In Case You Missed It - October 2009

Here are the most viewed posts over the last 30 days:

- Southern Cross of Honor

- Here Lies All the Family (Tombstone Tuesday)

- Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen

- William Walker's Wordless Wednesday

- Interesting & Lovely Little Girl (Tombstone Tuesday)

- Memento Mori

- He Sits & Waits (Wordless Wednesday)

- Rocks, Rocks, and More Rocks

- Beech Springs Methodist Church Cemetery

- Louis Behrens, Famous Fireman

- White Oak Flats Cemetery; Gatlinburg, Tennessee

Comments

Amber Leigh said…

Hi Stephanie,

I'm writing from StoryCorps, America's largest nonprofit national oral history project. I thought you and your readers would be interested in listening to StoryCorps' latest story to broadcast on NPR this morning. Sam Reed, a mortician and the caretaker of Atlanta's historic Oakland Cemetery talks about how his interest in the funeral business started at a young age. You can take a listen here: http://www.storycorps.org/listen/stories/sam-reed.

StoryCorps is an independent nonprofit project whose mission is to honor and celebrate one another's lives through listening. Since 2003, tens of thousands of people from across the country have interviewed family and friends through StoryCorps. Each conversation is recorded on a free CD to take home and share and is also archived for generations to come at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Millions listen to the award-winning broadcasts on public radio and the Internet. Select stories have also been published in the New York Times bestselling book, Listening Is an Act of Love.

I hope you take the time to listen and share.

Thanks,
Amber Leigh

November 6, 2009 at 1:09 PM

S. Lincecum said…

Thanks, Amber, for bringing this to my attention. I posted your comment to the main blog page, hoping more readers will see it!

November 7, 2009 at 8:04 PM

Rocks, Rocks, and More Rocks

Why do people put rocks on grave stones? Some time ago, I learned that the rocks signified a visitor. That is true enough, but I decided to learn a little more about the custom and share my findings with you. Putting rocks on tombstones is most often described as a Jewish custom. There are many "Ask a Rabbi" columns out there, but I did not find one that knew for sure where the custom originated. They all agreed, however, that a rock symbolized a visitor and when put on a tombstone said, "I remember you." I also read that some people pick up a rock wherever they are when they think of a person that has passed. Then, the next time they visit the grave, they place the rock to say, "I wish you were here." Rabbi Shraga Simmons offers a deeper meaning: "We are taught that it is an act of ultimate kindness and respect to bury someone and place a marker at the site. After a person is buried, of course, we can no longer participate in burying them. H...

Southern Cross of Honor

I'm late to this discussion, but it's one I'd like to join. :-) Terry Thornton at The Graveyard Rabbit of the Hill Country started with Grave Marker Symbols: The Southern Cross of Honor and UCV (link no longer available). Judith Shubert at The Graveyard Rabbit of the Covered Bridges continued with Hood County Texas: C.S.A. Veterans & Southern Cross of Honor Symbol . [UPDATE, 1 June 2009: Judith has moved this post to the blog, Cemeteries with Texas Ties . The link has been corrected to reflect this move. You may also link to her article via her nice comment on this post.] Wikipedia states: The Southern Cross of Honor was a military decoration meant to honor the officers, noncommissioned officers, and privates for their valor in the armed forces of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. It was formally approved by the Congress of the Confederate States on October 13, 1862, and was originally intended to be on par with the Union Arm...

Thursday Link Love: EyeWitness To History

Yesterday, a link was added to the Genealogy Research Resources Group at Diigo. The link was to the website titled EyeWitness to History.com: History through the eyes of those who lived it . It's a great site, and I encourage all to visit it. Here are several items I found while snooping around. - Inside a Nazi Death Camp, 1944 : "Hitler established the first concentration camp soon after he came to power in 1933. The system grew to include about 100 camps divided into two types: concentration camps for slave labor in nearby factories and death camps for the systematic extermination of "undesirables" including Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, the mentally retarded and others." - Crash of the Hindenburg, 1937 : "Radio reporter Herbert Morrison, sent to cover the airship's arrival, watched in horror. His eye witness description of the disaster was the first coast-to-coast radio broadcast and has become a classic piece of audio history." [You ca...

Southern Graves

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