Southern Graves

Some of you may have noticed I've been a little MIA lately. I haven't abandoned you, dear reader, I promise! What started out as an innocent attempt to rid myself of some paper clutter has turned into a much larger task. Though it is not really represented on the blog , I've been doing a lot of compilation work on Macon, Georgia's historic Rose Hill Cemetery. Transcribing obituaries, cataloguing photos, and the like. I'm up to more than 520 individuals in my Family Tree program . Rose Hill Cemetery contains thousands of graves, so I have a long way to go. What's exciting, though, is the number of obituaries that I have found regarding individuals that are not in the major databases, including Rose Hill's records online . I suspect these may belong to the many unmarked graves in the cemetery. Since I'm still working on a pile of printed articles and obituaries, I thought I would at least throw in a Flashback Friday post here at Southern Graves ....

As some of you may know, I also author a few other blogs besides this one. One of them is all about a cemetery I dearly love, Rose Hill in Macon, Georgia. I've recently been conducting some research regarding an eleven year old girl buried there. Her real name was Mary Eliza Guerineau, but she was know as "Little Mary Marsh." She was a member of a travelling juvenile comedians troupe founded by her father. On a night in late January of 1859, her dress caught fire while she was performing at the Old Ralston Hall in Macon. She suffered severe burns over her entire body and died shortly after the accident. Using various sources, I was able to find newspaper articles telling of her death (from all across the United States) and even describing her tombstone. I found a playbill for the act she was performing on the night of the accident, and I was even able to get a photo of the building where the Old Ralston Hall was located. It's a fascinating yet tragic story. ...

I just got back from visiting Jennifer at I'm Having a Thought Here . I hope you will visit her, too. Actually, I'm begging you to go. She just returned from visiting the famed Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia, and I must say she captured the beauty with her camera and descriptive words like no one I've seen before. Not only are her photographs stunning, also is her well-drawn representation of the grounds. I've been to the awesome moss-covered garden of stone before, and her work made me ache to return. If you have never been to Bonaventure, do yourself a favor and take a tour through Jennifer's eyes... Bonny, bony Bonaventure

Please go read Ruth Coker Burks' article I'm Stunned at the last2cu blog . It is about a 60 year search that resulted in a heart-breaking find. She's been searching for remnants of a family cemetery that she knew was destroyed decades ago. What she found is both amazing and sad. If you have any advice for her, please comment.

Ms. Amber Leigh left a comment yesterday on the most recent In Case You Missed It post, and I'm highlighting it here so hopefully more readers will see it. "...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 com...

I just received my Association for Gravestone Studies newsletter and am delighted to find out that all back issues of the Markers journal have been digitized and put online. Here's the blurb from the newsletter: " Back issues of Markers available online As part of AGS's partnership with the University of Massachusetts, Amherst to house the AGS Archives, the University has digitized all back issues of Markers and made them available online. Here is the link: http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/umarmot/?p=991 " Also wanted to let you know I am working on getting the Bussey Family Cemetery online. This cemetery is located in Talbot County, Georgia. Here's a direct link to the work in progress -- Bussey Family Cemetery . A transcription is also available in the USGenWeb Archives. It was recorded in 1972. My transcriptions were completed last year, so some new burials are included.

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...

Just a couple of quick notes: (1) The Georgia State Archives has added Non-Indexed Death Certificates, 1928-1930 to Georgia's Virtual Vault . From the site: "This Death Certificate search system is provided as an interim solution until the records for 1928-1930 can be indexed and added to the Death Certificate Collection. Many users have asked for these records, so we are providing them with scanned images of the original Vital Records index." Thanks to Lowcountry Africana for posting this to the Georgia Root Diggers group at GenealogyWise . (2) Some of you might remember that I often read The Daily Undertaker blog. I would like to highlight another of his posts, Floating Memories: A Ghost Month Tradition in America . It is an interesting subject with beautiful photos and an equally beautiful video from Hawaii. Check it out!

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...