Tombstone Tuesday - A Lesson in Patience & Persistence

Patience is not exactly my middle name, but photographing one ancestral headstone, in particular, taught me that it will pay off when paired with persistence.

In November of 2014, my mother and I set off for a few days at our cousin's farm in North Hatley, Quebec over American Thanksgiving weekend. I was armed with a list of four cemeteries that I wanted to visit and headstones to photograph. The night before we left, North Hatley and the surrounding area were blessed with six-inches of snow on bare ground. We did visit two cemeteries, but there were no good photos to be had, although I did give it a shot with North Hatley being an eight-hour drive from home.

Among the headstones that I wanted to photograph was the shiny, pink granite headstone of my 3rd great-grandmother, Elizabeth Louden, and my 2nd-great-grandparents, Elizabeth Nimmo and John Dean. This side, with the names and dates, faces east-ish. This was about the best shot of the day.

Legible? Mostly. Ideal? Certainly not. I also cannot tell you what time of day we were there, but if I had to guess, I would say late morning or early afternoon.

Last summer, in early August, we were back in North Hatley for a family reunion. Although we had planned for a day of visiting cemeteries, we decided to spend more time with family while we could. My instincts were telling me that this shiny and very reflective headstone would be best photographed at noon, but we could only get there in the mid- to late-afternoon. I thought it was still worth a try because the sun would be somewhat behind the stone, reducing glare. What I didn't count on was the easterly-facing side would be very dark.

I thought we might be able to get here about noon the next day, but we didn't make it back at all until just this week.

We started a day of cemetery visits just after 9 am and decided to make this cemetery our first stop, although I had a feeling morning would not work for this stone.

The morning light did not create the reflections I had anticipated, but the writing was still difficult to read. I decided we would head to other cemeteries and try to be back here at noon.

These were the results at just about 12 noon. Still not the most legible stone, but I do believe this is as good as it will ever get and I have been able to play with the contrast a bit in Photoshop without really changing the photo.

This stone really gave me fits, but I learned a lot along the way about the importance of good light for good headstone photos. We returned to the cemetery again in the late afternoon for photos of our west-facing headstones and saw improvement in those results, too. It was a hard day on my back but I was able to photograph all of the headstones I wanted and fulfill some requests for Find A Grave.

Reedsville Cemetery is large and the engraving on many of the older stones will soon be lost to time.

I hope that I can return soon to save the images of these stones before that happens. And if anyone in the area has stumbled on this post because of references to Reedsville or North Hatley, I beg you, please consider giving some time to the genealogical community and to history, grab your camera and get out to this or any old cemetery in your area to make lasting images of these stones and then share them wherever you prefer.

Tombstone Tuesday - The Gustafsons of Manchester, CT

Lillian Hildur Johnson is someone in my tree that I would like to know more about. I wish I'd had the same curiosity when she was still alive.

Aunt Lil, who is actually my cousin, was the daughter of my great-grandmother's sister, Anna Olivia Johnson. Lillian is buried with her husband's family, the Gustafsons, in the same cemetery as her parents and my great-grandparents, East Cemetery in Manchester, CT.

When I was preparing for my trip to Manchester I was very surprised to learn via Find-A-Grave that she had lived to the age of 107.  She died only a year before my father. I don't even remember hearing anything about her having a 100th birthday celebration.

An online obituary for Aunt Lillian says that she was one of the first women to vote in the state of Connecticut. I definitely want to learn more about her and will have to research this branch of my family more thoroughly.

Tombstone Tuesday - Johnson & Johnson

When Anna Olivia Johnson married Carl Johan Johnson in Manchester, Connecticut in 1895 it was not only the beginning of a new branch of our family tree, it was also a recipe for confusion for future generations of family historians, or at least for me.

1-Johan Albin Johnson, 2-Mathilda Alfina Johnson, 3-Carl Oskar Johnson
4-Anna Olivia Johnson, 5-Unknown

Anna Olivia Johnson, like my great-grandmother Mathilda Alfina and the rest of their sisters, was born with the last name Martensdotter because they were born in Sweden at a time when children were given the last name that indicated their lineage as children of their father. This is called patronymics. Their father was Marten Johansson, so their last names were Martensdotter for the girls and Martensson for the boys. I don't know for sure when Anna and her siblings started using Johnson as their last name, but I believe it was probably as they immigrated to America. Only one of their siblings stayed in Sweden and he continued to use the last name Martensson.

