Genealogy Insider - Cemeteries

Genealogy News Corral, April 15-19

Diane — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 18:41:25 GMT

MyHeritage has released version 7 of its free family tree software, Family Tree Builder. Among the major highlights is the ability to synchronize your tree between the software on your computer and your online tree at MyHeritage.com. You'll then be able to access your tree from your phone or tablet using the MyHeritage app.

Version 7 also lets you use the sites Record Matching service, which automatically searches MyHeritage collections and trees for your ancestors (you'll need a subscription to view some results). Other updates include a more graphical look and support for 40 languages, including Chinese and Korean. Read more details on the MyHeritage blog.

There's a new database of burials at Hart Island, the public burial ground ("potter's field") for New York City. The earliest recorded burial there dates to May 1881; however, the database covers burials since 1977.

A new PBS series called "Genealogy Roadshow" is looking for people with family history mysteries to be on the show. Check out the casting call here; the deadline is May 12.

Heredis is having a sale through April 28 on its family tree software for PC (37 percent off, at $24.99) and Mac (33 percent off, at $39.99). Find out more about the software at the Heredis website.

Another sale is coming up in honor of DNA Day, April 25: Family Tree DNA is offering a sale on its Family FInder test, as well as its lowest-ever price for the Full Mitochondrial Sequencing and for mtDNA upgrades to the full sequence. The sale ends April 22; get more details about these tests at FamilyTreeDNA.com.

You can learn how to use your DNA test results in our Intro to DNA Crash Course webinar with the Genetic Genealogist Blaine Bettinger, taking place on DNA Day.

Arlington National Cemetery Launches Burial Database

Diane — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 20:21:50 GMT

Arlington National Cemetery has unveiled a public database of the 400,000 burials there.

Called ANC Explorer, the database is available online and as a Mobile app. You can search it to locate gravesites on a map; get details including birth, death and interment dates, and branch of service; generate front and back photos of a headstone or monument (where available); and get directions to those gravesites.

Building it led to the first review, analysis and coordination of almost 150 years of Arlington Cemetery records. The Army photographed 259,978 gravesites, niches and markers and instituted a rigorous process to review each headstone photo with cemetery records and other historical documents. The effort grew out of reports in 2010 of misidentified graves and poorly kept records at the cemetery.

Arlington National Cemetery was established during the Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, once the estate of the family of Martha Custis Lee, wife of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Veterans and family members from the Civil War and every subsequent US war are buried on its 624 acres.

The first soldier buried there is Pvt. William Henry Christman of Pennsylvania, on May 13, 1864.

Cemetery Research Tips & More in the October 2012 Family Tree Magazine Podcast

Diane — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 17:10:54 GMT

The October 2012 Family Tree Magazine podcast, hosted by Lisa Louise Cooke of Genealogy Gems, celebrates Halloween with cemetery research tips, including:

Advice for cracking the "tombstone code"—the symbolism in carvings and inscriptions—from contributing editor Sharon DeBartolo Carmack
How to preserve the genealogy and history information cemeteries hold, and share those details with others, from Family Tree University instructor and Find A Grave volunteer Diana Crisman Smith
Tips for visiting a cemetery (what you can do from home, what to bring and what to look for once you're there) from Family Tree University Cemetery Research 101 course instructor Midge Frazel
Tombstone rubbing dos and don'ts with Family Tree Magazine publisher and editorial director Allison Dolan

And Lisa and I chat about some recent big acquisitions in the genealogy world.

You can listen to Family Tree Magazine's free genealogy podcast in iTunes or on FamilyTreeMagazine.com. Show notes are on FamilyTreeMagazine.com, too.

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Genealogy News Corral, Sept. 17-21

Diane — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 18:27:33 GMT

This week MyHeritage.com announced the launch of its automatic Record Matching premium service. The service automatically searches the 4 billion records on MyHeritage.com websites (which now include World Vital Records and FamilyLink) for matches to people in your MyHeritage family tree. MyHeritage users will receive weekly email updates of new Record Matches and can visit MyHeritage.com to review, filter, sort, confirm and reject matches.

On his Genea-Musings blog, Randy Seaver has some detailed posts about using Record Matching to find information.

