Cemeteries: A Grave Decision

In an earlier Blog, I touched on a trip that we made to North Carolina and some of the cemeteries we visited.  I wanted to do some more research on each of these places and have found some very interesting history and stories.  It made me think about what will happen when I pass.  Have you thought about where your final resting place will be?  Will you be buried in a family plot, in a different place from other family members, in a national cemetery, cremated?  What are your preferences when it comes to picking that final destination?  It's not something we like to think about, but necessary, none the less.  

Have you visited many cemeteries?  They can seem very eery, scary and dark places.  But they can also be fascinating.  There are many names for the places where we will be interred.  Cemetery, graveyard, churchyard, burial ground, boneyard, God's acre, final resting place, to mention just a few.

You have probably been at a cemetery, or two, during a funeral for a friend or loved one.  They come in all shapes and sizes and the grave markers are as different as the people they represent.  Some resting places are right next to the church's the people belonged to, some are on the land where they lived, and some are just on land somewhere in the city.

During my genealogy research, I have walked many graveyards looking for deceased ancestors.  Some large, some small, some very old, some more modern.  Some I couldn't even find.  All of them, however, leave me with a sense of sadness and on the other hand, curiosity.  I want to know more about the lives of these people. 

Photo by Ed Starling of Abbott's Creek Cemetery.  As
seen on Find A Grave website.  (4)

Some of my family members are buried at Abbott's Creek Primitive Baptist Church in Davidson County, North Carolina.  This cemetery has some very old gravestones and some very unique ones.    There are some 450 stones and the oldest one that can be read, dates back to 1795.  The ones that can't be read could date back further, since the church was started in 1756.  There are many ornate ones that were crafted by local German stonecutters.  A description in a form for the North Carolina National Register of Historic Places states, that it is "the largest collection of locally-made gravestones in Davidson County...  67 being the 'Pierced Style' attributed to the Swisegood School and it followers...The 'Pierced' group have death dates from 1802 to the 1850s."(1)

Entrance to Abbott's Creek Cemetery

Swisegood School, according to a website on Davidson County history says that it, "is believed that the makers of many of these stones were a group of early Davidson County cabinet-makers known as the Swisegood School from the Browntown/Abbotts Creek area of the county. No pierced grave markers are known to exist outside of Davidson County. According to the State Historic Preservation Office, these highly sculptured gravestones carved in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century by descendants of German settlers are not only historically and culturally important in NC, but also represent a nationally significant collection of folk sculpture."(2)

Photo by Keith Osborn as found on
Find A Grave (3)

On a sign located near the Abbott’s Creek cemetery, given by the Daughters of the American Colonists, it says: “This 1756 church contains unique and artistic North Carolina soft soapstone & pierced tombstones carved by Anglo-German cabinet and furniture makers, many attributed to the  Swicegood  School, using the same tools as used in furniture.  They made coffins and tombstones to supplement their furniture making income and decorated all with beautiful German symbols such as the fylfot cross meaning eternity.  These tombstones are unique to Davidson County and believed to be found nowhere else in America.”  

Above are some of the unique soapstone grave markers in the Abbott's Creek cemetery.  Check out the cutouts.  They are so cool and vary in some way.  You just don't see craftsmanship like this anymore. These are, by far, the most intricate of any of the rest of the family members I found in other locations.  

Unfortunately, many of headstones are very hard, if not impossible, to read.  I wish there was a group somewhere around that area that could take on, as a project, to help preserve them.  Click here to see an example of some successful preservation projects on Texas cemeteries, that did just that at some of their local cemeteries.  Do you have any one-of-a-kind tombstone pictures from your family members? I would love to see them.  
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
(1)  http://www.hpo.ncdcr.gov/nr/DV0502.pdf
(2) http://www.carolana.com/NC/Counties/davidson_county_nc.html
(3) Photo by Keith Osborne as found on Find A Grave website
     https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pis&PIcrid=2386134&PIMode=cemetery&PIpi=59245559&
(4) Photo by Ed Starling as found on Find A Grave website
https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pis&PIcrid=2386134&PIpi=38088688&PIMode=cemetery

Hello! It's me again!

Today marks two years ago that I wrote my first blog.  Where have I been, you might be asking?  Why haven't there been any blogs for the last 7 months?  Well, we were off making memories. We were blessed with lots of family and friend time, and great trips.  Our most recent trips were so fabulous that we mentioned several times that we wished we could stay in both places.

The Fab 4 in Liverpool, Englan

RAF Bar behind the Eagle
The Eagle Pub in Cambridge

First, we went on a cruise that circled the British Isles. My recent DNA testing said I was 97% from the British Isles.  A wonderful reason to see that area of the world.  We were blessed to be able to visit many wonderful cities in England, Scotland, and Ireland.  I always wanted to visit Scotland and Ireland and it is was great fun to go back to England. We stayed in London two nights before heading to Southhampton to get on the ship. One of the days we were in London, we took a train and went to Cambridge.  It was such a fun town, full of history, educational facilities, churches and restaurants. We had heard of The Eagle Cambridge  Pub from some friends, so we looked  for it and had lunch there. At the back of the pub is another bar where the  pilots used to hang out, back during World War II, called the RAF Bar.  They would write their names on the ceiling and to this day, the names are  still there.  A very nostalgic spot and the food wasn't too bad either.