Johan is as popular a name in Sweden as John is here, so it is no surprise that there are many Swedish Johnsons in the United States and when Anna married Carl it meant that her maiden name and married name were both Johnson, something that gave me fits for a little bit as I sorted out who was who. At first I assumed (I know, I know) that all of the other Johnsons in Anna's plot were her husband's family, but I realized later that one of the Johnson men is a brother, Johan Albin, who never married and the other couple are Anna and Carl's son and his wife.

Anna Olivia Johnson, my great-grandmother's sister

Carl J. Johnson, Anna's husband

Johan Albin Johnson, my great grandmother's brother.

Ragnar Wilbert Luther Johnson was one of Anna and Carl's twin sons.

Dorothy May Bentley was Wilbert's wife.

I didn't even realize my mistake until I found Johan Albin on a census, listed as one of my great-grandmother's boarders, and began to research his life in America. A search for his burial led me back to the plot I had visited a few months earlier. Actually, I'm starting to think that every Johnson in East Cemetery is a relative!

It certainly taught me, though, how even just a fleeting thought you have while doing something as simple as taking photos of headstones can potentially lead to missed opportunities and even big mistakes in your tree.

Tombstone Tuesday - The Andersons

Last spring Donald and I visited Manchester, Connecticut when they opened their Town Hall records room for a Family History Day. After lunch we headed to East Cemetery where I knew I had relatives in at least three plots.

This plot holds at least seven of my ancestors starting with my maternal grandmother's parents, Carl Johan Anderson and Mathilda Alfina Johnson. Buried with them are their sons, Axel Heinrich Waldemar and Elmer Carl Ragnar, their wives, Anna Elizabeth Peterson and Isabel Madeline Weir and the baby, Robert Ragnar, that Elmer and Isabel lost only a few days after he was born in 1922.

The seven burials in this plot were confirmed for me by the cemetery office before we left for Manchester, and this headstone with the initials of my relatives engraved around the base, was the only one shown on Find-A-Grave, but when we arrived at the cemetery we found two more stones there, both courtesy of the US Military.

The first was for Uncle Elmer, who's burial the cemetery office had already confirmed.

The second unexpected stone was for Axel and Anna's oldest, Gilbert Waldemar Anderson. I must admit that I have not contacted the cemetery again or in any way tried to confirm whether or not Gilbert is buried here. I will have to add that to my to-do list and ask my cousin, Gilbert's niece, if she knows where he is buried.

Travel Tuesday/Tombstone Tuesday - Calvin Coolidge Homestead

I'm still at my slide scanning project, planning to be finished scanning my dad's slides before the holidays start this fall. This weekend I scanned these slides which were taken at the Calvin Coolidge Homestead, I believe in the summer of 1953.

I never heard about this trip from Dad, so I have done a little bit of digging online to at least identify the buildings. The Homestead is actually a Homestead District in Plymouth Notch, VT that "preserves many of the historic buildings that Coolidge knew in his youth", according to the National Park Service website. These include his birthplace, boyhood home, his father's store, the homes of friends and relatives, their church and more. It sounds very interesting, something I'll have to add to my own bucket list.

When Dad visited, though, the Coolidge properties were still owned by John Coolidge, the President's youngest son. He donated the Coolidge home and furnishings to the state of Vermont in 1956.

Without this photo, I wouldn't have known where the others were taken.

 
Calvin Coolidge took the oath of office here in 1923 after the sudden death of President Harding (on this day in 1923 as it happens). The oath was administered by his father, a notary public.

It certainly appears that the family was still living here in 1953.

John Coolidge owned this store, his son, Calvin was born in the attached home.

Birthplace of Calvin Coolidge.

Calvin Coolidge lost his younger son, Calvin Jr., at the age of 16. He died from blood poisoning as the result of an infected blister. They are buried next to each other at Plymouth Notch Cemetery. Seven generations of Coolidges are buried there.

Tombstone Tuesday - Lucy Maude Montgomery

This Tombstone Tuesday post was inspired by Wendy Mathias who writes the excellent Jollett, Etc. blog. Her comment on a previous Tombstone Tuesday post, about having a visit to Prince Edward Island on her bucket list and her love of "Anne of Green Gables" by L.M. Montgomery reminded me that we had visited the author's grave on Prince Edward Island more than once.

