Cemetery Clean Up

Happy New Year!

This past September my dad and I cleaned up a cemetery. Just the two of us. It was wonderful. We have plenty left to do of course, but seeing as the cemetery is far from where I live... 1200 miles give or take...  I won't be able to get there for a little while.

If anyone gets the opportunity to do so, clean up a cemetery. The dead will thank you.

Here are some before and after pics. There are some on findagrave that predate even my photos. Go take a look.

July 2013

Sept 2013

yes that's the same stone

Before

After. Look at all of that back there!!

There's actually a stone barely sticking out to the right of this one

We found about six stones we didn't see on our first trip.

See anything? There's a tombstone in there.

Next time I would like to uncover the stones. Get rid of more branches and debris. Heck if I could dig up bodies to do an anthropological analysis on them I would. ... ... ... That wouldn't be illegal would it?

Vanderslice Cemetery

When I saw my dad's mom again (aka "new" grandma)  she mentioned a bunch of cemeteries that people in our family was buried in. The next day we hit a bunch of them. And I mean a bunch. The first we went to was Vanderslice Cemetery in Columbia County.

I didn't know who was buried there. I didn't know where it was. My dad didn't' know either... and he was driving. We eventually found it. Another hidden one like the Presbyterian Chapel Cemetery from a few years ago. At least this one had a big sign.

Now if you look at the picture on Findagrave.com... it looks a lot nicer in the 2004 photo. Sad really. I'd like to go back and clean it up.

We didn't find too many people in there actually... and none with surnames I was familiar with... but of course I looked up the cemetery online later.

There are quite a few Melick's in this cemetery surprisingly. We only saw maybe 10 graves. I don't know if it's just that overgrown or what.

Lower Skippack Mennonite Cemetery

After flying into Philly, my mom and I hung out with my dad and his sister. It was my first time meeting her. She's pretty cool. Together they're hilarious. When we left his sister's house, we took a slight detour from our journey and stopped at a cemetery. What is a vacation with no cemeteries?

So my great great great........ ok 9th great grandfather and his wife were buried in this cemetery. I googled and ancestried and findagraved the crap out of it. Not only was he buried in that cemetery, but a few miles away this guy's house and barn were still standing. Crazy right?? So needless to say we went to visit him. Unfortunately, there was no one home at the house, but there were plenty in the cemetery.

So my line goes like this...

there's me, my dad, and his mom.

Then...

Ellis H.Turner--Harry V. Turner--Hiram Turner-- George W. Turner-- Susanna Cressman-- John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmit Cressman-- Anthony Cressman-- Anna C Hallman-- Anthony Hallman/Heilman

So it was Mr. Anthony Hallman and his wife Marie Salome that I came looking for first. He lived between 1671 and 1759, she between 1673 and 1745.

As before, I took a million pictures of the cemetery and the stones there. But to save time I won't put that many up.

Anthony's is on the left side in the back. It was pretty easy to find since it's a newer stone.

There is a piece of his wife's stone in the back of his stone.

Has a lot of fun that day. Hotter than hell, but had fun. We passed the same area on Monday before we flew home again. Saw the church he helped build. It's still standing today. pretty amazing.

Well folks, more pictures to come lately!

Long Time No Blog

Wow I really fail at this lately... hah!

Some updates... I've been to about a bagillion cemeteries and just returned from vacation on Monday. Met my aunt, hung out with my dad and new grandma, and met some kind of cousin... that part was fun. He and his wife were looking at me like ummm why did we not know about you before. But they didn't say anything.

I don't think I've mentioned surnames from my dad's side of the family yet. Maybe I did. I don't know. Those are the cemeteries I visited.

Also... 23andme. Awesome. I took a test, my dad took a test, and my mom's results should be in any day now.

I'm going to try and be motivated to write more... try being the key word.

Oh and WDYTYA is back on! and I'm still the drinking game MC on the twitter!

not that anyone told me I was but hey.

What else what else... That's all I can think of for now. Next up... surnames and cemeteries!

So much excitement!

Greetings from Pennsylvania! I've been very busy the past few days. My cousin was married this past weekend. Very beautiful bride and of course I already added some of the groom's family to the tree. I'll do an updated post on that later.

