November 06, 2007

Doing good deeds, plus a picture that makes me cry

So as some of you know, I'm back from killin' Bambis (sorry Julie, but it's my nature). Well, Bambi singular, of course. And from visiting relatives and friends, which is the biggest point of the whole escapade. But I accomplished something good.

Read here and here and here for background, then come back.

Done? Cool. We may proceed.

So I took the aforementioned pictures (23 total, in fact) and forwarded them to the parties in question. They were very happy to get them, and perhaps someday I can show the parties in question to the actual site. That would be cool. One of the pictures, though, is not of the particular cemetery in question but of the other next to it. This one is so old that the only markers were wooden and the only reason I know it was a cemetery is that I found markers. Only one is left (I once found another, but it seems to have blown away with the wind). This is the last one:

I am not a photographer by profession or by nature, of course, but this picture (I think, if no one else does) ranks up there with the best of them.

That marker has been weathered for more than 100 years, and was once probably about a foot wide and two feet tall. Now it's only about five inches wide. There is almost no chance I will ever find out the name that was once on it, though I will try when I get the chance to search the burial records in the county government offices.

And the current anonymity of that grave makes me cry.

Posted by Ken S at November 6, 2007 06:14 PM | TrackBack (0) |
Comments

I, too, am a member of Ancestry.com and have been for more than a decade. I love these kinds of mysteries and helping to solve them is even cooler.

I totally agree with the pay it forward theory. Thank you in advance Ken. :o)

Posted by: Lemon Stand at November 6, 2007 07:03 PM

Wow. I hope you can find something out, Ken. But already this is way cool.

Posted by: Kate P at November 6, 2007 07:58 PM

That was a nice thing to do, Ken. There's a large public cemetery in south Minneapolis that I posted on last year that has suffered from neglect over the years. There are big swaths where no markers are visible, it looks like a park. I met a city worker there who showed me the maps in the caretakers office and it turns out that the cemetery is actually full. It's just that the wooden markers for some graves have disappeared and there are many flat stone markers that are now covered by dirt and grass. Between the two we're talking several thousand graves, at least. Very sad.

Posted by: Dave E. at November 7, 2007 10:41 AM

That is so cool, sweetie...

My favorite tombstone was in Cades Cove, TN. It said the person's name, dates and then:
"KILT BY A REB"

:-)

Posted by: Julie at November 7, 2007 11:21 AM