Tombstone Tuesday ~ Nelle Eickelberg

Nelle and John Quick

To go along with my post on Nelle Eickelberg yesterday, I thought I would post her gravestone today. 

Nelle is buried in Denver's Fairmount Cemetery next to her second husband (and my great-grandfather) John Quick rather than with her third (and final) husband Richard Heflin. She was not able to be buried with her last husband as he was buried in Fairmount's Garden of Honor which is reserved for veterans. 

An interesting note is that John's brother Edwin is also buried here although there is no stone noting that.  I found this out the last time I visited and stopped in the office for a map and to ask where to find this plot.  The nice lady there not only looked up the location but offered the information of everyone buried there.  I hadn't known that previously.  It always pays to chat with people.

Tombstone Tuesday ~ and a Lesson in Why I Should Write

I’m not even sure why we stopped at the cemetery that day. After all, I’d been there twice before – once when my Dad and I made the thrilling (for me anyway!) discovery of my 3x great-grandparents Anna & Jacob Zaugg’s gravestone and once, much later, when I happened to be in the area and wanted to re-take the picture with my digital camera.

This time we had been out doing non-genealogy things…shopping in quilt stores and browsing through places like The Ashery. We happened to be driving through Mt. Eaton (Ohio) and started talking about the time we found the “old” cemetery. On the spur of the moment I said, “Let’s stop.”

Since I didn’t have a specific agenda, this time I looked around more – noticing names and taking some random pictures of stones that caught my eye. I happened to notice a small stone in the same row as Anna & Jacob’s and as I looked more closely I was amazed to read, “Elmer Graber, son of R & E Graber died May 7, 1890 Aged 6 m 14 d”  I can't believe that I never saw that before!  

Before we came on this trip I had been thinking quite a bit about Elmer and Clara Graber - the two children of Emma [Zaugg] Graber's that did not live to adulthood.  I had even wondered if possibly these children were buried on the family farm somewhere, although I didn't even  know (and still don't) if the Grabers were living on the farm during those times.

The reason I had been thinking so much about Emma and her children was that I had been trying to write about her. Based on a talk I heard Lisa Alzo give at FGS 2011 called Write Your Family History Step by Step I was writing about Emma 15 minutes a day.

It was interesting because Emma was someone I really thought I knew. There was no mystery or brick wall there. I knew who her parents, grandparents, husband and children were. But I found out that it wasn’t the same thing as knowing her. When I started to put together a few paragraphs each day, it just made me look at things differently.

I truly believe that I found this stone because I'd been writing about Emma and had these children on my mind. So thank-you Lisa for that!! And now that one of my biggest excuses is no longer there, I really need to start again with my 15 minutes a day...

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Magdalena Saurer

This gravestone is a currently unconnected SAURER from Tracy Cemetery in Apple Creek, Ohio.  I believe the official name of the cemetery - if you try to locate it on Find-A-Grave or a map - is Red Run Cemetery, but if you want a local to direct you there - ask for Tracy Cemetery.

 MAGDALENA SAURER

Born

Sep 20, 1789

Died

June 8, 1866

76 yrs. 9 mos. 19 ds.
June 8, 1855

[This is my best guess at what it says - although I realize the calculation is off by a month if you use death date & age or birth date and age]

Tombstone Tuesday ~ More from the ACPL

While in Fort Wayne, at the wonderful Allen County Public Library, one of the people on our "guided tour" was busily scouring books for various bits of information. As I mentioned in my fishing analogy the other day, some people like the guide to do everything including baiting the hook, while others just need to be rowed to the right spot and left alone to fish.

Rosalie (Rosie) Day was one of the latter and she has an amazing ability to find seemingly random, un-indexed tidbits of great information.  While any of us could Google "Kosciusko County cemeteries" [well, OK, only those of you who are really, REALLY good spellers could Google anything that starts off with "Kosciusko"!!], Rosie was able to find the exact location, including the row number, of the grave of Simon Wyland.  She has been hoping to be able to visit the cemetery after leaving the library and now she knew just what she needed.

In the Kosciusko County, Indiana Cemetery Records, Vol II by Lester H. Binnie there on pg 44 was this entry:

There was also a nice picture of the layout of the cemetery along with some history.

