If you think, based on family tradition, an obituary, a death certificate, etc. that a person is buried in a certain cemetery, keep in mind that there might not be a stone for them. Some families, for whatever reason do not erect a stone after the burial. It can be difficult to find what was never there.
It is always possible that the marker was a wooden one that did not pass the test of time.
And some stones fall down and are buried themselves.
I am researching a found family of my community. Of the 8 children, I had found 7 on the interment list of the city cemetery. I found 6 headstones. The 7th one was listed, but no stone to be found. I talked with the sexton and she showed me, on the map, exactly where #7 was buried. I found the spot, but there was only grass. Curiosity took over and I started pulling up the grass in that spot and found a marker, buried under the sod. #7 was there, but time had erased the proof. I pulled all the grass away from the marker and now #7 is "reunited" with her family. There is no proper stone for her because when she died at age 91, she was the last living member of that family and there was no one to see that a stone was placed.
ReplyDeleteI have one ancestor who never had a stone, and another whose stone had fallen over and was almost completely covered by grass. With the help of a few family members, I was able to purchase a stone and have the other one repaired when I visited the hometown last year.
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