Southern Graves

What else could I do for the letter Q, but introduce you to the Quigg family.  Three members rest at Myrtle Hill Cemetery in Rome, Floyd County, Georgia – father, mother, and son. I like the sentiment here – Ever she looked for good, ever she found it. Always Faithful, Mr. Quigg.  I thank you for your service. Are you wondering what's up with all the "letter" posts? I am participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge (links to official page). This challenge lasts through the month of April, with Sundays off.  Each day follows a different letter prompt, in order, from A to Z.  Click here to see all my letter posts on one page (in reverse order). This blog as a whole is one of my themes – telling the tales of tombstones, primarily from those found in the Southern United States and usually the State of Georgia.  You may follow along with me by email and other social media platforms listed at the top of the sidebar.  I and other bloggers in the challe...

It's part of a world-wide living, breathing Holocaust Memorial dedicated to the 1.5 million children who perished as a result.  Fittingly, the 600 daffodils were planted beside a playground in the downtown city park, in the shadow of the Fannin County courthouse. THE DAFFODIL PROJECT Resilient, bright and filled with hope.  These daffodils are a part of the world-wide living Holocaust Memorial that aspires to plant 1.5 million daffodils in memory of the 1.5 million children who perished in the Holocaust and for children who suffer in humanitarian crises around the world today. "How can a person…not be moved by compassion? And above all how can anyone who remembers remain silent?" - Elie Wiesel Dedicated on this 10th day of November, 2013 By the citizens of Blue Ridge, Fannin Co. Why the Daffodil? The official project website explains why the daffodil was chosen: The shape and color of the daffodils represent the Yellow stars that Jews were forced to wear during t...

Tombstone Tuesday from Harmony Church Graveyard in Blue Ridge, Fannin County, Georgia: The Gold Star Mothers veterans service organization has been around since 1928.  Longer than I thought. In the name of accuracy, I do not know if Ida Mae Patton – the mother of PFC Lawrence E. Patton – was "officially" a member of this organization.

I'm a military brat , and proud of it. The military brats subculture has emerged over the last 200 years.  The age of the phenomenon has meant military brats have also been described by a number of researchers as one of the America's oldest and yet least well-known and largely invisible subcultures.  They have also been described as a "modern nomadic subculture".  [ Wikipedia ] My two grandfathers, Asa Logue (left) and B. J. Lincecum, and my father.  Not pictured is my maternal grandmother.  She also served.  All saw war, though not all saw front-line combat. I never considered myself as part of a subculture , but I suppose it's true.  Being America's oldest subculture makes sense, as the United States Army turns 241 today.  Since America' birthday is considered to be 4 July 1776, the United States Army is actually a year older than the country. And though I did not plan to include this sentiment when I first decided to write this post, here it ...

Did you have a nice Memorial Day weekend? I hope so.  This was the first in ages that I wasn't at a "traditional" job.  So I was free and fortunate to be able to attend a local Memorial Day service.  I posted about it here . Earlier in May, Elizabeth Shown Mills shared a link on facebook about a lecture being given by University of Georgia History Professor Stephen Berry.  It was about coroners in the 19th century South.  From lecture summary:  "He discussed the role of a coroner as an agent of the state and talked about the records created from coroner inquests. He argued that coroners can shed light on the emerging patterns of death within a society…" It was a highly informative and very interesting lecture.  As of this writing, it is still available (free!) on C-Span.org . I was able to visit a couple of cemeteries this month.  One I wrote about for yesterday's post .  The other was "the older one" across the way.  I was looking for ...

I have a confession to make.  I like my cemeteries old .  Well, I probably should be more specific.  For blogging purposes , I prefer older cemeteries.  Or at least ones with old sections.  That works, too. Don't misunderstand me, please.  If I have an opportunity to stroll through a "new" cemetery, I'm going to take it.  And I'm just as likely to wander around, getting lost in the stories among the stones, no matter their age.  But when I'm traveling, or researching a place to study, it's usually the old I seek. After attending the Memorial Day service at Veterans Memorial Park in Fannin County, Georgia, I knew I would visit a cemetery.  I wanted to do my part in remembering those that sacrificed their lives for my freedom.  Our freedom. I had two choices, since there are two cemeteries –- an older one and a newer one -- within a stone's throw of the park.  I chose the new one.  Maybe it was because it's placement made it se...