- The biggest news of course is about yesterday. Yesterday was the first meeting with my bio dad and it went pretty well. I brought my mom with me to the restaurant around 9am. My stomach was in knots but her being there made it better. I think. I just imagine it being worse if she wasn't there lol. So he comes in and gives me a hug and then my mom a hug and we sat down and talked and ate. I mostly sat there folding and refolding my napkin. I was a little nervous. Lol. My mind was pretty much blank but my mom kept the conversation going and I chimed in a bit. We talked about work and music and hobbies and some family stuff. He's very nice and funny. We were cracking up. We brought some pictures along since he didn't have any. One was prom, another middle of college and the other was a college graduation pic.  He was smiling the whole time he was looking at them. So that's good.

- he did say he told his sis he's been talking to me. Yay! Still no go with his mom though but I get that. I would like to meet her before we leave but hey I'm not gonna push anything. That could still happen. Fingers crossed lol. He asked if I/we would like to see him again before we left. My brain was like wooo! But my mouth was like yeah sure. Lol. Then... This is pretty cool... Then he asked what we were doing the rest of the day. I was like oh going to a cemetery to visit a friend. I didn't say it was to find part of his family that was there. I didn't know if that would fall under creepy research or not... But anyway he was like oh my grandparents and an aunt and uncle are buried there if you want I can show you where. Um. Guided cemetery tour? Hells yes! I didn't say that. I was more like
yeah that would be cool.

- so we followed him to the cemetery... By this time we were at the restaurant for at least three hours. They had the lunch buffet thing out for a while... We get there and kinda all split up. Then he found the... Care taker guy? Apparently he had a list and even without the list knew where everyone as buried. So he came back to me and showed me where everyone was. I was my crazy picture taking
self lol. Then the care taker was like is there anyone else? And I said my friends name and he's like oh she's over there. I'll meet you at the bottom of the hill I'm like ok. So we finish up there and walk 
down. We found my friend and I guess the fresh cut grass triggered allergies or something bc my nose was running and eyes watering and such.

- after that we got ready to leave. Talked a bit more. Said we'd figure out when to meet and stuff. Hugged goodbye and everything. By then it was 1:30 or so... So about 4.5 hours. Pretty good start I think.

-Some other stuff that came up in the convo: he wasn't that surprised I guess that I contacted him. Then mom joked he prob. Didn't have a choice in meeting me cuz I woulda found him. Which... Yeah that's true. And he laughed. And I was like hey... It's not stalking it's Internet research. And he's like yeah it's not stalking unless you break into the persons house.

-another thing... It was an awkward silence moment and mom asked what he was thinking and he was
like well where do we go from here. And it was kind of like a... What ever you want whatever she (me) want kind of thing. So he's open to whatever. And obv. If he wants to meet up again...

- after we left mom was... What was she. Like dear lord how are we gonna fit this in what should we
do when should we do it over and over. And so was I. I think mine was more an excited ing and hers was anxiety. I dunno.

- last night I got a very nice message on "The Twitter" and he's looking forward to seeing me again. Also found out he was nervous... Which I figured he would be but I'm glad he said it lol. So we
agreed on Friday for the next meet up and that he would work on the details. Oh. Also asked if he 
was ok with my mom being there. And he was. So yay!

So that's all for now I think. I'm sure I'll have another post for you by Friday! Later peeps!

Countdown and preparation!

Nine days! That's it. Only nine days until the flight leaves for Pennsylvania. I'm half packed of course. And since I'm going back home....I think I'll always call it home... I have to have a genealogy game plan right? And I do. For the most part.

- I'm gonna meet bio dad. That will be a nice chunk of genealogy right there. I dunno if I'll meet his mom. I'd like too. I've decided that. Plus she's the genealogy type person too and I could learn a lot of family stuff from her.

-last year I went to a bunch of cemeteries and posted on every single one. You think I woulda covered them all. Well, learning about the other half of the family tree opened up a whole nother list of cemeteries. So naturally I'm going to take my camera with me and photograph like I did before.  One of the cemeteries I was planning on going to anyway. My friend passed away almost a year ago so I was going to visit her. That's a first for me.

- but of course I will keep you updated on everything. I'm excited about everything especially the meet up. I'm sure when the day comes I'm going to have multiple panic attacks and my intestines will want to send things in multiple directions. I don't know what I'll say or what we'll talk about. Or where we're even going but hey. I'll just... Go with the flow. Which is difficult since I like everything planned out in advance. Lol

That's all for now folks!