Cavendish Community Cemetery is located near the Green Gables house attraction and a wax museum. We must have visited the museum right after the cemetery on this visit, because these slides of the grave site were immediately followed by slides from the wax museum.

A scene from Anne of Green Gables at the Wax Museum

Transcription of Headstone:

REV. EWAN MACDONALD

1870-1943

LUCY MAUDE MONTGOMERY

MACDONALD

WIFE OF

EWAN MACDONALD

1874-1942

Tombstone Tuesday - West Covehead Cemetery

Before my parents separated in 1980 we spent our summer vacations on Prince Edward Island in Canada, one of the most beautiful spots in the world. My mother's father had given her a 1 1/3 acre property in Stanhope, about a five minute walk from the beach, as a wedding gift and once she took my father there, he fell in love, too.

For Dad, that meant he wanted to become more than a tourist, especially once he and my mother made the decision to build a cottage on her property. One way he accomplished this was to volunteer at the Prince Edward Island Genealogical Society transcribing headstones.

These photos were taken at West Covehead Cemetery, also known as the St. James United Cemetery.

I looked on Find A Grave and Billion Graves for any photos that would help me identify this stone, but didn't have any luck.

I remember being somewhat interested in my parents' project but also hot and a bit bored. Little did I know that thirty-ahem years later I wouldn't have enough time to get to all the cemeteries on my list!

Tombstone Tuesday - Cleaning Tessie's Headstone

UPDATE: First thing to know is that this cleaning was done at the request of Donald's father, the only child of Charles and Tessie Calma. Since we did this I have been reading that even soft brushes are too harsh for a headstone. While I certainly would never have used them on an older stone, I still think we are OK using one here. Some people even say that unless you are going to make yourself perpetually responsible for a headstone, you shouldn't clean it at all. Please do your own research and make your own decisions. And please do not point to this post as an instruction that soft brushes are OK for any stone. Thank you.

When Donald had a death in the family last summer, we went to the burial at the same cemetery where his paternal grandparents are buried and paid our respects at their grave site as well as those of other relatives.

Donald's grandparents' grave site gets quite a bit more shade than the others and it was beginning to show in the accumulation of lichen on their headstone. On Sunday we finally did something about that. Here is the stone when we arrived.

Although this headstone only dates from 1975 when Donald's grandfather, Charles Calma, passed away, we still wanted to be very careful not to damage the stone, so we began by wetting it with plain water and applying wet cloths to soak the lichen or whatever the green growth was. It was a fairly windy day, so we only had moderate success in getting the cloths to stay, even when soaking wet.

Eventually we just took the cloths off and scrubbed and rinsed. We were making excellent progress but we realized (and I'm not sure why I didn't think to add them to my kit before this) that we would need some soft toothbrushes to really get into some areas, like inside those rose petals.

Also, we ran into a little hiccup when our gallon water bottle ran dry and we discovered that the cemetery hasn't turned the water on yet. Our guess is that will happen on June 1st when their "planting season" begins. Luckily we did bring a little drinking water for ourselves so we were able to get a bit more done and the Calma's headstone got a little Evian rinse!

We could have gone out for more water, but decided to wait until we go back with the toothbrushes in a few weeks. We just want to get it done before the humidity of summer begins. Here is what the headstone looked like when we left; much more clean and almost dry.

The little red and green spots you might notice under "CALMA" are actually reflections.

Donald was very pleased. He did not believe that we would make this much progress with just water and soft brushes.

Tombstone Tuesday - Mount Saint Mary Cemetery

This Sunday morning Donald and I were up early to visit his grandmother's grave at Mount Saint Mary Cemetery in Queens, NY.  He has several family members buried there; his paternal grandparents, his grandmother's parents, three of her sisters, two with their husbands, a brother's wife and a grand-niece.

Headstone of Donald's paternal grandparents,
Charles Calma and Marie Theresa Scalise Calma
at Mount Saint Mary Cemetery in Queens, NY.

Since Tessie's passing and burial in 2008, the first time I went to Mount Saint Mary, my obsession with love and knowledge of genealogy has grown and I have become more aware of the state of headstones in any cemetery I visit. The lost history represented by illegible and near-illegible headstones really bothers me and makes me want to drop everything and document this cemetery now. Not realistic, obviously, but Tessie's headstone could use a cleaning as soon as the weather warms up a bit (the photo above was taken in 2013, it's worse now) and my plan is to fulfill some Find-A-Grave requests and roam around the area where Donald's relatives are buried and take photos of headstones most in need of documentation.

