

It was the dawning of my last day of my research trip to Pennsylvania and was hoping for a miracle to find the burial location with a date for my husband’s 3 x’s great grandfather. \u00a0I also wanted to confirm church records of where another of his 3 x’s great grandfather’s was buried in a second cemetery. \u00a0The cemetery had no record of that burial but it was listed in church records.<\/p>\n

After a quick breakfast and checking out of the hotel I was on to Antietam Cemetery. \u00a0I drove the rental car as close to the family plots as possible. \u00a0I hadn’t mixed the bleach in the water to clean the stones as per the Reverend’s instructions as I was afraid I’d spill it in the car and wreck the carpeting. \u00a0The Walmart in Waynesboro carries bleach tablets. \u00a0We don’t have those in my Walmart! \u00a0They were perfect as I only had to pop one in the spray bottle and then add water. \u00a0No worries about spilling a bottle of bleach.<\/p>\n

Since it wasn’t yet 8 AM the dew was still covering the ground. \u00a0My sneakers were soaked quickly but I trudged on, located the graves and sprayed away. \u00a0Once I had sprayed the entire family’s stones I went back to the first grave and gently rubbed the lichen off with the scrub brush. MAGIC! \u00a0I resprayed bleach solution and moved down to the next stone. \u00a0After the second brushing I poured clean water over the stone. \u00a0I was now wet, hot and filthy but happy – I could finally read all the stones. \u00a0Well, the parts that were above ground level. \u00a0As the Reverend had mentioned yesterday, the area was prone to sinking and one stone in particular had really gone down quite a lot. \u00a0I suspect the Revered was correct that if there were stones for my husband’s missing great grandparents they had sunk. \u00a0I believe there had been stones as the family has a notorious bread crumb trail of stones going back to the 1600’s in what is now Germany. \u00a0I would find it odd that this was the only couple that did not have stones, especially since the stone for their son was quite large.<\/p>\n

I rephotographed the stones and then, on a whim, decided to look for the apple trees that the Reverend mentioned. \u00a0Why? \u00a0I am obsessed with apple trees, probably because my great uncle was John Chapman, aka Johnny Appleseed. \u00a0Sure enough, their were apple trees on the other side of the cemetery fence amidst lots of weeds and shrubs. \u00a0I walked over and picked up two apples off the ground. \u00a0Who knows, maybe they were Johnny’s at one time as he was known to have had a farm not far from this location once. \u00a0I couldn’t resist in taking them home:<\/p>\n

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

Back in the car I drove to Green Hill Cemetery. \u00a0I marched to the stone I had found the previous day and sprayed away. \u00a0Even after speaking with the cemetery’s director the area still had not been cleaned. \u00a0I also sprayed the stones on either side to see if maybe one did belong to the great grandfather as church records stated.<\/p>\n

Removing the dirt layer certainly helped the readability but the stone to the right was completely worn. \u00a0Interestingly, it was of the same type of marble as the family member’s stone and none others surrounding were. \u00a0The stone was smaller and I am now thinking it must be the stone for the infant that had died. \u00a0Perhaps both children had died at the same time and the older sibling got the bigger stone. \u00a0It didn’t make sense that the grandfather would have a tiny stone and the grandson a larger one. \u00a0On the smooth stone I placed typing paper that the sweet girl in the hotel had given me and rubbed with a black kindergarten crayon to see if anything would be revealed – nothing. \u00a0My mind wanted to see an outline of a lamb in the middle of the stone but I wasn’t sure if this was reality or not. \u00a0It was no clearer on the rubbing than in a photo.<\/p>\n

Taking the scrub brush I decided to continue to search for the missing grandfather’s stone. \u00a0I located it in the same row but on the left side of the middle. \u00a0I quickly sprayed, scrubbed and washed. \u00a0No doubt about it – this was the stone of the man mentioned in the church records that was not included on the cemetery’s derivative list.<\/p>\n

I’m not sure why the stone was located where it was. \u00a0Church records show that the stone was originally next to the grandson but that’s not the case. \u00a0Either the stones were mixed when they were relocated from Old Union or the church records are wrong. \u00a0Some mysteries just won’t be solved.<\/p>\n