Rosie is the great-grandniece of the wife of Simon Wyland. Rosie knew where Mary (Long) Wyland was buried in Garnett, Kansas, and wanted to complete the family history by locating Simon's final resting place.

So, after some "fishing" in the library, Rosie and her daughter-in-law Wanda (who took all the pictures you are seeing) were able to go directly to the Mount Pleasant Cemetery and take pictures of the stone Rosie had been looking for. 

Rosalie Day standing next to the stone of her Civil War ancestor, Simon Wyland

Tombstone Tuesday ~ a Stormy Day in Scotland

As you can see from the sky, the weather was somewhat threatening. We were coming to the end of a day touring around Fife. We had visited several churches where someone had been there to meet us and show us around as well as give us some of the history of the church. Now, as we were heading back, our driver had pointed out the Dairsie church but said that it wouldn't be open for us. He seemed to think that we would be happy just seeing it from a distance - and my parents probably would have - but there were gravestones there! Of course I needed to stop.


Many of the stones were old, and I wasn't looking for anyone in particular. Dairsie would be the area where some of my RITCHIE's had been born, but the ones I had traced had all moved and been buried elsewhere. As the weather was really staring to look ominous, we found this stone:

Erected
to the MEMORY of
WILLIAM RITCHIE
Late Blacksmith at Dairsie
Who Departed this Life
on the 8. June 1798 aged 51 Years
Also
EUPHAME Wife of the above
Who Departed this life on the
4. March 1829 in the 72 Year
of her age

ALSO THEIR DAUGHTER
AGNES WHO DIED 17th MAY 1891 AGED 95 YEARS

Now, I don't have this family "tied in" to mine yet, but Dairsie was not a large place. I feel sure they are somehow related. I just need to figure it out! So glad we stopped.

Tombstone Tuesday ~ More From Baltimore

When I was in Baltimore, visiting Mt. Olivet Cemetery and taking pictures of the nice grassy area, totally devoid of stones where my 2x great grandmother, Susan [HUNGERFORD] QUICK is buried (as I posted in last week's Tombstone Tuesday) I happened upon 2 rather old stones side-by-side in the ground and decided to take pictures. I'm not sure why, as I'm not related to these people, but I guess I just liked the cemetery and wanted to take SOME pictures. I thought they would be a nice post for this Tuesday.

On the left is:
MARY A GREEN
APRIL 23, 1819
OCT. 10, 18[98] ?

On the right is:
REV. JOHN J. GREEN
SEPT. 15, 1816
JAN. 28, 1879

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Baltimore

In this picture you might notice a remarkable LACK of actual tombstones for a Tombstone Tuesday post!

I was looking for Susie (Hungerford) Quick, b April 9, 1867, d July 2, 1937 both dates according to her death certificate. It also stated that she was to be buried in Mt Olivet Cemetery.

The information on the website wasn't quite making sense to me as most people had plot information that corresponded to the lettered sections on the map. For Susie [and a few others that I'd noticed], the entry read "Olivet xx" with just a number. When I called for further information, they explained that Olivet was actually section L and that those were generally unmarked graves. As the nice lady so carefully put it, they were "single" burials rather than family plots. So, it appears that Susie, who at this point was a widow with 2 of her 3 sons also pre-deceasing her, was buried in a potters field possibly due to the fact that it was 1937 and I would guess that money for such luxuries as gravestones was probably not plentiful.

I then took a drive over to Louden Park Cemetery where I was able to find the resting place of her son, my great-granduncle, Charles Quick, b November 11, 1889, d February 16, 1955 according to his death certificate. This was a huge cemetery, but very well marked and the person at the desk gave me very good instructions. I found Charles almost immediately. I looked around for a little bit and found some other Quicks as well. Now I just need to work on identifying them and figuring out how everyone "fits together.

Isn't that the most fun part of a research trip - coming back with even MORE questions than you started with!!

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Thomas & Margaret Auflick

Thomas Auflick

1830 - 1910

Margaret
His Wife
1830 - 1914

Thomas and Margaret are my 3x great grandparents. This stone is in the Lafayette, Cemetery in Lafayette, Colorado. I took the picture on Dec 29, 2007 and let me tell you it was COLD. The stone was NOT conveniently near the roadway either - but after going out of the way specifically to find this stone (on a trip to Estes Park) I was not about to let a little cold and snow deter me. To give you a better idea, here is a zoomed-out picture of the area that I took while standing on the nearest roadway.