Presbyterian Chapel Cemetery

I am very proud of this one. I started researching my cemeteries about a month before my vacation. Via Find a Grave, I knew that Lambert Pitner was in this cemetery. Also that the cemetery was in Northumberland county. And I had a picture of Lambert's headstone. That was it. No location. No address. Nothing. Finally I did an ancestry.com message board search. I highly recommend this if you are stuck!!

1795... I repeat. 17... 95...
Also note it says Shamokin. I'd consider it more Elysburg but hey.

There were two people talking about this cemetery. From there I gathered that it was 2.5 miles outside of Elysburg on Snydertown Rd. It was passed the industrial park and on the right side. It was in a grove of trees between a house and a bible church. Now I could have just waited until I got up north and drove down the street until I found a cemetery. But no no. Why do that when we have technology?

Google maps. Ahh. How I love you. Now what I did on good ole google map satellite view was first locate the start of Snydertown Rd in Elysburg. Pretty simple. It starts on market street and just keeps heading to the left of the screen. Next use that little measuring thingy on the bottom and figure out how far 2.5 miles is. Follow the road and landmarks to make sure. In google maps I passed the industrial park and about 2.5 miles on the "right" side of the road I saw two buildings and a grove of trees in the middle. But alas no matter how far I zoomed it only got blurry. But it was promising.

Next thing to do is try the street view. It's as if you're standing on a street and looking around. "Brilliant!" says I. I could probably see the cemetery from the road! Alas, no. Pennsylvania is hill/mountain country. My computer and I virtually stood on Snydertown Rd looking at a hill. With a street sign and part of a house visible.

Next tip for searches like this: When you are on the road looking for these places (or having someone drive while you look) it is good to have an iPhone. Or a phone with google or maps or any combination. In my app there was a little blue dot signifying where we were and I had a pin where the cemetery might be. It helps you know when you are getting close.

Now at this point in my trip my grandparents (yes I do love them) were starting to... how do you say... get on my nerves? Hey it happens. I think we were on day 10 of constant contact. So my mom and I hijacked the car and went out to the cemetery.

Now in previous posts I've mentioned the crime scene photography technique. I cannot stress this enough. I used it SO much this day. Ready for the insane amount of photographs? Ok.

360 photos (ok more like 180):

"Victory Bible Church"

"Laurel Rd"

Remember, signs are important for landmarks.

Ok so first do you're over all pictures. Next we do what? Correct we zoom! *hands readers cookies*

If you look hard you can see a tombstone. 

Lovely progressive shots. It's like you're walking through.

Ok so we've reached the actual cemetery. Time for more overall shots.

When starting overalls in a second location try to include a landmark. The sign for the cemetery is in this picture. It show's I'm inside a little bit but still near the starting point.

Part of the sign is still visible. Continuing the 360.

take a picture even if there's not much there.

And theres a little tiny bit of the sign area on the far left. very little.  but Daniel Kase's headstone is in both this picture and the first so the 360 is complete. Woo!

As you explore take progressive photos. 

No idea if I'm related to this little girl but I just love this stone. "Herelyeth". Fabulous. Born in 1803 & died 4 days later.  Very sad.

Some pictures show the state of this cemetery. So sad. It makes me want to clean it up. Very much.

Its like the tree... ate it or something...

A Pitner? Hmmm...

Le gasp! Can it be?

Captain Lambert Pitner!

Now he was pretty far in. After I stepped back a ways I took some pics to show the location...

Ok Lambert is in the middle ish...

Using my moms pink purse as a reference on the left... theres a shot of the edge of the cemetery with the sign. 

Ok now sometimes in the excitement of arriving at the cemetery you may forget to take a picture of the surrounding location. Just remember to take it before you leave. :)

See. Sign for a bible church. and a house. Google maps for the win.

I hope you enjoyed my cemetery posts! That's not the end of my genealogy filled vacation though. Oh no. 

I found photos and documents in a garage at my great grandmothers. I found old photos hidden in boxes at my grandma's house. And of course I documented all of it. Stay tuned!

(Also.. 5 posts in a row? Thats a record people!)

Also also! I would like to announce that this month for the first time ever.... my blog has had 100+ views. WOOO! Thanks guys!!