Genealogy search engine Mocavo has acquired ReadyMicro, a company that develops document digitization technology. On its blog, Mocavo says it's planning several exciting announcements in the coming weeks about offering searchable records and forming partnerships to digitize organizations' records "at a very low cost and even, in many cases, at no cost." Stay tuned ...
British burial records site DeceasedOnline has added records from London's Charlton Cemetery, opened in 1855. Records include scans of burial registers and some photographs. You can see a list of all the cemeteries included on the site here. You can search the site and get basic search results free; purchase credits to view additional details and records.

Don't forget to enter our giveaway for a year's subscription to our Family Tree eBooks website—it's a digital library of dozens of ebooks on genealogy, history, heirloom identification, sharing and preserving your family history, and more, plus many issues of Family Tree Magazine. Click here to enter by September 30!

Genealogy News Corral, June 4-8

Diane — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 17:55:58 GMT

The National Trust for Historic Preservation has released its 2012 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. Among the sites named is the Ellis Island Hospital Complex on the south side of Ellis Island, where 1.2 million immigrants were treated in a state-of-the-art U.S. Public Health Service facility. The deteriorating complex is now the subject of Save Ellis Island's fundraising campaign to restore the buildings.

Read our article about the Ellis Island Hospital Complex on FamilyTreeMagazine.com.

The SFgenealogy website has added a free, searchable San Francisco Colma Cemetery Index. The database includes more than 305,000 burial records (1887-2001) for the Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, with more cemeteries to be added. If you have San Francisco ancestors, be sure to check out the site's mortuary records, birth and death indexes, and other resources, too.

Genetic genealogy company 23andMe, exhibiting at the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree this weekend, announced it'll release four new genealogical features for beta testing in the coming weeks. Those are family tree building on the site; Ancestry Painting, which breaks down your ancestry based on approximately 20 world regions; the My Ancestry Page, a "dashboard" summary of your ancestry; and the Relative Finder Map View plotting where in the world your matches are.

Learn more about these upcoming features on 23andMe's Spittoon blog.

Genealogy News Corral, May 28-June 1

Diane — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 18:14:49 GMT

Think you have a relative who served in a household of Britain's Royal Family? (Perhaps as Chocolate Maker to the Queen or Strewer of Herbs?) In celebration of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, British genealogy website findmypast.co.uk, in association with the Royal Archives, has added a collection of Royal Household Staff Lists. It covers royal residences across the United Kingdom such as Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and St. James’ Palace, and includes 50,000 staff records from the reign of King Charles II to King George V (1660 to 1924). Details you might learn include the person's occupation, age, length of service and salary.

The Civil War Trust is holding its annual photo contest. You can enter your Civil War battlefield photos in five categories for prizes including publication of your image, a trust membership, and registration to the trust's annual conference. Enter before Aug. 26 by uploading photos to the Trust's Flickr group—be sure to tag your image as directed in the contest rules. (Last year's winning photos are pretty impressive—view them here.)

UK cemetery site DeceasedOnline.com has added records for 120,000 mostly rural Scottish burials. The records comprise from 99 cemeteries and burial grounds, with the oldest dating back to 1526. That brings the total of Scottish cemeteries with records on the site to 250. Once you search for a record, you can use pay-per-view credits or subscribe to view the full information it contains.

'Tis the Season for Old Cemetery Tours

Diane — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 15:04:18 GMT

Do the Halloween pumpkin patches and candy sales have you in the mood for ghost-hunting in a cemetery? You’re in luck: ‘Tis the season for old cemetery tours.

These events offer the chance to take in interesting local history, nice scenery and slight spookery. You can find tours by day or night, for free or a fee (they often serve as fundraisers for historical societies).

A Google search or visiting the website of a local historic cemetery or historical society will help you find tours near you. Here are some tours around the country that my searches turned up:

In Mississippi, there’ll be free tours at the Old Biloxi Cemetery (Oct. 25), Krebs Cemetery in Pascagoula (Oct. 27) and Cedar Rest Cemetery in Bay St. Louis (Halloween night). Read more in the SunHerald.com online news article.

Watch out for headless horsemen during Sleepy Hollow Cemetery daytime and nighttime tours in Sleepy Hollow, NY, taking place weekends in October. Fees vary; reservations are required.

Oct. 29, the Historical Society of Long Beach (Calif.) holds a nonscary tour of Long Beach Municipal Cemetery and Sunnyside Cemetery, featuring actors in period garb delivering graveside presentations (based on sources such as obituaries, newspaper articles and oral histories) about the person who lies at rest. General admission costs $18, with specials for society members and students younger than age 18.

