Cemeteries: They Aren't Just For The Dead

Cemeteries! What a wonderful way to spend a day. What? That sounds creepy? No way. They are a smorgasbord of information, not to mention they are usually the most peaceful places.

Pictured to the left is a snapshot of me running through one of the cemeteries in Tarboro, Edgecombe County, NC. My sister Joanne is the one who took this lovely black and white photo.

Anyways, back on topic. I find it hard now to drive past a cemetery or graveyard without wanting to get out and go in and see if there are any Parrish's lain to rest within its gates.
Ironically doing this, I have found some of my ancestors in this way.

Also, networking with other genealogist's or family members who have been doing research helps to when looking for cemeteries. Just a few weeks ago I was in need of someone who lived in Wayne County to look through the cemetery index for that county to help me find where some of my Parrish's are buried. They found several of them in a cemetery in Pikeville.

Armed with this information I traveled from my home in Wake County to Wayne county and found the cemetery. It has been maintained and was easy to find. I was able to get several photographs of the tombstones and of the cemetery itself.

Speaking of it being maintained, there is nothing that saddens me more than an unkempt cemetery. I had the misfortune of running into one that was so overgrown there was no way I could enter the cemetery. What made it worse is that there are family members of the main family who are buried in the cemetery that live just down the road from the cemetery. I had one family member buried in the cemetery, she married into the family. Here is a picture of what it looked like.

As you can see it was all overgrown and I couldn't make my way into the graveyard.

When I go and investigate a graveyard, I take a long a pen and paper to jot down the names of the people, along with the inscriptions on their tombstones, found in the cemetery/graveyard. I also have on hand a digital camera so I can take photographs of the tombstones. Some people even take along paper and charcoal to do rubbings of the tombstones, but I do not. Once home I then catalog the cemeteries and all of the images from my camera under the correct one.

If the cemetery is one that has never been surveyed before I make sure to send a copy of my findings to the local library or to the NC State archives. So far I have only done this twice.

Just remember to be respectful of the dead. Do not leave trash behind or any other sign of disturbance when you leave. If you have the time and you come across a cemetery like the one above that is in bad shape due to neglect, take the time to clean it up the best you can. I now carry gloves and a pruner in the trunk of my car so I can do just that.

Happy Cemetery Hunting.

(This passion for genealogy has continued. I had forgotten how to log into this page for many years and just found an old notebook that gave me what I needed to be able to log back in. So I am updating all these pages and will start posting new blogs shortly. )