Southern Graves

The Georgia Family History Expo, 2012 edition, came to an end yesterday evening. I had a wonderful time throughout it all. More classes were attended and enjoyed, including courses dealing with colonial Georgia records, African-American cemeteries, and possible Cherokee ancestry. Some of the further reading suggested by Robert S. Davis in the colonial Georgia records class include Georgia Journeys: Being an Account of the Lives of Georgia's Original Settlers and Many Other Early Settlers and Colonial Soldiers of the South, 1732-1774 . I was also reminded of the Colonial Wills on Georgia's Virtual Vault . Dr. D. L. Henderson did not disappoint with her Tale of Two Cemeteries talk. She gave a great overview of the African American burial grounds at Oakland Cemetery as well as those at South View Cemetery. A book she suggested is now on my to-read list: The Afro-American Tradition in Decorative Arts . Though she made several points to remember, one of the best ones w...

Old Morris Cemetery Half of the 2-day Georgia Family History Expo has come and gone. For those of you who couldn't make it this time around, here's a recap of my day 1. Even though the opening session was not set to begin until early afternoon, I was out and about before 9 am. Every year thus far, I have stayed in a different city in order to be closer to different cemeteries. This time around, Alpharetta was the chosen locale. I had already planned to visit Resthaven off of Main Street in downtown, but I received a pleasant surprise which added an addition to my schedule. Turns out, my hotel is right across the street from a small family cemetery. View of my Hampton Inn & Suites from entrance to Old Morris Cemetery. So I was able to visit two cemeteries before the expo even officially began. More than 160 photos later, it was time to head to Duluth for the opening session given by Robert S. Davis. If you've read my blogs before today, you might know o...

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...

I'm interrupting this blog, normally dominated by tombstones, to highlight history in general. For those of you that don't know, budget proposals in the state of Georgia have forced Secretary of State Brian Kemp to close the archives to the public, effective November 1st. Appointments will be allowed, but based only on available staff. In other words, at no time can you simply walk into the archives and access public records. And since the staffing will be curtailed to nothing, good luck on getting that appointment. Oh! And, by the way, Georgia's Virtual Vault has been acting up a lot lately. Coincidence? Maybe not. So this might even hurt online Georgia research. Here is the letter I submitted to Governor Nathan Deal. If you are interested in sending your thoughts, information on how to do that follows. Re: Closing of the State Archives I think effectively closing the Georgia Archives to the public is a grave mistake. The ability for the public to physical...

View Larger Map South Bend Cemetery is located next to the Atlanta Youth Academy, near the intersection of Constitution and Forest Park Roads in Atlanta, Georgia. Mr. Doug Yancey and a group of volunteers have been working for five years to transform this sacred spot from an overgrown mire to a clean and visitable cemetery. Why? To honor his father's request to be buried next to his parents. The 100+ graves date back to the 1800s and contain the names of Clark, Duncan, Ford, Grogan, Harper, Hubbard, Hughes, Johnston, Jordan, Lawrence, Schell, Shepherd, and Yancey. The story of Mr. Yancey and the reclaimed South Bend Cemetery was written about in an article by Bo Emerson for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution -- Family Transforms 1800s Cemetery From a Jungle Into a Garden . If you are looking for more information, you may get in touch with Mr. Yancey. His contact information is at the bottom of the news article linked above.

A week ago I had the good fortune to be in the beautiful city of Savannah, Georgia. And with every trip to Savannah, of course, a visit to the equally beautiful Bonaventure Cemetery is a must. I managed to time my visit closely with the unveiling of the new information kiosk and gravesite locator now available to visitors. According to the City of Savannah Home Page , "The new touch-screen kiosk provides self-service access to interment records and maps of Bonaventure, Colonial Park, Laurel Grove and Greenwich Cemeteries. Cemetery visitors will be able to look up names on the kiosk to determine the exact location of interments on cemetery maps. For a small fee, users will also be able to print the information and maps. Burial records date back to 1750 and are updated daily." Furthermore, "The kiosk was funded by the City, the Bonaventure Historical Society and a National Park Service Preserve America Grant. It is located on the front porch of the Bonaventure Adminis...

I know I've been neglecting this blog for a couple of weeks, and I'm sorry. In my defense, I have been working on a new project. Of course, it's cemetery related. :-) I decided to begin a location-based genealogy research project, and my principal subjects are the individuals interred in the Byron City Cemetery of Peach County, Georgia. Along with that comes a new blog - Byron City Cemetery . Here is the post I wrote to open and introduce the new blog. Ever since I attended Bernie Gracy's Breaking Down Brick Walls with Location Based Genealogy class at the 2010 Atlanta Family History Expo , I've been itching to put it into practice in a big way. It's no secret I have a love of cemeteries, so I of course will be starting there. And since I'm related to the PEAVYs of Byron, Georgia, what better cemetery to start with than the Byron City Cemetery. I've always had a fondness for this cemetery, and I'm not sure why. It's not huge, but n...

Well, as you can see, I made a change or two to the blog. I hope it's for the better! I first took advantage of Blogger in draft and worked with their new template designer. I love it. It makes it much easier to change the background of your blog. As you can see, I decided to acknowledge St. Patrick's Day a day late. I have not decided on a steady background just yet. It may take me a few attempts before I settle. The layout will stay the same though, so any navigational links you might be used to from the sidebars will still be there. I also added a few things to the bottom of each post. The labels specific to each post can now be found there. If you are looking for similar articles, this is another way to find some. I also added a way for you to rate posts because comments and feedback are always appreciated. I am especially excited about the location feature Blogger added. At the bottom of applicable posts will be a location link. The location will usually...