Riverside Cemetery (which has an online burial database), established in 1887 in Macon, Ga., holds its Spirits in October series Oct. 20-22 and 27-29, with cemetery tours and more. Advance tickets are required; admission costs $10 to $20.

Capturing the Spirit of Oakland at Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta features nighttime tours with historical accounts from cemetery “residents” and candlelit mausoleums. Tickets must be purchased in advance; admission ranges from $10 to $17.50.

Elmwood Cemetery in Kansas City, Mo., has a free Halloween Tour Oct. 30.

Historic All Hallows Eve cemetery tours with costumed interpreters are happening on Halloween evening at Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg, Va. Adults: $7; children 12 and younger, $5.

Genealogy News Corral: April 8

Jamie — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 19:02:08 GMT

Kodak has sold assets of its microfilm products and equipment business to Eastman Park Micrographics. Kodak will continue supplying current microfilms, as well as to provide service and support for microfilm equipment and Eastman Park Micrographics will take over Kodak’s data conversion services business, which converts data between analog and digital formats. Read more on Kodak.com.

The Cincinnati Railroad Club is digitizing its 70,000-item collection, a project estimated to take three years to complete. Most non-copyrighted materials will be available online, including geomapping of the library’s thousands of original photographs. Read more on BizJournals.com.

Newport Beach Library is considering a revamp that would maintain the most of the library's current services, but ditch the books. The proposal is a reflection of the economy and patron habits. Read more on the LATimes.com.

The city of Chicago is relocating about 1,200 graves from the 161-year-old Bensenville cemetery to expand O'Hare International Airport, but not without controversy. The city hired a genealogist to track down the closest living relative for those currently occupying the graves, but isn't contacting every descendant, leaving some family members in the dark about their ancestor's final resting place. Read more on the ChicagoTribune.com.

Season one of "Who Do You Think You Are?" is now available on DVD. Re-watch all your favorite celebrities discover their roots on NBC's family history hit. Read more on BroadwayWorld.com.

If you missed any of the simulcast RootsTech conference sessions, you can now watch them on-demand at RootsTech.org. Bonus video interviews with conference speakers are now on the Genealogy Gems YouTube channel.

Archives.com Adds Millions of Records

Diane — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 13:38:48 GMT

Subscription genealogy site Archives.com has added more than 40 million new digital records and 110 million scanned newspaper pages dating back to 1753.

The new record collections now available on Archives.com include:

40 million indexed vital records from states including Texas, Florida, Ohio, Minnesota, Colorado, Iowa, Nevada, and Utah. These represent a 25 percent increase in the site’s US vital records. Information you’ll get varies by state, but generally includes the child’s name, sex, birth date and place, and parents’ names.

110 million newspaper pages from Newspaper Archive, dating back to 1753 and containing billions of indexed names.

300,000 indexed burial records through a partnership with cemetery mapping company Names In Stone. In the search results, users can view burial information and click the View Full Record link to see supplementary fields and a cemetery map on NamesInStone.com (no additional payment or membership required).

Since its July 2009 launch, Archives.com users have spent more than 2 million hours on the site and performed 50 million searches. Users can search all records, search by record type (such as marriage) or state, or search by collection name. A subscription costs $39.95 per year; a seven-day free trial is available.

Putting the Ha! in Halloween

Diane — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 14:00:14 GMT

Put a little ha-ha in your Halloween with the funny tombstone photos in our book Grave Humor, by M.T. Coffin. To quote the FatallyYours.com book reviewer: “It’ll delight you with its witty jokes, quirky gothic illustrations and funny photos.” Aw, shucks.

This is my favorite stone—we found this unfortunately named lady in a local cemetery.

(See more funny tombstones from the book—and pictures other folks have submitted—at GraveHumorBook.com.)

And I love our skull-people alter-egos (that's me, fourth from left):

You can get even more skull people in our 2011 Grave Humor Desk Calendar.

Grave Humor is available from ShopFamilyTree.com. (Until October 31, you can use the code HISTORY10 to save 15 percent.)

Introducing GraveHumorBook.com!

Diane — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 13:01:45 GMT

Funny stuff! On GraveHumorBook.com, the companion website to our latest book, Grave Humor, you can:

See funny tombstone photos (some from the book, some sent in by our fellow funny gravestone enthusiasts)

Meet the author, Mr. M.T. Coffin.