 As we ventured around the British Isles, we visited Dublin, Glascow,  Liverpool, Edinburg, Belfast and Inverness.  Each having their own  unique  characteristics.  We liked them all but only had a short time in  each port.  I  would like to go back some day and spend more time.  We also visited  Stirling and Blarney Castles.  Stirling most famous for  Robert the Bruce of  Braveheart fame and Blarney for the famous  "Blarney Stone" that you  practically hang upside down to kiss.  There  is not enough antibacterial gel  in this world to get me to do it.  However we did do a photo op!  We had fun on that cruise!

Blarney Castle

We got to spend some time in Hawaii in January,  A really nice time to be there, even though the weather in Texas was pretty good during that time.  We were on the island of Maui and had lots of fantastic beach time and great seafood!

We loved these trips but our time spent with family was by far the best.  We have been from one end of this continent to the next over the last six months, for weddings, graduations, birthdays and more.  From Seattle, to Georgia, to Michigan, Missouri, Colorado, Nevada, Hawaii, and Houston.

Maui, Hawaii

So as you can see, we have been very busy and, unfortunately, my blog writing time went by the way side.  So did my genealogy research.  But I am back at it and hope to get some more blogs out soon!  In my spare time I have still been trying to find my great, great great grandfather on my maternal grandfather's side, father to John Garrison, Browntown/ Abbott's Creek, Davidson County, North Carolina.  I have searched, what I feel like is every possible place, and still have no proof of who he is.  We all speculate who we think he is, but I want proof positive.  I am going to have to spend some time at our local Family History Place because I have cancelled my Ancestry.com account, for now. (too costly)  Fact finding is tedious work but work I enjoy doing!

There are lots of other avenues I want to pursue, so I will be back soon!

Jigsaw Puzzles and Genealogy

There have been many events in my life that have brought to the forefront just how short life really is. On August 21, 1991 two events happened that changed my life forever. That was the day my mom, Clara Jean Garrison Hatch, passed away. Albert and Mittie’s youngest child died at the early age of 52. That same day, the next youngest daughter, my Aunt Betty, also died. Both involved in a horrible auto accident, just a couple days after attending one of their Garrison family reunions. 

Aunt Betty and my mom, Clara Jean

With the realization of how quickly our loved ones can leave us, I set out on a mission to dig deeper, to find more information pertaining to my family’s history. Many years ago, my father encouraged me to do genealogy, so I have been researching all sides of my family for some time. As I have gotten further into it, I see that for a large part of that time it had really been somewhat of a superficial search. Now that I have a little more time, it has become a bigger priority to figure out “from whence I came.”

Searching for ancestors is fun! Is it easy? Think for a moment, if you will, about a jigsaw puzzle. When you dump out all the pieces of the puzzle on the table, it looks like a big jumbled mess. That is kind of what it feels like when you first start doing your family history. But just like when doing a puzzle, you find a piece, and then you find one that attaches to it, and another, and another and pretty soon, you start to see a little piece of the picture. The more you do, the clearer the picture becomes. It's a lot like that when doing research on your ancestors. You find a clue here and there on your family member and pretty soon, you start to see what they were like, you get to know more about them, they start to become a real person, a member of your family.

I’ve been doing research on the Garrison side of my family tree, and I haven’t been able to get any further than John Wesley Garrison, my Great Great Grandfather. No matter how hard I have tried, I keep hitting that proverbial brick wall. However, I do know a few things about him. He was born in 1832 and died in 1911. He lived in the Rowan and Davidson County, North Carolina area and although not verified yet, we think he was married to Mary Ann Mathis. He is buried in Abbott’s Creek Primitive Baptist Cemetery in Wallburg, Davidson County, NC. Have you heard of this family? I would love to hear from you if you have. I recently joined the Garrison DNA Project and they already have someone in their system that is a descendant of John Wesley, so they are hopeful that eventually we can find and verify his parents and other ancestors.

Every little bit of information leads you down a path that could be the exact one you need to be on. But I will tell you, I have been down a lot of rabbit holes too, thinking I was on the right track, only to find after hours of research, that I wasn’t. But you just press on and within no time you have another piece of that jigsaw puzzle in place, making even the wasted time seem worthwhile. Are you looking into your family history? If you’re not, I would encourage you to. However, be prepared, because it can be addictive. In fact, I think it’s time for me to go find some more pieces to my puzzle!

Terri’s Tidbit for Today: Do you have a local Genealogical Society in your town? They are such a wonderful resource for looking up Family History. The Genealogical Society of Kendall County, in Boerne, has room after room full of valuable information that could help you learn more about your family. Joining gets you even more benefits. Check them out on the web by clicking here or look for a society in your area.

Side note: After reading my last blog, my little brother commented on how we used to play some board games at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.  Immediately one of those games came to mind. My grandfather had a Carrom Board. Have you ever played Carrom? He used to sit for hours and take turns with each of us grandkids that wanted to play. You have the board (see below) and all these little wooden rings. You picked a color and then you tried to get them into the little nets by flicking them with your finger. I have long since forgotten the rules but the one thing I do remember was how my finger would hurt so bad after playing just a couple games, but Grandpa would play over and over again and it never seemed to bother him. Thanks Todd for reminding me of that special time in our past!