I did a little bit of looking around on Sunday and found some pretty unusual headstones along the way, with little in the way of clues as to who may be buried there.

Although beautiful, this stone offers no other clues as to who might be buried here. There is no additional engraving and no other stones on this plot except for section markers.

I've never seen anything like this one, just four last names. There were no other visible stones and no other engraving on this headstone.

I imagine that this family must have been very poor if this was the only marker they could put up for their love one(s). It will take some work and perhaps another visit in different light to decipher the writing.

Of course, the cemetery office may be able to help shed some light on these burials if interested family members go looking for futher information. Their website didn't offer much hope for help for a volunteer, however. They want requests for genealogical information submitted in writing and a payment of $80 for information on six burials!!! I will have to share the stones with the little information that I have, if that falls within Find-A-Grave's guidelines.

I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Tombstone Tuesday - Selma Carlin Olson

My paternal grandmother's mother, Mathilda Alfina Johnson, was born in Sweden and immigrated to the United States in 1890 with one of her four surviving sisters, Anna Olivia, and their friend Selma Carlin. The sisters and their friend joined at least two other Johnson sisters in Illinois.

L-R: Anna Olivia Johnson, Selma Carlin,
Mathilda Alfina Johnson

As I have learned in the past two months, my great-grandparents had been childhood sweethearts in Sweden. My great-grandfather, Carl Johan Anderson, had immigrated to the United States in 1888 and settled in Connecticut. When he felt he was settled enough for a family, he sent for Alfina and she moved to Connecticut to marry him, joined by Anna and Selma who also settled there, married and raised their families. All now rest in Manchester's East Cemetery.

I had been to East Cemetery on a trip to Manchester in May of this year and found the plots of the Anderson family (Alfina), the Johnson family (Anna) and the Gustafson family (Anna's daughter Lillian) but I didn't know about Selma then. On my more recent trip to Manchester in October to take the Cheney Historic District Walking Tour, we had just a few minutes to stop at the cemetery thanks to construction traffic and I had forgotten to call the cemetery office during the week to ask for Selma's plot number, so I wasn't even planning to look - it's a biiiig cemetery.

As luck would have it, though, while parked on the road to the left of the Anderson headstone, I noticed a headstone on the other side of the road that said Olson, Selma Carlin's married last name. I thought, "No way." Then I ran around to the other side of the stone and saw Carlin. What??  Sure enough, right across from Alfina's plot was Selma's family. No other related plots in that cemetery, that I know of, are so close together.

I still have much research to do about all of my relatives in Manchester and more headstones to find, but a little good luck along the way is always to be celebrated!

Thank goodness for blogging prompts! Our little dog, DJ, continues to improve with the adjusted meds and diet and the subcutaneous fluids but he does need an extra walk or two per day, one of which has been in the middle of the night for the past week. I just don't have the brain power and energy to do any constructive research at the moment. (Although you know I made an hour to do some scanning after seeing that local house gutted by fire over the weekend.) Here's to the coming Thanksgiving Weekend and four days off!

Tombstone Tuesday - Ada Merritt Hobbs Matthews

Yesterday's installment of my grandfather's autobiography included the death of his mother, Ada Merritt Hobbs Matthews.

She died in Carbondale, Pennsylvania in 1919 and was buried with her husband Arthur William Matthews at the Pittston Cemetery.

ADA HOBBS MATTHEWS

WIFE OF ARTHUR W MATTHEWS

SEPTEMBER 1, 1919

AGE 64

As I related shortly after my visit, I was able to find their plot with the help of Ron Faraday, President of the Greater Pittston Historical Society.

Tombstone Tuesday - Arthur W Matthews, Dec 6 1915, Age 71

Yesterday I posted the part of my grandfather's story in which he loses his father.  Later this week I will post my great-grandfather Arthur's obituary. Today, I am posting a photo of his headstone.

Just about a year ago we visited my grandfather's hometown of Pittston, PA and the cemetery where my great-grandparents and other relatives are buried.  I shared about that visit here and especially the help I received from the Greater Pittston Historical Society.  I only found the headstone in the very large Pittston Cemetery with their help.

Arthur W Matthews - December 6, 1915, Age 71