Download free Grave Humor wallpaper for your computer, iPhone or iPad

Submit photos of the funny gravestones you’ve encountered in your cemetery adventures

... and, of course, buy a copy of Grave Humor for your very own (on sale now for $8.79!)

Genealogy Q&A From Our Ask the Editors Webinar

Diane — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 19:30:10 GMT

Thanks to everyone who attended last night's free “Ask the Editors” webinar! We had a blast, and we hope to do it again.

I wanted to share the questions attendees asked—and our answers, of course, enhanced with links to resources we mentioned and a few new ones. But first, because Allison, Grace, Lindsay and I started the webinar with an introduction, blog readers can “meet” most of us on our FamilyTreeMagazine.com staff page. Get to know Lindsay here. And now for the main event:

Q. How would I find a 1905 death certificate from Mexico?

A. Civil registrations in Mexico (akin to vital records in the United States) started in the mid- to late-1860s, though records may not be complete. In most cases, records were kept on the municipio level and you can request copies from the local civil registry (addresses are in FamilySearch’s Mexico research outline). Older records may have been transferred to a local or state archive.

Before writing, see if the record is in an online index or on microfilm. Many Mexican death records are indexed on the FamilySearch Record Search Pilot Site. Search the Family History Library online catalog for microfilmed civil registration records or indexes, as well.

You’ll find more advice in our Mexico Research Guide digital download, available from ShopFamilyTree.com.

Q. I can't find my ancestor’s birthplace. Different censuses give different locations, and I don’t know his parents’ names. Where should I look?

A. It’s not unusual for a person’s birthplace to be inconsistent from one census to the next. The trick is to go beyond census records. Many sources will give a place of birth, so continue researching the person in any record you can get your hands on. Bibles, baptismal records, newspaper birth announcements, military records, passports, naturalizations and death records are a few sources that often name a person’s birthplace.

See which places are mentioned most often, and focus there. You may find online birth indexes such as those for Arizona, Minnesota, Missouri or South Dakota. Websites such as Ancestry.com and FamilySearch often have vital records indexes, too.

Get in-depth information and online search demos in our recorded webinar Vital Records: Researching Your US Ancestors' Births, Marriages and Deaths, available from ShopFamilyTree.com.

Q. How do you trace a child named Jane Doe who was a foundling, and was adopted?

A. Adoptions weren’t always formalized in courts—sometimes a relative or neighbor would take in the child. For a formalized adoption, look into guardianship records (court records of hearings to determine who would care for a minor). Also look for an amended birth certificate, changed to reflect the child’s adoptive rather than biological parents.

Another good resource is newspapers. Finding an abandoned child would be a newsworthy event and may have received press coverage and follow-up articles. Also see the resources in our adoption toolkit and the “Early Adopters” article in the February 2007 Family Tree Magazine (available as a digital issue).

Q. How do you find a grave site when the cemetery doesn’t know where the stone is?

A. Try looking in the cemetery for plots of relatives and those of the same last name, since family members are often buried together. Also search for burial indexes, many of which were created years ago—perhaps before the cemetery lost track of the burial record or the stone was overgrown. In the 1930s and early ‘40s, the Works Progress Administration indexed cemeteries in many communities; you’ll find a free WPA cemetery database at Access Genealogy and printed indexes at public libraries and the Family History Library. The Daughters of the American Revolution also has collected cemetery and other records for years.

A webinar attendee suggested the researcher look for burial permits, which many counties would issue before a grave could be dug, as well as funeral home records. Just this week, I got a letter from a reader who found a permit that a deceased’s relative's second husband had obtained to have the remains moved to his own family plot.

Q. Several of my lines have “daughtered out.” What is your advice for researching women?

A. Our female ancestors just don’t show up in as many records as our male ancestors did, so sometimes you get to a point where you can’t trace a family line back past a woman. Allison emphasized the importance of not focusing just on the female ancestor, but also researching her husband, children, siblings, parents and neighbors. Records of these people may lead you to a maiden name and other information about the woman. Because people often married those who lived nearby, researching the husband’s family may lead to records of interactions, such as land transactions, with your female ancestor’s family.

See our list of records that often reveal details about female ancestors.

Q. What will increase my chances of success in your photo calls?

A. As Allison explained in the webinar, which photos end up in the magazine or another project is partly luck, for example, say we need a wintry photo for a January calendar page, and you’ve sent in a photo of kids sled-riding on a snowy day. Or sometimes a project calls for a vertical or horizontal orientation.

