Pine Hill Cemetery

Note the technique. Cemetery sign and road sign all in one. ;)

In addition to Jacob's Church we also visited Pine Hill Cemetery on my first day in Pennsylvania. At this one I found my grandpa's parents (Walter and Eleanor Persing), several Pitners (John, Harriet, Dora), a few Kases and McWilliams.... which I didn't realize/remember I was related to some of them until my grandpa mentioned it.

 So... tip number one for this blog... take another family member with you if more recent people are in the cemetery... It's always good to have someone with you though. Big cemeteries= lots of work. Bring people and make them look with you.

The day after I found some records for John F. Pitner in my great grandmother's garage (Eleanor) 

didn't notice this before... 

Ok next tip... it's good if you know people in town. Or if your relatives know people in town. For example. My grandpa knows EVERYONE in town. or almost. Anyway. He just happens to know someone with records for the cemetery. There was a map! Wahooooo! With names filled in! There was even a book to go with it. Alphabetical order of everyone there where they're buried what section. Even what they died from. Genealogy heeeaven. 

this map is about 6ft long... lol.

didn't realize this one was sideways... lol

Ok next tip: If you're taking pictures of a map of a cemetery.. or anything big... start off with a big overall picture. Then zoom in sections. I only showed one but I took others. Started at the bottom and went up. ALSO. very important. ok maybe not very. But it's important to overlap slightly. like in that photo you can see bold writing (not my fam. but its a landmark on the map) So in my next photo I made sure to include that as well. (Bold writing towards the bottom.) I hope that makes sense. 

My brain has currently shut off for the night. More cemetery posts to come!

Jacob's Church Cemetery

Not even 24 hours into my Pennsylvania vacation I hit my first 2 cemeteries. I briefly touched one this a few entries ago. But now comes the pictures. 

I made a few mistakes in my photography since I was excited. Some are blurry but for the most part you can figure out whats going on.

In some of these you'll notice a little kitty. He/she/it followed us around the entire time. I decided to nickname it bonejangles.

Uriah Swank, owner of the civil war sword, is buried here.

First few are the crime scene photography technique. First the signs. Then 360's

Ok next one shows a semi distance one. I later took close ups of each of these. You can see Pitner, Hauck, and Lambert. Has a house in the background. Gives a general idea of where in the cemetery these graves are located. 

And theres bonejangles.

Some very tiny tombstones. 

There is Uriah Swank and his wife... with the cat on top.

kitty looked so sad when we left :(

So you want to visit a cemetery: A guide for genealogists

First post-vacation blog entry! woo hoo! Well not exactly post... Using airport wifi and only have less than an hour to type this. so. here we go.

As you may or may not know I've been on an epic genealogical... thing. And I've discovered some things I'd like to share with anyone out there that would like to do the cemetery thing as well.

I had a list of cemeteries I wanted to visit to take pictures of my long gone relatives. I had ideas of where said cemeteries were located. For one person I even had a block number and location of the grave. I made some mistakes but hey, thats why I'm telling you.  That way you can avoid them.

Before you visit:
-Make a list of the people and cemeteries. Find a Grave is brilliant for this.
-Know where the cemeteries are located. Entrances, parking etc.
-Know the general size of the cemetery. The one I went to... phew. I knew it was big but...wow.
-Dress appropriately- flip flops don't work out the best. even in summer. Bug spray isn't a bad idea either.
-Check the weather... (duh)
-I suggest a brand spanking new memory card. Separates from any other photos. Also, you most likely won't run out of room. (I had an 8 gig and it holds over 2000 pictures)
-If possible, find out as much as possible about the cemetery. Who takes care of it, if there are records etc.

While you're there:
-Take lots of pictures. But not just of the headstones. In an earlier post I mentioned using the crime scene photo technique. That is to take overall shots, and shots as you gradually approach the headstone. That way if you want to go back, you know where the hell you are. If visiting a lot of cemeteries in one vacation/ day/ short period of time, I advise you to take a photo of a sign and or church first, then take the headstone shots. that way you won't get confused trying to figure out which picture goes to what cemetery.
-Don't be afraid to take too many pictures. You have the new memory card. fill er up.
-Take multiple pictures of the same thing. One might be blurry and you may not realize it until you get home. The horror!
-If you see a familiar surname, but do not recognize the first name, take a photo anyway. It might work out that you are related to them too. Better to get them all at once than have to go back. Also, if they're not related you can just delete the pictures. No harm done.
-Be prepared! Don't be surprised to see a cemetery that is not taken care of. Look out for snakes, fallen headstones. etc.
-Be careful. Fallen headstones. Also some cemeteries may have headstones in the woods. Watch out for tree roots, rocks, etc.

After:
-Check your photos.
-Take notes (also do that during, but that may be tricky juggling a camera, notebook and pen.) If you forget to write something down there's a good chance you won't remember it later.
-Don't be disappointed if you don't find something. You can go back again, or ask someone. Refer to the records the before section.


That's all the advice I can think of for now. My battery is getting on the low side and I'm not exactly sitting near an outlet to charge. If you can think of anything to add please comment!

This week:
Hopefully I'll be able to post about the cemetery visits this week. Chronological order of course. Next week will probably be old photos and stuff that I found. And a long long way down the road I'll add stuff to find a grave. Stay tuned!