I was so glad to have returned and searched again with better tools. \u00a0I could leave the area with more knowledge than I had which was a good thing!<\/p>\n

I was headed to Virginia to spend the evening with my sister-in-law and decided to take the scenic route through Harbaugh Valley. \u00a0I’ve seen the pictures online and read about the area for nearly 40 years so this was especially important to me.<\/p>\n

The GPS directions made me laugh – I was headed back to the hotel \u00a0where I had stayed. \u00a0Ironically, I was staying just a short distance from the Reverend Henry Harbaugh’s old homestead. \u00a0We have a copy of his poetry book that had been handed down for generations. \u00a0I have also chuckled at his family history, of which we also have a copy. \u00a0Written in 1856 his was the first of several family genealogies written. \u00a0Now I’m not criticizing here as I think he did a wonderful job given the time it was published. \u00a0He couldn’t email, phone or just fly into an area like I had just done to do his research. \u00a0What I find humorous in a dark sense is that he often ended a biography with “He’s dead.” \u00a0No, you think? \u00a0The sermons he left weren’t so succinct so I’m not sure why he used such brevity often in his book.<\/p>\n

I located Harbaugh Road quickly and parked in the Harbaugh church lot. \u00a0The cemetery behind the church is still used but it wasn’t as well maintained as I had envisioned. \u00a0Many of the older stones were totally unreadable. \u00a0There was no point in using the bleach – these stones were out in the middle of a corn field and not subjected to the lichen that covered the stones in the cemeteries on the other side of town.<\/p>\n

The church was locked so I could not go in. \u00a0I was disappointed not to find the stone for the missing grandmother. \u00a0A marker outside of the church reminded me of the Reverend Henry’s brevity; it mentioned that a marker for the family home was nearby but didn’t give directions. \u00a0I brought up my family tree on my phone to see if I had any coordinates. \u00a0Nope.<\/p>\n

I drove down Harbaugh Road and came to it’s end. \u00a0There was a subdivision now and not farmland. \u00a0I turned around and went back the way I had come, passing the church and turning left at the end of the road. \u00a0A sign that denoted the Maryland state line was displayed. \u00a0I crossed the line and stopped at a vegetable market. \u00a0None of the employees or customers had ever heard of Reverend Harbaugh but they did know there was a church up the street. \u00a0Ironically, one of the employees was related to the Harbaughs but he didn’t know it until I informed him. \u00a0He didn’t care much, either.<\/p>\n

I drove back into Pennsylvania and stopped at an antique store located up the road. \u00a0The owner said she had never heard of the Reverend Harbaugh, either, but she knew there was a road and church and whenever an event was held at the church she got lots of business as people stopped to use her restroom. \u00a0She was somewhat interested in history so I enlightened her on the land that was across from her property. \u00a0She told me that the building where the store was located was once the train station for the area. \u00a0This must have been the place where the Reverend Harbaugh boarded for his trip to Ohio. \u00a0He had to learn English as the family spoke German at home and he learned while traveling. \u00a0His parents missed him terribly and when he returned and after he became a minister, built the church to keep him in the area. \u00a0 As a parent of adult children, I so relate to that!<\/p>\n

This same station was possibly where my husband’s family had left the area when they relocated to northern Indiana. \u00a0From the diary of their maternal aunt I knew the day and time the family had arrived in 1869 but I didn’t know the departure schedule. \u00a0It would be interesting to research further but it was now afternoon and I had to be on my way. \u00a0It was a fitting way to \u00a0end the trip, leaving the area, from the same location they likely had.<\/p>\n

Next time I’ll write about my adventures in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 4 Sept 2016. It was the dawning of my last day of my research trip to Pennsylvania and was hoping for a miracle to find the burial location with a date for my husband’s 3 x’s great grandfather. \u00a0I also wanted to confirm church records of where another of his … Continue reading “Making the Most of Your Research Trip – Part 8 – Last of a Series”<\/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":[339,195,200,342],"class_list":["post-374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boots-on-the-ground-researching","tag-cemetery","tag-harbaugh","tag-research","tag-tombstone-cleaning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374","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=374"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":375,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374\/revisions\/375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}