Another thing we look for is a photo with a clear focal point to draw the viewer’s eye. “Compelling” is a good word to describe a photo that makes someone want to pick it up and look at it longer. (We’re always happy when someone picks up the magazine!) Pleasant, open expressions on faces (we know outright smiles are rare in old pictures), a steady gaze, or cute kids are often compelling. Photos with unusual or surprising subject matter also can be compelling.

If we’ll be reprinting the photo at a relatively small size, we’ll want to make sure viewers can still easily discern the subject matter in the pictures (in this respect, photos of large groups of people might be at a disadvantage). But we hope you’ll upload your photos to our Flickr pools regardless—we love seeing them, as do others.

Scavenger Hunt Photo Challenge!

Grace — Fri, 07 May 2010 14:27:42 GMT

Do you live near West Texas? We're looking for an adventurous genealogist to take a photo for us in the Pecos Park Cemetery in Reeves County, Texas, to use in our upcoming book, Grave Humor.

Our target is Robert Clay Allison, who has an especially humorous epitaph: "He never killed a man that did not need killing." The cemetery is at 120 E. First St., Pecos, TX.

Take a high-res digital photo of the man's gravestone over the weekend, and we'll send you a copy of Grave Humor when it comes out. E-mail your image to ftmletters@fwmedia.com by Monday to win!

Ohio Town's House History and Genealogy Meet on Free Site

Diane — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:44:25 GMT

What started as a survey of house histories has turned into a website with genealogy information for an entire community.

In 1995, the women’s club in Terrace Park, Ohio—a village of 2,267 residents and 1.25 square miles—asked every resident to fill out a survey about the history of local buildings.

Leland Cole designed an online home for the data: the Terrace Park, Ohio, Building Survey website. Now Cole and his wife, Carol, add to the site with help from the women’s club.

In all, the free site describes about 925 buildings. You can find all kinds information, including when a house or other structure was built, what it’s made of, its uses, changes made, owners’ names and ownership dates, notes about resident families from maps and phone and city directories, and more.

Most listings have links to photos of the property, a deed index and owners’ census transcriptions from 1810 to 1930.

The page for 203 Marietta St., for example, tells you the original owners, the West family, occupied the house from 1890 to 1951. Samuel Adams West was an attorney; his family was related to Oliver Robertson of 602 Miami Ave. The page gives birth and death dates for many occupants, transcribes their census records, and has photos showing how the house has changed over the years.

You can use the Terrace Park building survey site in several ways:

Click Search to search for a person’s name or other words in building descriptions. You’ll get a list of results for related buildings; click one to see information for that building.

Click Street Index to browse to a street name, then click the house number you’re looking for.

Use the links on the left side of the home page to browse the site’s deed records, census records and burial information.

Click Related Information to read background material on the community and local organizations.

Researching your ancestors’ neighbors and associates is one way to get around genealogical brick walls, and it gives you a really good picture of how your ancestor lived. Cole's site—the only one of its kind I've found —provides rich detail for people with Terrace Park ancestors.

To find historical and genealogical information from your ancestral hometown, try clicking around the county's USGenWeb site, visiting the local historical or genealogical association site, and running a Google search on the county or town name and genealogy.

Wanted: Funny Tombstone Photos

Diane — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:20:51 GMT

You’re pacing a cemetery, intent on finding an ancestor’s grave, when you see a headstone that makes you do a double-take. Maybe it even elicits a chuckle—or causes you to stifle a chuckle, depending on who's around.

Maybe the deceased or his family wanted to make a final, lasting statement, like this man, who campaigned until the bitter end (reader Ruth Anne Nelson sent us the picture for a 2006 All in the Family challenge). Or maybe the humor is coincidental. Either way, naturally, you photograph the stone.

Post that photo to our Funny Tombstone Photos Flickr group, and we might publish it in an upcoming book about funny tombstones and/or in Family Tree Magazine. You also could win an Amazon.com gift card!

And even if you don’t have a photo, show us your sense of humor by writing knee-slapping captions for others’ pictures—we’ll put the funniest ones in the book, too.

The submission deadline is March 31, but submit earlier for more chances to win a gift card.

You'll find the submission instructions—for submitting via Flickr or e-mail—with the gift card drawing details, and, of course, funny photos, on our Funny Tombstone Photos Flickr page. (You may need to scroll down a little to the About section.)

