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!

St. Peter's Reformed Church (Blue Church)

Two days in a row of posting?! Le gasp!!!

Ok this cemetery we hit on 8/26. Alas the first disappointment. I had about 5 people I wanted to find.. and I think I found 2. Well, looking back on my notes one might be a different person than I thought

Here's the list of people I wanted to find:
William Persing- check
Elizabeth Cherry Shipe- might not be the one I was looking for... but I got a picture of her headstone anyway...
Heinrich Shipe
Jacob Persing
Elizabeth Shipe Persing

There were also a bunch of Shipe, Martz, and McWilliams... Not sure if they are related but I took photos anyway.

6th great uncle

Going through my pictures I realized I took another picture without realizing who it was...

3rd great uncle

A bunch of the headstones at this cemetery were worn. I assume everyone on my list is one of those stones.

I have one more photo to share. Just something neat...

To me it looks like trees and a sunset ish thing. It has a pink/orange tone to it and the "trees" looks like they have good shading. really though, the "tree trunks" are cracks in the stone.

Next up...
Oak Grove
Shamokin
Saint Stanislaus
Odd Fellows
Hooded Grave
Presbyterian Chapel

Also to come...
Cavalry sword
Old things from a trunk
Old pictures

Must stop typing now. Hit my elbow and it kills. No, it is not humerus so don't laugh...

Genealogical Vacation!

In case you haven't noticed, I tend to post to procrastinate. What better time to procrastinate than during the week when you you go on vacation and your trip is bumped up leaving you less time to clean and pack etc. I was supposed to leave Friday morning 6am.... unfortunately Tropical Storm Irene had other plans. So my mom and I are going to try and leave Thursday morning.

Moving right along... my trip is to Pennsylvania and, whilst enjoying good food, amusement parks, and family, I want to do at least an itty bitty tiny bit of research. Ok mostly cemetery photography. All of these cemeteries are in Northumberland County. Here is a list of the ones I plan/ hope to visit:

Shamokin Cemetery
Saint Stanislaus Cemetery
Presbyterian Chapel Cemetery
Pine Hill Cemetery
All Saints Cemetery
Jacob's Church Cemetery

Two extras are Rush Presbyterian/ Baptist Cemetery and the Lantz Emmanuel Cemetery.

Now, time to do a public service. This is for anyone looking for any of the sixty some people buried at the Presbyterian Chapel Cemetery. If you've googled it, like me, you will find... nothing. at all. except maybe this blog post and findagrave.com which does not help. Fear not! For I have discovered where it is!

After endless google results coming up empty, I got the bright idea... Hey! Why not check ancestry.com's message boards! It seemed so obvious. So here it is.

Presbyterian Chapel Cemetery is located 2.5 miles outside of Elysburg, Pa. It is off of Snydertown Rd. Traveling down the road you pass an industrial park on the left, keep going. There will be a bible church and semi modern home next to it with a driveway and grove of trees between. The cemetery is apparently in that grove. Lambert Pitner, his wife Elida Farley, and their daughter Nancy Pitner Persing are buried in that cemetery. Not sure who else is, but thats all listed on findagrave.com

When I return I will have more blog posts with the cemeteries and pictures of people buried there. Now I'm not just going to take one picture of the sign and then the headstones. No no, that's not how I work. I'm going to do this as if it were... a crime scene. Hey, I have no job offerings so I have to put my degree to use some how. Crime scene photography includes overall photos, or 360 degree shots, as well as progressive shots from far away, to middle ground, and finally close ups. That way if anyone reading would like to visit those cemeteries they can have specifics instead of just wandering blindly. Eventually the photos will go on to findagrave.com but this is quicker for now.

This will probably be my last post until after vacation (unless I find something really REALLY exciting and just cannot help myself. Note, any such post will be very short as I am still debating taking my laptop with me and will only have iphone and nook. le gasp!)

(Side note: is genealogical even a word? Or am I just making stuff up? No red spell check line so I assume I'm ok.)