Clinton Webster Whitehead was born 8 February 1923 in Lawrenceville, Gwinnett County, Georgia to John M. and Alma Whitehead.  By about the age of 7 years, Clinton was living in Atlanta with his parents and siblings.  Ten years later in 1940 , the family was still in Atlanta.  Clinton's father was a laborer for the W orks P rogress A dministration Park Project . At the age of 19, about six months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Clinton registered for the draft.  Another six or seven months passed before Clinton officially enlisted in the United States Army on 7 January 1943 -- a month before his 20th birthday.  Ten more months would pass.  Then, just after Thanksgiving 1943, Clinton would be lost at sea. Sinking of the Rohna On November 26, 1943, during WWII, one thousand, one hundred and thirty eight men perished when a British troopship, the HMT Rohna, was attacked from the air and destroyed in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Algeria… …it result...

Sliding this in among the A to Z Challenge posts . Hope you're enjoying it, whether participating directly or following along. It happens from time to time, I know, but I still don't think it's all that common. Beaulah Williams has two death certificates.  They both can be viewed online at FamilySearch.org within the Georgia Deaths, 1914-1927 collection.  At first blush, there might not seem to be any earth-shattering differences between the two certificates.  However.  If you're trying to piece together the story of Beulah's life, and maybe even trying to trace your lineage, having one death certificate without the other might just put you at a disadvantage. So for that reason, here is the information from both certificates.  If you stick around 'til the end, you might even get another surprise. The top certificate in the collage at right is number 24065, filed 1 September 1924 -- denoted as (a) below.  The bottom is number 27018, filed a month later on ...

The Greatest Generation is a term made popular by journalist Tom Brokaw to describe the generation who grew up in the United States during the deprivation of the Great Depression, and then went on to fight in World War II, as well as those whose productivity within the war's home front made a decisive material contribution to the war effort.  This generation is also termed the G.I. Generation.  [Wikipedia] George Thomas Mealer was born 27 March 1924 in Gadsden, Alabama.  He was an Aviation Machinists' Mate, First Class for the United States Navy and served in World War II and Korea.  George died 14 October 2008 in Hawkinsville, Georgia and was laid to rest at Harmony – Smyrna Cemetery in Dooly County.  [Sources: Obituary and Tombstone]   Lawrence Eugene Dunaway was born 6 September 1920 in Dooly County, Georgia.  He was a Private, First Class in the United States Army and served during World War II in Europe and Japan.  Lawrence died 8 Februa...

Especially his family history. I love, love, love to find stones like these. Lowell put seven generations of his paternal ancestry on the back of his granite tombstone. Even though a good genealogist would not take this information as the gospel, it is a great starting point. And I firmly believe it could provide a casual passerby with a spark of desire to find out more about their personal history. Gene Oakes was born in Montezuma, Georgia in 1948, the eldest son of Luther Avery Oakes, Jr.  He served in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam era, and spent the last 16 years of his life in Jacksonville, Florida.  His 2006 obituary states, "He will always be remembered as a man who dearly loved God, family, Jaguar football, history, lighthouses, genealogy, collecting hot sauces, traveling with family and sitting on his porch to watch the birds." Sounds like a cool dude. Son of Luther Avery Oakes, Jr.  Jan 15, 1916 - Jun 16, 2009 Luther Avery Oakes, Sr.  ...