The fine print: By submitting, you verify that you are the copyright holder of the photo or caption. You also grant F+W Media, Inc., permission to use your contribution in any and all print and electronic media.

Ancestry.com Cemetery Collection Free Through Nov. 5

Diane — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:02:20 GMT

This just in: Ancestry.com is making its "creepiest collections"—records of cemeteries and gravestones free through next Thursday, Nov. 5. You will need to register for a free Ancestry.com account to view details of your search results.

Use the search box on this Halloween landing page to access the free databases.

Click here to see the list of cemetery indexes and inscriptions included in this offer.

History Next Door

Diane — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:27:09 GMT

Staying up late the night before you return to work after a vacation does not prolong the vacation.

I’m trying to jump back in the saddle after leaf-peeping in Maine and New Hampshire (with a side trip to the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream factory in Waterbury, Vt.), and sightseeing in Boston.

Having grown up in a Midwestern suburb, I find it remarkable that some people leave their homes or offices every day and walk by a 350-year-old cemetery, or the meeting hall where the assembly began that resulted in the 1773 Boston Tea Party, or the church where patriots hung two lanterns in 1775 to warn colonists that British soldiers were on the way.

One stop on the Freedom Trail, which links Boston sites instrumental to the Revolution, is Copp’s Hill Burying Ground in the North End, just up the hill from the Old North Church.

The oldest surviving inscription on a stone at Copp's Hill is for the two-week-old son of David Copp and his wife, Obedience. The baby died Dec. 22, 1661.

An informational marker pointed out interesting gravestones, including this one, created from another, previously carved gravestone. You can see the old inscription, upside-down on the back:

And here’s the front of the reused stone, marking the grave of Theodore James, who died Sept. 25, 1815:

It’s hard to tell in this photo, but the inscription on Mary Waters’ tombstone gives the names of her husband when she died and her former husband.

You can search Copps Hill interments at Find-a-Grave.

You can read Copp’s Hill historical markers online at the Historical Marker Database. Start with this one, then click the links under Other Nearby Markers.

For Lisa Louise Cooke's demo on using photo-editing software to improve the readability of your gravestone photos, see our video page.

Ask and answer cemetery research questions in Family Tree Magazine’s Cemetery Central Forum (note you must register with the Forum to post).

UGOs (Unidentified Genealogical Objects)

Diane — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 18:05:30 GMT

Yesterday evening, our company had a trade show, wherein each community (genealogy, writing, woodworking, crafts, etc.) displayed its latest how-to publications and resources.

The Family Tree Magazine staff enjoyed showing off our CDs, webinars and forthcoming Family Tree Legacies book, and sharing genealogy tips with coworkers. I think one guy is searching the free 1911 Irish census as I type this.

The best part was our guessing game. For a chance to win a prize, our colleagues guessed the identity of this object, commonly used in the course of genealogy research:

Here were some of their guesses (obviously, we’re dealing with some wise guys here):

“toddler’s crayon”
“fossilized chocolate cake”
“worry stone” (over those unsolved brick walls, we presume)
“paper weight”
“scrubber to get your pen started” (huh?)
“thumbprinter thingie”
“It’s used to help you separate papers. You rub your fingers on it so you can easily rifle through your records”
"a secret listening device"
“a template for drawing circles for names on your family tree”
“a starter for the center of your family tree”

What’s your guess?

The correct answer is tombstone rubbing wax, used for making impressions of tombstones. The astute Holly Davis, an editor over at The Artist’s Magazine, is the winner of a scrapbook album kit!

For step-by-step instructions on making tombstone rubbings (including ensuring the stone is sound), see this FamilyTreeMagazine.com article.

And to avoid arrest while making said tombstone rubbing, read our Now What? blog post.

Burr Oak Cemetery Tombstone Images Posted Online

Diane — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 18:04:29 GMT

The Cook County (Ill.) sherrif’s office has set up a public database to help families affected by the shocking crimes at Burr Oak Cemetery.

In July, authorities announced that about 300 graves in the historically African-American cemetery near Chicago had been dug up, the bodies dumped, and the plots resold. Four cemetery workers are accused of the crime.

Those looking for relatives’ grave sites at the cemetery can search an online database of tombstone images. So far, it has 9,500 names from the roughly 100,000 grave sites.

