Gone but Not Forgotten
Last weekend I had the chance to take a walk through beautiful Manchester Cemetery in Wheeling, West Virginia. This cemetery is fairly old, with almost half of the graves dating between 1800 and 1850. Imagine my delight to find flowers and other little offerings on the grave of Martha McCandless, who died on January 6, 1831. That's almost 180 years ago, yet someone has recently visited her grave and cared enough to prop it up and leave evidence that she is still remembered. I've visited as many of my ancestor's graves as I've been able to locate, but I've never thought to leave a flower or other remembrance. I think I might just have to do that next time!
One sad thing about this hauntingly, beautiful cemetery - many of the individuals buried here are likely not only gone, but forgotten. The underbrush had been cut back around the stones so the cemetery is obviously maintained by someone, but many of the stones have fallen and/or become illegible due to more than a hundred years of wind and rain. Luckily, Gary Timmons took time to transcribe Manchester Cemetery in 2002, but even by that time many of the stones were partially or totally unreadable.
Cemeteries are good sources of information on individuals, from birth and death dates, to choice of occupation and family relationships. Sometimes the gravestone is the only existing record of this valuable information. For this reason, I challenge each of you to do something to help preserve a cemetery near you. Contact your local genealogical or historical society to learn what is being done or needs to be done in your area.
Related information:
Steps for Transcribing a Cemetery
Tips for Taking Great Cemetery Photos
Comments
In regards to “gone but not forgotten”, I must add “gone but no marker”. I visited family in Kentucky that I never met (my grandfather had a brother never mentioned in his life time that I discovered). In his cemetery we found no head stones for three direct family members listed in church records and by the city Historical Society to be buried on specific dates in this church cemetery. Other than digging to find which casket belongs to which person, what can we do to locate family? We are talking about burial dates back 1890’s to 1926.