Um. Did ya miss me? :-) I know there's been a serious lag in posting here at Southern Graves . My last article was in ( gasp! ) September. Of. Last. Year. A lot of stuff going on in real life as of late. I'll have to fill you in sometime. The following was originally posted on my now defunct personal family history blog more than five years ago. I'm moving it to this space and adding some appropriate FindAGrave links... Enhanced image. Original by Kelli Smythe via FindAGrave . Isaac and Elver Zumwalt were laid to rest in Nichols Cemetery at Ingram, Kerr County, Texas. Also located in Nichols Cemetery is a red granite marker memorializing the son of Isaac and Elver pictured here. His name was Ruben F. Zumwalt. I had found Ruben and his parents in 1920 and 1930 Kerr County, TX census records, leading me to believe Ruben had been born about 1914-5. According to his stone, however, "Ben" was born 21 June 1919. His death date was listed as 20 May 1943....

As this previous post suggests, I have been participating in my own personal scanfest of late. Since March of this year, I have uploaded 7.7 GB to my cloud drive. That's 4,430 images and 25 videos. (Some of the files came from my digital camera, to be fair.) If only I were close to being caught up! I have been curious for years about one of the photos I scanned just this morning. It's a picture of me, on a rainy day, standing in front of some sort of monument / memorial. I think I was about 8 or so years old. All I knew for sure is we were in Europe. (I so stink at geography.) I searched images online using characteristics seen in the photo: "American monument shaped like a star" (or something to that effect). I tried to place it in France first, but got close enough to find the truth with Germany, I think. Anyway. I discovered I was standing (in my yellow slicker, no less!) in front of the Mardasson Memorial. Check me out: The Mardasson Memoria...

Edwin Freeman Ussery Georgia SP - 2 World War II Korea September 19, 1922 August 6, 1955 Edwin Freeman Ussery was born in Hart County, Georgia. 1 He died in service to his country while in Korea, 6 August 1955. Specialist Ussery was honored with an upright marble headstone placed at Blue Heights Baptist Cemetery in Mountain City, Rabun County, Georgia. 2 Sources: 1. "Georgia, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1940-1942," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/V2MR-CMQ : accessed 03 Mar 2013), Edwin Freeman Ussery, 1941. 2. Ancestry.com. U.S., Headstone Applications for Military Veterans, 1925-1963 [database & images on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Entry for Edwin Freeman Ussery.

William J. Trusty (1919-1949) William Jack Trusty rests at Blue Heights cemetery in Mountain City, Rabun County, Georgia. The stone I photographed was a government issue granite marker. I was not familiar with all of the abbreviations on the stone, but was able to decipher it easily after reading the headstone application on Ancestry . From Wikipedia As part of his service for the U.S. Army during World War II, Corporal Trusty was a member of Company B, 638th Tank Destroyer Battalion.  He enlisted 23 September 1942 and received an honorable discharge 18 October 1945. This information was great, but it didn't tell me why William J. Trusty died at the young age of 30 years. In viewing several family trees online, the consensus seemed to be that he died in Pontiac, Michigan. However, not one of those I saw offered a source for this vital fact. Going ahead with this data, though, I did find a blurb in The Daily News (Ludington, Michigan - 25 July 1949, pg. 3): PONTIAC ...

I first learned of a recently added database at Ancestry.com - U.S. National Cemetery Interment Control Forms, 1928-1962 - from Valerie at Begin with 'Craft' . I have at least a couple of ancestors buried in military cemeteries, so I tested the search with my surname of Lincecum. Only one hit was returned, but it was an expected one -- Val Dies Lincecum II at Ft. Sam Houston National Cemetery, Texas. Val Dies Lincecum, Jr. was a son of Val Dies Lincecum and Mary Elizabeth Murray. Val, Jr. was born 29 July 1912 and died 21 December 1957. The report of interment included the same birth and death information I had. A big plus for me was seeing the first name of Val, Jr.'s wife, Ina Marie. Even though I had his death certificate, this was news to me. His death certificate only stated he was married, offering no names, and the informant was listed as "Official Records, Brooke Army Hospital, Ft. Sam Houston, Texas" (his place of death). Something I found a b...