Searchers can type in a name or browse by year. There’s also a link to view photos of markers with unknown burial years.

Read more about this tragedy in the articles linked here.

Examiner.com's African-American genealogy writer, Michael Hait, takes a close look at the database here.

The Mystery of the Stray Headstone

Diane — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:17:52 GMT

About a year ago, a headstone appeared on the side of a road in the city of Weed, Calif.

Jennifer Bryan, a member of the Siskiyou County Genealogical Society in Yreka, Calif., is trying to find out where it belongs. The stone has never been set into concrete, she says, but it is engraved:

William C. Vann
Dec., 7, 1910 - May 5, 1972

“We’ve checked with all the local cemeteries, monument stone carvers and funeral homes, and haven’t been able to local where this headstone belongs,” Jennifer writes. “We realize this may be a ‘rejected’ headstone, or perhaps it was lost in shipping and the engraver has created a new one for the family by now.”

But in case William C. Vann’s family (or maybe a delivery truck driver who got in a bit of hot water) is wondering what became of his headstone, Jennifer and her fellow society members are asking for your help.

Anyone researching a Vann family, possibly in California, that William may have belonged to? Got a theory how the stone came to be on the roadside? Click Comments (below) to post here.

Here’s a photo of the stone:

Search Burials and Cemetery Maps on New Site

Diane — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:10:23 GMT

This site is just getting off the ground, but it’ll be really cool if it takes off.

Names in Stone is a cemetery mapping site—you can search for a grave and get a map showing where it is in the cemetery and whose plots are nearby.

Only a handful of cemeteries are covered as yet, mostly in Utah, Idaho, Nevada and California.

You can encourage larger, managed cemeteries to participate, or map smaller, volunteer-run cemeteries yourself and upload the data. (Get instructions on the site. More mapping tips are on an associated blog called Grave Mappers.)

It’s free to search on a name and see available details from that person’s headstone—could be birth and death dates, burial date, parents’ names, military service, etc.—as well as the grave location (shown below), cemetery name, cemetery map, address, GPS coordinates and driving directions.

You can purchase virtual gravestone décor; you decorate the stone yourself by dragging and dropping images of flowers and swags.

Paying members ($7.95 per month, $39.99 per year) can save searches, save a “cemeteries of interest” list, be notified of matches to automated searches and receive discounts on gravestone décor.

Search Burials in Two English Counties (Mostly Free!)

Diane — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 13:40:06 GMT

Richard Smart wrote me from across the pond about an organization he directs, The National Archive of Memorial Inscriptions.

On its Web site, you’ll find a database of 170,000 names from 580 burial grounds in Bedfordshire and Norfolk, and it’s added to regularly.

You can search by name, a death date range, age range at death, county, and place. Wildcards work: ? stands for one letter; * (asterisk) substitutes for any number of letters.

You get quite a bit of information for free—first and last name, burial ground and county, and date of death. Buy the full inscription for 4 pounds (about $6), and for most records, add historical text, a photo of the church and/or a plan of the graveyard for 1 pound (about $1.50) each.

Fuzzy on the details of your ancestor’s burial, or want to see who else is in a graveyard?

Smart shared this tip for browsing: “If you enter any place from the Availability page, in either Bedfordshire or Norfolk, into the Place box on the home page, you will get free of charge a listing of all the data available from that place, except for the actual inscription.”

San Francisco's Historic Mission Dolores Cemetery

Diane — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:03:39 GMT

Last week after talking about kids’ genealogy in Sacramento, Calif., I met up with my sister in San Francisco for a couple of days (she lives 20 minutes from me here in Cincinnati, but was also out West on business).

One of my favorite sights was Mission Dolores, the popular name for the Misión San Francisco de Asís since it was founded June 29, 1776. The present mission chapel, built in 1791, is a block and a half away from the first location.

Still home to an active parish, it’s the oldest intact building in San Francisco—the thick adobe walls survived the 1906 earthquake. Next door is the Mission Dolores Basilica, first built around 1876 and rebuilt after suffering severe quake damage.

The walled Mission Cemetery, final resting place for Ohlone, Miwok and other indigenous peoples as well as notable pioneers, is the only cemetery left within city limits.

The cemetery is smaller today than it once was, but has been restored with native plantings.

You can find known Mission Dolores burials listed at FindaGrave. Read a bit more about the cemetery’s past in the transcribed historical newspaper articles on SFGenealogy.com.