Santa Ana Cemetery

I went out to the Santa Ana Cemetery in Santa Ana, CA. I have lived nearby for 40 years and I didn't know about this cemetery. There were lots of really nice stones, then some stones like the one in this picture. I was "on assignment" for a freind that researches all the men that fought in the Fourth Michigan Infantry. Thanks, George, for sending me out here. Of course I couldn't just look at one stone and leave. I wandered and wandered and took lots of pictures. I wondered about all these people and their lives. There are many, many civil war soldiers buried here. A group call the The Civil War Roundtable Orange County Civil War Graves Registration Project has placed a large Civil War monument at the cemetery and large metal GAR star at each veterans grave. It was easy to spot and I ran around from one to the other. Did they know of each other? Were they friends in life, having shared the same experience? And my forever question: Are they friends now? Or is there a great story here of ghostly soldiers sitting next to their stones at night telling war stories?

Award of Mine

I am so proud to recieve this award. I will stand tall with the other Winner Rabbits. As the Rabbit Roundup Reader, I get to read all the posts twice a month, I can honestly say everyone is very creative, I am always surprised to read so many different posts on the same subject...the graveyard, cemetery, and burial grounds. Just how do we do it? With each other! Thank you from my little corner of the cemetery.

Granary Burial Ground, Boston

The Granary is one of the cemeteries that is on my list of places to go before I die. This is one of Boston's most popular tourist destinations. It is the final resting place of Paul Revere, as well as many other men from the revolutionary time.

There are many stories to be told here...but here is a modern one: A tourist fell into the entrance of a tomb that was long forgotton. The news story doesn't say who the tomb belonged to, that is my research for another day. But as I read this I realized I have a postcard in my collection from the cemetery.Please enjoy the story and my 1910 postcard. http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/02/tourist_steps_i.html?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed1

Also visit my Graveyard Stew for more newspaper stories about lost graves. http://graveyardstew.blogspot.com/

A Surreal Visit to Sunnyslope Cemetery

The 14th Sunnyslope Cemetery Stroll is getting ready for action. Last week we met Charles and Betty at the cemetery. Charles promised that he would full our notebooks with history...and he was right. Our theme this year will be Veterans. This couple was the cutest couple, married over 61 years and they are walking around holding hands. Both of them has many family members buried at Sunnyslope and many that are veterans.
Most of our silent citizens we have portrayed we know from research only...and most of the time we really have to dig. But this darling couple could tell us about these people and what they were like in life. Uncle Pete, Aunt Ida, Grandpa Tucker. I often use the expression that "the cemetery comes alive when you learn about the people buried there"...but this time they really did come alive. Betty brought pictures and family group sheets. We would stand at the grave and look at their picture and see the fgs and learn of about the person. The experience was surreal. What wonderful people!!!
Then of course they could point out other people that they knew, not relatives, but neighbors, friends, friends of friends, someone they went to high school with. Comments like "I never got along with him," or "she killed herself," or "he always kept the town in tow," or "he was a good dancer and loved the women."
By the end I was dizzy with information and needed a nap to let it all sit in my already cluttered brain.
We can only use 5 characters, and we only have 5-10 minutes to tell about each of them. Oh! How are we going to choose?!?!
Thanks Charles and Betty for a fabulous day at the cemetery.

The Lost Tombstone

What a story. You have to read this. It is about a tombstone lost and found. And the detective work to get it right again.

http://www.lib.niu.edu/2000/ihfa0012.html

Rabbit Wright and Her Postcards

I enjoy my postcard collection so much. I only buy ones that I like or that have a interesting story. The ones that show people in them are the best, such as in this picture. Postcard collectors focus on the style, divided backs, the stamps, linen or not, handcolored or not and many other details. There are many unique PCs out there. My hobby started with family history. I wanted to write my own family history using just postcards. Then I discovered cemetery PCs. By researching the cemetery depicted I learn so much. Some places that I would have never thought to dig into suddenly becomes interesting.

The picture here is of Orchard Knob in Chattanooga, TN. Here was the Battle of Orchid Knob, a exciting battle that Ulysses S. Grant commanded. Upon taking the ridge General George Thomas conceived the idea for a cemetery. Today the National Cemetery at Chattanooga holds the graves of some 37,000 American veterans. The cemetery holds the remains of veterans from the Revolutionary War to the Gulf War and 186 graves of German prisoners-of-war from both World Wars. It is the only national cemetery to contain the graves of foreign POW's.

I looked on line for current pictures of the cemetery and it doesn't look anything like this PC from 1909.

Two cemeteries I am on the lookout for are my own cemetery here in Corona, CA. I have only one and at that I only have the image because someone else in town has the orginal. The other is my future place of residence, the Sunnyvale Cemetery in Valley Center, KS. I can't find anything on it, much less a PC. I begged my sister in law to begin the research since she lives nearby. The only thing I know about it is that the rows are real wide because they used a horse drawn "lawn mower" contraption until a couple decades ago. Oh! and I know many people that are buried there. There is always the mystery!

Postcard Collection...Report Number Seven

The Germantown Cemetery in Philadelphia was known as the Upper Burial Ground. It was once known as the Ax Burying Ground because John Frederick Ax was the keeper of the accounts for the cemetery. Later on it was called the Concord Burial Ground. There was a school built next to it in the year 1775 called The Concord School. By 1756, John Frederick Ax was too old and feeble to attend to the grounds and accounts. It was during the time about 1756 that it received the name of Ax's Burying Ground. The burying ground was run by John Frederick Ax from 1724 to 1756.
Here are buried fifty-two known and five unknown soldiers of the Revolution, as well as eleven from the War of 1812 and one from the Mexican War. The burying ground was created in 1692 and the high front wall was completed in 1724. The burying ground was created from a deed by Paul Wulff. It had its own trustees who kept their own records, but didn't actually start keeping records until 1761 One of the earliest stones is Cornelius Teisen who arrived in Germantown in 1684 and died in 1716 at age 63. There are Indians buried here and Germantown's "Methuselah," Adam Shisler, who died in 1777 and whose tombstone incorrectly reads, "age 969 years."

Soldiers buried in the Upper Burial Ground can be found here: http://genealogytrails.com/penn/military/GermantownRevBurials.html