From The Lafayette Leader, Friday, January 7, 1910:

Death of an Old Citizen

"Thomas Auflick was born August 31, 1830, in Durham county, England. He was married to Miss Margaret Hannington in June, 1850, who still survives him. To this union eight children were born, three of whom are still living. He came to this country with his family fifty-two years ago, settling in West Virginia. He came to Colorado in 1887, and lived in Erie for a few months, moving to Lafayette in the spring of 1888, where he has since resided. He departed this life on January 6, 1910. Grandpa Auflick as he was familiarly called, was loved by all who knew him, and will be mourned by a host of friends. He leaves a wife, two daughters, Mrs. W. G. Saunders of Frederick, Mrs. Wm. Eickelberg of Denver and one son John H. Auflick of Norton, Colo. Thirteen grandchildren and six great grandchildren. The funeral service will be held in the Congregational church Sunday, Jan. 9th at 2 p.m., conducted by the pastor, Rev. R. C. Byers. The body will be interred in the Lafayette cemetery by Undertaker R. R. Powell."

I have always felt that somewhere there exists pictures of this couple. It is their daughter, "Mrs. Wm. Eickelberg" or Nellie Auflick, who is my great-great-grandmother. I have many pictures of her. I can't believe that she didn't have a portrait of her parents, but I have never seen one. Having a picture of Thomas and Margaret it very high on my genealogy wish list.

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Annis GALLOWAY ROSS

JOHN ROSS
BORN
Mar. 17. 1800
DIED
Apr. 7. 1872

ANNIS M.
WIFE OF
JOHN ROSS
BORN
JULY 27. 1830
DIED
JULY 31. 1888

Sunday when preparing my weekly family events, I decided to do a search for Annis Mae GALLOWAY. I had a little information on her, but nothing that was verified. These are my brother-in-law's 3x great-grandparents, although I don't really have actual proof of that.

I came across this picture on Find-A-Grave and yesterday I received permission from the person who took the picture to post it here. I was thrilled to find that the person who took this picture is also a descendant of this couple and has taken a number of other pictures of family stones in the area. It's great to find not only pictures, but also someone who is researching the same family. I was so glad I took the time to contact them for permission to use this picture!

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Lena Duncan

Lena Duncan 1889 - 1923
Mary D Bowlen 1866 - 1920
Melva M Duncan 1908 - 1930

This stone is in the Green Mountain Cemetery in Boulder, Colorado. I almost cropped this picture to show just the stone, but then I saw the mountains in the background and decided to leave it this way. I was a beautiful setting - but then again of course it was, it was in Colorado!


Lena VENETTE DUNCAN is my step-great grandmother. Mary Bowlen is her mother and Melva is one of her daughters.

Tombstone Tuesday ~ More from Canada

So, there I was having a great time at the Ontario Genealogical Society Conference in Oakville, Ontario on a Saturday afternoon. I was facing an almost 13 hour trip back home the following day and I was already looking at what sessions were being offered tomorrow. Should I stay until the last one on Sunday afternoon, or should I try to leave a little bit early? It was going to be a LONG drive, but the sessions on Sunday looked good and all those that I had attended thus far had been excellent.

So, what did I decide? Why to skip out of ALL the session on Sunday and add a 3 hour side trip over to Kincardine, Ontario to visit a cemetery of course! I'm sure most people reading this won't find that nearly as strange as my family did when I mentioned that I might be just a tiny bit longer getting home than I had anticipated.

In between sessions on Saturday I had been chatting with a man about my desire to go to Kincardine. I knew what cemetery I was looking for, but wasn't sure how large it was, or if I would able to find the stone I was after. He helpfully mentioned that most of the branch societies in the vendor area had cemetery listings and that Kincardine would be Bruce & Grey. Sure enough, that cemetery had been transcribed and the stone I was looking for was in their cemetery listing. The lady helping me even said something about my not needing to go there because the inscription on the stone had been transcribed. I didn't mention to her that I actually had a very bad copy of an article that showed the stone itself - so I knew what it said. I STILL wanted to go to the cemetery. I even bought the book - it was a LARGE cemetery - and since I now had a layout of the cemetery and knew what section "my" stone was in, I made up my mind to take the trip.

