Southern Graves

Noah Brogdon was born 22 June 1830.  A few months before his 22nd birthday, Noah married Harriet Strickland on 21 March 1852 in Gwinnett County, Georgia. Less than three weeks before his 1oth wedding anniversary, Noah Richard Brogdon enlisted in the Confederate States Army at Gwinnett County.  He was commissioned an officer and given the rank of 2nd Lieutenant in Company A, 42nd Georgia Infantry Regiment upon enlistment, 4 March 1862.  Three months and twenty-three days later, Noah was dead.  His Civil War Profile at Ancestry confirms he did not survive the war, and further states Noah was mustered out of service 25 June 1862 at Cumberland Gap, Tennessee.  A note on his FindAGrave memorial says he died of the mumps. Father ! let thy grace be given, That we may meet in heaven. Noah rests at Level Creek Cemetery in Suwanee, Gwinnett County, Georgia.  Harriet, who married a Mr. Pool after Noah's death, rests beside him. Harriet Pool Born July 10, 1831 Died...

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...

Charles "Charlie" Peavy was born 21 July 1844 in Georgia.  He was one of (at least) eight sons born to Bird Y. Peavy.  It appears Charlie lived his whole live in Dooly County, usually connected to the farming industry. According to Ancestry's database of U. S. Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865 , Charles Peavy of Dooly County, Georgia enlisted in the Confederate States Army at the age of sixteen years.  In May of 1862, he settled as a Private with Company C of the 55th GA Infantry Regiment.  He was mustered out 25 June 1863. Charles and Ella Gurr were married 19 January 1878 in Dooly County by a Justice of the Peace.  They went on to have eight or nine children. In 1900, Charlie Peavy was farming and living in the city of Unadilla.  He died 28 May 1902 and was buried at Harmony – Smyrna Cemetery in Dooly County.  His obelisk tombstone reads: His many virtues form the noblest monument to his memory.    

Sliding this in among the A to Z Challenge posts . Hope you're enjoying it, whether participating directly or following along. Estelle Harvard was born 8 October 1877 to Julia Paul and Dave Harvard.  At the age of 23 years, Estelle married Rev. Euston Edgar Clements.  [Image at right from Ancestry's Passport Applications .] HARVARD --- CLEMENTS The marriage of Miss Estelle Harvard and Rev. Euston E. Clements was solemnized Wednesday morning, October the tenth, at ten o'clock at the home of the bride's parents, Hon. and Mrs. D. W. Harvard, near Unadilla. …Rev. and Mrs. Clements waited only to receive the congratulations of those present, before leaving for Unadilla to board the train for Key West which will be their future home. The bride is the only daughter of Hon. D. W. Harvard, one of Dooly county's oldest settlers and most highly respected citizens, who is representing the county in the legislature for a second term.  She is a graduate of LaGrange Female College...

Anyone with a fondness for cemeteries will know what I'm writing about.  You visit a sacred place -- maybe it's a single tombstone, or maybe it's a family lot -- and you can't help but feel a tug of emotion.  Nothing too crazy, mind you.  A lot of times I simply and softly utter, "Wow." Something moves you enough that you can't simply pass by without acknowledgement. This happened when I visited Ida Herring and Leonard Wilson Moore at Mt. Olive Cemetery in the Pinehurst area of Dooly County, Georgia.  Ida (d. 1949) lived to be almost 73, and Leonard (d. 1955) almost 89.  But not long after they came together (about 1896-8?), they began losing children.  At least eight of them were buried in the family lot at Mt. Olive.  Yep.  I typed eight . A stone for the eighth child cannot be seen above, as it is located to the right of the infant in the back row.  You can see there are three stones behind Ida and Leonard in this photo: Ida and ...

William Walker (son of Joel Walker, Rev. Sol. , and his wife Judith ---), b. Buckingham Co., Va., 1762; d. Jefferson Co., Ga., 1818. Private in Ga. Militia, under Major Gen. John Twiggs. Served as scout. Mar., Jefferson Co., Ga., Elizabeth Bostic (1770-1835) (dau. of Nathan Bostic (or Bostwick), b. Suffolk Co., Va., 1746; d. Jefferson Co., Ga., 1818; received bounty grant of land for service as private in Ga. Militia. Mar. Martha Gwinn, b. 1750). [Source: Ancestry.com. Roster of Revolutionary Soldiers in Georgia Vol. 1 [database online]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006.] The dates don't quite jive, but there is a Nathan Bostwick resting "two graves over" from William Walker, Sr.