Vacation day 1

I will keep this short because I'm on my iPhone. Hopefully no emberrasing autocorrects. Lol. So haven't even been in the state 24 hours and I've been to two cemeteries. Approximately 300 photos were taken. Also good sunset cemetery photos. Very nice.

At Jacobs church cemetery a kitten followed us literally all around. My photos have her everywhere including on top of headstones. Adorable. Did semi crime scene photos. I'm satisfied. Started taking photos of tombstones that I don't even know for sure if I'm related to. At end found out my pap knows ppl that take care of cemetery. After phone calls discovered they only have list of ppl there not locations.

Next was pine hill. Got some kase and pitners etc. Pap knew someone that took care of that one too. Better luck. Had a book of everyone, plot locations, and then what was cause of death. THEN. There was a map. I have brilliant pictures of the map. Over 6ft long. Don't worry I took close ups. My crime scene photos again.

Ps computer wifi actin up hence iPhone use.

Pap let me take pix of the sword too. Ok now I'm not even able to read what I'm. Typing. Forgive me. Lol. Ok brain fart on the rest of genealogy events. Later peeps.

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.)

Eureka! I found it I found it!

My title doesn't sound enthusiastic enough. When I finally found a missing piece of the puzzle I actually started jumping up and down. Yes folks, that is what my life has come to. Excitement over dead people. But since most of you reading my blog are probably interested in genealogy too you can understand.

I'm not sure if I mentioned this in an earlier post or not but there is a Civil War sword in my family. I first found out about it when I was in 6th grade learning about the Civil War and thought it was "soooo cool" to have a sword in the family. And it is. Very cool.

I've been doing this genealogy thing for a while now. Really focusing on it since 2009. My grandfather told me he got the sword from his grandfather. Silly me I assumed it would be his paternal grandfather. My brain assumed since my grandfather's last name is Persing that it would have been a Persing that owned the sword. Whoops. Anyway, I did find Civil War veterans in that branch of the family. (This was almost a year ago) I was very excited about finding Ilif Persing and when I told my grandpa... surprise! He got the sword from his other grandfather. Marion Hauck. So it was back to the drawing board. Then I found some Hauck's in the civil war.

Sometime between then and now my mom took a trip to Pennsylvania and I asked her to take some pictures of the sword among other things. Using the pictures (and comparing with others online), I was able to determine that the sword was from the Union Cavalry. I assumed Union before since, hey, Pennsylvania. Anyway it is a US model 1860 Cavalry Saber. Company (I think?) Mansfield and Lamb Forestdale RI inspected by CEW. The year on the sword is 1864.

Back to Hauck. I looked to see if Henry Hauck (1841-1898) could have owned it. Well, he wasn't in the Cavalry. And none of his siblings were either. So Marion didn't get the sword from the Hauck side. Then the other day I was thinking... I didn't look at Marion's mother's side of the family.

Marion Hauck's maternal gandfather was Uriah Swank (1841-1902). Hellooo goldmine. He was listed as a private in the 7th Cavalry Regiment Pennsylvania. He enlisted 27 Feb 1864 and was mustered out 23 Aug 1865

To make this even better, I was recently making a list of all the cemeteries I want to visit when I go to Pa in a few weeks (you might be a genealogy addict if....) and Uriah was one of the last ones I found before deciding to look for the sword's owner again.

And now for some pictures of the sword :)

Lestrange.... Bellatrix Lestrange.

Alright so since it is Harry Potter weekend on ABC Family and the final Harry Potter film is coming out 7/15 (YESSS!!!!!) I thought I would do a Harry Potter themed genealogy blog.

Now a background for those of you who may not know about the character Bellatrix Lestrange... first of all you need to read the books asap if  that is the case. Anyway, she is a horrible, evil, fantastically vile person.

So, how do I tie this in with my random ramblings of people I'm related to? Well it goes something like this...

Bridget Fettiplace was married to Anthony Hungerford.

Anthony Hungerford's mother was Margaret Blount. Her father was Edmund Blount.

Edmund Blount (c.1439-1500 for perspective...) 's father was John Blount.

John's mother was Isabella Cornwall. She was the daughter of Bryan Cornwall and Maude Strange. Not sure why its "Strange" and not "Lestrange" for her...

Maude's father was Roger Lestrange 5th Lord Strange of Knokyn. According to Geni.com, he is my "12th great grandfather's wife's 6th great grandfather"

Roger's father was John le Strange 3rd baron of Knockin (c.1282-1312)

Well. Now we've made it to the 1200's umm... wow. Along with Lords and Barons... Since I'm just now discovering this whole baron thing... literally. I knew there were people there but I never really looked into it.. I found some stuff on wikipedia. yaaay! Best thing ever I swear.
This is the site I found... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baron_Strange

So I assume this means I'm related in some way or another to all the people on there? Anyway. You can see Roger and John under the second creation (whatever that means).

Switching gears to Harry Potter again... Bellatrix's husband was Rodolphus Lestrange, born between the 1950's and 1960's according to the Harry Potter wiki (http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Bellatrix_Lestrange). So. It would be reasonable (if it wasn't fiction of course) to conclude that in some distant way I could be related to Bellatrix's hubby.

That's all for now folks. Who knows what crazy link my mind will come up with next.