I am so glad I went! The drive across Ontario was beautiful. The farmland made me feel at home, having grown up in rural Ohio. At one point I was in a tiny town sitting at a stoplight and I realized I was hearing bagpipe music. Sure enough, there out my window were some young men in kilts in front of the Knox Presbyterian Church playing the bagpipes. I like to understand the places my ancestors lived and not just see their names on paper and it was interesting to see how "Scottish" many places in this part of Canada were since my Canadian ancestors had come from Scotland.

When I finally arrived at Kincardine and located the correct part of the cemetery, I looked at the listing and noted the two names above and two below the one I wanted, figuring that they just transcribed in order. I walked along saying the names over and over to myself..I'm glad I had decided to look that way as I found the other names and realized I should be seeing RITCHIE but didn't. When I noticed the stone almost hidden my two large bushes ~ and there it was!

As I looked at the stone I was even MORE glad I had made this trip. The picture I had, and the inscription in the book, were both done quite some time ago. I found more than I bargained for when I saw that 3 of David's children were also buried here. One, also David, noted on the main stone and two daughter with separate markers.

RITCHIE
Rev. David Ritchie
Born at St. Andrews, Scotland, 1872
Died at Seaforth, Ont, 1948
Husband of
Marianne Moore
Born at Lauder, Scotland, 1881
Died at Collingwood, Ont, 1971
David G. Ritchie
1915 - 1996

Alexander R Johnson
1908 - 1998
Beloved husband of
Margaret E Ritchie
1918 - 2004

Elsie E Ritchie
1913 - 2004

David was my great-grandfather's older brother. He went back to Scotland at one point and became a minister, supposedly studying at the University of Edinburgh. When he was in Scotland, he married his cousin, Marianne MOORE. Her mother, Elspeth SWINTON, and David's mother, Jane SWINTON, were sisters. I would love to connect with this family in Canada to see what stories have come down in their branch of the family!

Oh, one last picuture - Lake Huron was right down the road from the cemetery. You could stand at the front gate and see it. I drove down before I left to get some more pictures. As I was standing there with the cold wind whipping off the lake I wondered if Kincardine at all reminded David of St Andrews with the nearness to the water and the cold winds. I'm so very glad I made the trip.

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Toronto, Ontario

From my trip to Ontario last week, I have a double Tombstone Tuesday story.

From correspondence many years ago with my Uncle George, I knew that my 2nd great-grand uncle, Alex Ritchie was buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto. I even had an old (and slightly fuzzy) picture of the stone that Uncle George had sent. So, really, why did I even want to go??

Well, my only plan for Thursday was to go from Thorold, ON to Oakville, ON. Since that is not a very long trip, and I couldn't get into my hotel room until 3:00 anyway I thought I might as well go into Toronto and visit Mount Pleasant Cemetery. I even had the information regarding the section and plot for the stone so I should be in good shape.

When I got there, I couldn't make sense of the notation O-61-3 that I had from Uncle George. The only sections I saw were all numbers - and this was clearly the letter O. So, I ended up having to go into the office and ask - good thing for me! The lady there looked up Alexander Ritchie and told me he was indeed buried in section O - which was across the road. Since we were chatting I asked, almost off-hand, if there was a James Ritchie, who died in 1891, buried in the cemetery. Yes, she had an entry and I started to feel very excited - I'm sure you all know the feeling! - and then she said, "He's buried with Mary Davidson Ritchie."

Well, that was NOT right! My great-great-grandfather was married to Jane Swinton so this didn't seem like the right person at all. It also made me question the death date and information I had been given. Although I have a copy of a death entry I have to admit that I had always wondered if it really was "my" James ~ James Ritchie being such a common name. There was nothing on the death registration that I could point to as tying it to my James. With a sinking feeling that I'd been wrong about this, I asked for the location of the stone. If nothing else I would find it and then possibly the information on the stone would tie to the death registration and I would know it wasn't the right person.

Armed with the information and a map I went over to the correct part of the cemetery. It was a drizzly, misty day but the cemetery itself was really beautiful. It was full of old trees and well groomed. The rainy weather just made everything lush and green. I know that most people reading this will understand when I say that I was really enjoying just driving around and admiring this cemetery. It had a very peaceful feeling.