I don't do this often enough, but from time to time I'm prompted to check the new and updated databases page at Ancestry. U.S. Burial Registers, Military Posts and National Cemeteries, 1862-1960 was updated less than three weeks ago, so I decided to give it a browse. First, here is a description of the database: Many veterans of the U.S. armed services are buried in cemeteries established or maintained by the National Cemetery Administration (NCA) or the U.S. Army. The NCA maintains 131 national cemeteries and other smaller burial grounds. The Department of the Army is responsible for Arlington and the U.S. Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery. These records also include burial details for soldiers who were disinterred and moved to military cemeteries sometime after their death. Essentially, if you choose to browse, you are reading a burial register. It's fascinating, yet heart wrenching at the same time. These soldiers died and were buried far from home,...

Photo by S. Lincecum I've been a frequent visitor of Byron City Cemetery (Georgia) for several years now. And every visit includes stops by the graves of cousins, one being that of Moultrie Alfred Warren, Jr. He was a third cousin of mine by way of his mother, Sadie Almira Peavy Warren. Engraved on Moultrie's ledger marker, in addition to his birth and death dates, is "Professional Engineer." And those aforementioned dates reveal Moultrie died at the young age of 43 in 1956. I have often wondered what was the cause -- now I know . Via FamilySearch.org A World War II draft registration card from 1940 shows a 27 year old Moultrie Alfred Warren, Jr. living in Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia and employed by the United States government and the science organization of Geological Survey ( USGS ). In 1947, Moultrie became engaged to Ruth Tomlinson, daughter of Homer R. Tomlinson. Moultrie and Ruth were a very studious couple. Ruth was a graduate of Winthrop ...

Less than a week ago, I logged on to Ancestry to find a newly added database entitled Web: Tennessee, Relocated Cemeteries Index, 1787-1975 . In case you were not aware, an Ancestry database that is prefaced with the word "Web" is usually readily accessible on the internet without a subscription. While the convenience of searching through Ancestry is nice, since I'm already a subscriber, I went directly to the source and gave it a browse. After all, I was not even aware it existed online! The database is part of the Tennessee Valley Authority website as TVA's Cemetery Relocation Database : To carry out its mission in the Tennessee Valley, TVA had to alter the landscape. The agency’s major construction projects required relocating roads and utility lines, as well as inundating many acres of countryside. As an extension of these construction projects, TVA undertook the difficult and delicate task of relocating thousands of graves. Surveys were conducted of all c...

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 ...

So sayeth Rabun County, Georgia Ordinary James F. Smith back in 1913. But Lottie (maiden name Rogers according to online family trees) did marry Nathan Andrew Hunnicutt. She swore to that fact when filing for a widow's pension only several days after the death of said husband. She got a few other folks to sign sworn statements to that end, as well.  (Application available for viewing at Ancestry.com .) Under the heading of Questions for Applicant , Lottie stated she and N. A. Hunnicutt were married 3 December 1865 in Rabun County, Georgia. About 3 weeks before Lottie's 14th birthday. Lottie also claimed to have only $225 worth of worldly goods and property, including two small town lots and a house on Park Street in Mountain City making up the majority with a value of $200. More information about N. A. Hunnicutt's service to the Confederate cause was actually provided by a witness, I guess since Lottie and Andrew weren't married until after the surrender in 186...

Confederate Civil War Service Record for W. L. Dickerson In 1863, as a private in Company F of Georgia's 52nd regiment. What landed him on Pea Patch Island was the fighting he did at The Battle of Champion Hill on the 16th of May, down in Mississippi. William Loren Dickerson was captured by the Union Army during that battle, and a few weeks later arrived at Fort Delaware. According to an article at Wikipedia , citing the Philadelphia Inquirer , Fort Delaware "contained an average population of southern tourists, who came at the urgent invitation of Mr. Lincoln." At the time of Pvt. Dickerson's imprisonment, the camp population was about 11,000. By the end of the war, the number had jumped to 33,000. Though the conditions were classified as decent, one private described them as "bad, hopeless and gloomy enough without any exaggeration." I suppose I can say W. L. Dickerson was "lucky" enough to spend less than a month at the prison camp be...

I'm registered for the 3rd annual Georgia Family History Expo . Are you? I certainly hope so, since I'm positive a great time will be had by all who attend. If you haven't registered yet, you might want to take advantage of the early bird special before it ends on October 9th. You can save more than $40 on this two--day event. A couple of highlights of this year's expo are Robert S. Davis and Paul A. Adjei. All you need to know about Mr. Davis is he exudes Georgia History. You could probably get smarter on the subject just by standing next to him. He will be giving the opening keynote address -- "The Secrets to Research in Georgia" -- as well as teaching classes on Georgia and Alabama. One I am particularly interested in is Research in the War of 1812 in the Deep South . Truth be told, I am an R. S. Davis groupie, so I might be found in more than one of his classes. I attended every single one at the last Georgia Family History Expo. Another highl...