I've created a new page for my wonderful visitors. I called it "Featured Articles," and it includes several articles I have written. While most were written for this blog, I also linked to a few on the Rose Hill Cemetery blog as well as the main Southern Graves site . All the pages for this blog are listed at the top on the right sidebar. Here is a direct link to the Featured Articles page .

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!

I have not commented on the Burr Oak Cemetery (Cook County, Illinois) story to date, and do not plan a diatribe here. Suffice it to say, the situation is awful and horrifying, to say the least. I do want to pass along some information I first saw on the Olive Tree Genealogy Blog : "Authorities plan to give the public access to a searchable online database of nearly 100,000 graves at the historic black cemetery... The Cook County sheriff's office says the database will likely be available later this week." You can read more at Olive Tree Genealogy Blog and Huffington Post . If you have not heard about the Burr Oak Cemetery scandal, a Google search will provide you with more information than you can probably stand. You might also want to visit the cemetery page on FindAGrave . They have almost 1,000 interments listed.

Terry Thornton of Hill Country of Monroe County Mississippi alerted many of us to this story. I'm passing it along with very few words to add. I simply cannot believe how greedy, disrespectful, and callous all persons involved in the decision-making process for this destruction of local, state, regional and cultural history can be. As Terry said, "Read it and weep." Oxford, Alabama Destroying A 1500-Year-Old Indian Mound To Build A Sam's Club

Family Tree Magazine recently released their annual 101 Best Web Sites for 2009. Most have probably seen it already, but I've been meaning to add links here for the ones applicable to this blog. Here we go! - American Battle Monuments Commission - Ancient Faces - Cemetery Surveys - Dead Fred - Find a Grave - Interment.net - Kentucky Historical Society - Mortality Schedules - Names in Stone - Nationwide Gravesite Locator Here are some additional links from other categories: - Arizona Genealogy Birth and Death Certificates (death records 1844-1958) - Cook County, Illinois Vital Records (20+ years old death records) - Maine State Archives (death index 1960-1996) - Massachusetts Archives (death records index 1841-1910) - Minnesota Historical Society (death cards records index 1904-1907; death certificates index 1908-2001) - Nova Scotia Historical Vital Statistics (53,835 deaths 1864-1877; 392,787 deaths 1908-1957) - Seeking Michigan (1 million death certificates 1897-1920) -...

More than a month ago I posted about an article I read regarding some unmarked graves from 1800's found in south Bibb County, Georgia . They were believed to be part of a slave cemetery on a McArthur family plantation. An update has recently been reported. The number of burials is up to 38, and it's believed that the cemetery was used beyond emancipation. Descendants from all parties involved are working together to uncover as much as possible. It is really nice to see. Follow the link to read the full article by Phillip Ramati --> Black families used south Bibb County cemetery beyond slavery era, DOT finds .

A few days ago, the Today Show spotlighted Milledgeville, Georgia in their An American Story segment. The story is about the thousands of lost and unnamed graves on the grounds of the Central State Hospital . Here is the video. It's less than 5 minutes long and well worth a watch.

The above is the title of a 4 May 2008 article published at guardian.co.uk . I found the article by using www.thefreelibrary.com, a link which was shared via a Diigo Group . The author of the article is not given at The Free Library , but I love some of the words he or she used when describing cemeteries: Forget landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building or the Colosseum; cemeteries are the punctuation marks in between, quiet islands amid the city racket. A great one is an architectural jewel in its own right, a Vanity Fair party of spot-the-dead-celebrity, a stark warning from history, a store of cracking anecdotes or a life-affirming communion with past generations. and... Above all, I love cemeteries because they make the past tangible, like a fading photograph or great-grandmother's hairbrush. Also mentioned in the article are the Highgate Cemetery in London, the Pierre-Lachaise in Paris, and the Normandy American Cemetery & Memorial. Check it out!

Macon Weekly Telegraph 22 January 1892 NOTES OF LOCAL INTEREST The Jackson Artillery! "Here is something I want every Confederate soldier in Macon to see, and every Federal for the matter of that." "I want them to see it because I want them to know that the daughter of an old Confederate, catching the inspiration from old war stories and these war relics, has combined natural genius with natural sentiment, and has painted these relics of the Jackson Artillery with an artist's brush and the spirit of a soldier's daughter." It was Captain Tom Massenburg who spoke. He stood before an oil painting of "Relics of the Jackson Artillery." Only a flag, dear to the Southerner's heart, torn by the pitiless storms of leaden hail that poured upon its folds as it waved proudly in the breeze at Murfreesboro, Chattanooga, Chicamauga, Missionary Ridge, Mobile or Atlanta. Only a bared sabre, whose jagged edge tells of something more real than the holiday exercis...

Macon Weekly Telegraph , Georgia 9 February 1902

I don't know how I missed this article by Travis Fain on macon.com, but I did. I think it's important enough to still share, though. (From 7 April 2009) Unmarked graves from 1800s found in south Bibb By Travis Fain - tfain@macon.com A small cemetery of unmarked graves has been found in the path of the Sardis Church Road extension, and the Georgia Department of Transportation plans to unearth and move the bodies... ...The cemetery is in the Avondale Mill Road area in south Bibb County, and the graves appear to be connected to the former McArthur family plantation site there. It’s on land that was part of the plantation, and there is a marked McArthur cemetery nearby, the DOT said... ...The DOT has asked anyone who knows something about this cemetery to visit www.avondaleburialplace.org or to contact Coco at (770) 498-4155, extension 103, or jcoco@newsouthassoc.com. [ Read complete article here. ]