Without much trouble I found Uncle Alec's stone. He was buried with Romeyn Lawyer - who I'm told was a lawyer and a business partner and Romeyn's sister Adelaide.

In Memoriam
Romeyn Lawyer
Died March 6th 1915

Adelaide Lawyer Willson
Died December 10th 1908

Alexander Ritchie
Died October 3rd 1924

Now to try and find James. Fortunately he was buried in section N so it was very close. Unfortunately most of the stones I was seeing in this section were old, moss-covered and almost totally illegible! I walked around, my feet getting wetter and colder by the minute, but just couldn't seem to orient myself with the map. I didn't know if I was even close to the spot that was marked. Still, I kept looking. Finally, I found a marker on the ground with a number...I used that to orient myself and kept looking...found some more numbers on the ground. Now, I knew I was at least moving in the right direction. There were 2 completely illegible stones - I even took pictures of them thinking that maybe those were them [if Mary had a separate stone.]

But I still kept walking ~ you know that feeling that you are so close to something? I just couldn't leave. I found another marker in the ground and knew I had to be almost on top of it! I kept looking at the ground for more numbers..and then suddenly there is was - a stone that was set in the ground. It read, "In Memory of Jame Ritchie, Stonecutter, Who Died Oct 5, 1891, Aged 51 years, Late of St. Andrews, Scotland, KIND LOVE"


That just HAD to be him! Now mostly I don't get very emotional about my cemetery finds, but those words, "Kind Love" made me cry. Suddenly I could see a woman in a strange country with 6 children, whose husband had just died. I still don't know what happened after that, but this stone made me feel the loss in a way I can't quite explain.

As I was pondering this, I remembered that Alex was married - and his wife was Mary Davidson! I don't know how that escaped me originally. Now it all made sense and made me even more sure that I had the correct person. Alex would, most likely, have seen to the details of his brother's burial and then later also buried his wife there. I did not see any indication of a stone for her.

Sorry for the long story...but I was beyond thrilled to find this!!

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Anna and Heinrich NISSEN

ANNA E.

BELOVED WIFE OF
A. H. NISSEN
DIED
May 11, 1900
AGE 44 YEARS
1 MO. 15 DAYS
____________________
OUR
HEINRICH F.
DIED Oct 11, 1879
AGED 2 YEARS
1MO. 3 DS.

This stone is in Riverside Cemetery, Denver, CO and the picture was taken by a (wonderful!) volunteer at Find-A-Grave. I especially appreciated this as my photo request was for August Nissen. The person who took this photo verified that August was buried here when they did not find him on the marker at the spot I had indicated. [While he is buried there, the stone was apparently never "updated" to include his information.] So, this person went ahead and took a pictures of the stone even though August's name was not on it and then set up records on Find-A-Grave for Anna and Heinrich.

This was fantastic information for me as I was unaware of Heinrich and did not have a specific death date for Anna. I knew that her youngest daughter (my great-grandmother) was born in 1890 and that by the time of the 1900 census, August was listed as a widower. It was a nice bit of genealogical luck for me that Anna died in 1900 which is the first year that Colorado officially has death records (although some counties have records earlier.)

Just this one picture added a child to my family, gave me a death date for Anna AND allowed me to obtain a death certificate for Anna which in turn gave me her maiden name - PARKSON - and her parents names as John and Anna as well as her parents birthplaces - both Germany...all information unknown to me until someone I've never meet took the time to take a picture for me - and one that I hadn't specifically requested at that.

Wow - it never ceases to amaze me how much I owe to the kindness of strangers!

Tombstone Tuesday ~ James Kirk, Scotland

MEMENTO MORI
Erected
by
JAMES KIRK Merchant
St. Johns, New Brunswick, North America
In Memory of
JAMES KIRK, his Father
who died 3rd Feb 1829
aged 80 years
ELSPETH RUSSELL his Mother
Died 7th May 1832
aged 81 years

This is another ancestor's gravestone that I was able to visit in St. Andrews Cathedral graveyard. James KIRK and Elspeth RUSSELL are my 5th great-grandparents.

Their son, James KIRK, who erected this monument is the youngest child (I've found) in a large family. I have yet to trace what happened to him in Canada. His much older sister, Elizabeth, is my 4th great-grandmother. There is a memorial to her very near this one which I featured in an early Tombstone Tuesday post.