As promised, I have some more information about the Goodwins of Gwinnett County, Georgia. Goodwin Cemetery is located on Highway 120 in Duluth, GA. I fit a visit in last year while attending the 2010 Atlanta Family History Expo. Since it is referred to as the Goodwin Cemetery, I tend to think this little silent city was begun for the Goodwin family. There are several other surnames to be found, however, and I do not know if they all connect to the Goodwins. There are African American burials as well as white, though they do appear to be segregated. According to the Gwinnett County Historical Society , the genesis of the Goodwin family in the area dates back to the late 1700s and Philadelphia: "Mary Ann Roach came to America in the late 1700s as a stowaway on an Irish freighter. In Philadelphia, she met and married John C. Goodwin who was also an Irish immigrant. Records from around 1800 show the couple living in Rutherford Co., NC and having 5 children. A son, Joseph, acqu...

One of the nineteen children of William and Hannah Dowis buried in the family plot at Duluth Church Cemetery in Gwinnett County, Georgia is their son John Victau. He was more commonly known as Victor or Vic Dowis, and he attended the Duluth Baptist Church as a young man. Victor died at the prime of life age of 30 years. In fact, his death came just over a month before his 31st birthday. He left behind a wife and children, including a daughter born just days before his death. I first found there was an interesting story surrounding the death of Victor with a simple search at Ancestry . Several user-submitted family trees mentioned a tale of murder and revenge. Most were telling the story from the "other" side, the side of the Simpson brothers. Both were victims of a traffic stop gone bad, at the hands of Victor Dowis. In 1922 Duluth, Georgia, Victor Dowis was a deputy sheriff. An article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution (viewed online at Fold3 ) dated 21 Febru...

The image above is from a 31 January 1920 Monroe County, Georgia census record. It shows the family of Lunnie L. Mosely, his wife Ruth, and widowed mother Mattie A. As much as we genealogists use, need, and treasure census records, it's amazing the information they DON'T reveal. For instance, can you tell from this document that Ruth is 6-7 months pregnant? I'd say not. So how do I know this? Clues were found in an obituary, of course! A few days ago I visited Midway Baptist Church Cemetery in Lizella, Bibb County, Georgia. It was my first visit to this fairly small church cemetery. Just from looking around at all the MOSELY headstones, it seems this burial ground could have once been on their family property. At the very least, they were prominent members of the church. After I returned home, I began looking a little deeper into some of the lives the tombstones stood for. When I came to Lunie Mosely's (1886-1920) stone, I was curious to know why he died so ...

About a month ago, while visiting Riverside Cemetery in Asheville, North Carolina, I come across the grave of Daniel Ogden pictured here. I was actually on my way to see a more "prominent" memorial in the cemetery when I noticed Daniel's gravestone was fallen over and lying on the ground. I snapped a few photos, simply because I always get the urge to document stones that look to be in trouble. When I got home, I found a sweet epitaph for Daniel etched in the stone. I also snagged a little more information about him with a bit of research. Daniel W. Ogden Feb 10, 1882 July 19, 1917 It is sad that one we cherish Should be taken from our home, But the Joys that do not perish Live in memory alone. All the years we've spent together, All the happy golden hours, Shall be cherished in remembrance; Fragrant sweets from memories' flowers. I found Daniel in the North Carolina Death Certificates, 1909-1975 collection at Ancestry. It states Daniel was bor...

Ancestry.com recently released some more images of original military records. According to the website, the Ireland Casualties of World War I, 1914-1918 database "contains the book, Ireland’s Memorial Records - an 8 volume set compiled by The Committee of the Irish National War Memorial, originally published in 1923. These volumes provide information on over 49,000 Irish men and women who died in the Great War." More recent additions include an update to the Australia Cemetery Index, 1808-2007 , as well as a new collection of approximately 1.2 million death records -- Paris & Vicinity, France, Death Notices, 1860-1902 . The latter "contains death extracts from the historic department of Seine, France from 1860-1902. The extracts were compiled from newspaper and other death notices by ARFIDO S.A., a French genealogical and heir research association. Information extracted includes name of deceased, their death date, and death place." You'll need to kno...

I'm a little behind in posting this, but there's still time! Ancestry is providing free access to their "creepiest collections" of cemetery and gravestone data through November 5th. You may search them directly from this Halloween landing page. One of the featured collections is Selected U.S. Headstone Photos , containing "more than 74,000 headstones (some with multiple names) for individuals who died in the early 19th century through the present day." Other collections of southern graves included: · Abstract of Graves of Revolutionary Patriots; · Aiken County, South Carolina Cemetery Inscriptions; · Aiken County, South Carolina Cemetery Inscriptions: Graniteville; · Aiken County, South Carolina: Cemetery Records; · Alabama Cemetery Records; · Barbour County, Alabama Tombstone Inscriptions; · Bullock Co., AL, Old Confederate Cemetery; · Cemetery Records of Choctaw County, Alabama; · Cemetery Records of Dale C...