Not Quite Tuesday - Genealogy Gems Podcast

In a couple of days, some pictures of a cemetery visit will be posted to this blog. But, there is a story behind one of them.

We just got back from a "day trip" to Rhode Island to see Maureen Taylor, Megan Smolenyak, and Marian Pierre-Louis in Providence RI. They were great.

On the way to Rhode Island, we found the Cemetery where my wife's great-grandmother was buried. Found the plot, with the help of the Cemetery Office, found the headstone with no problem at all. 

On the headstone was the name of a Son-In-Law, but the name and dates were not on the headstone of the great-grandmother, so we ordered the name and dates to be added. This was Friday. On the way home on Sunday, we stopped back, and the name had been put onto the stone. Happy Dance around here all weekend.

The cemetery gave us the Internment Record for the two people in the plot. One for the Son-In-Law, the other person in that plot, Internment Record was a Cause of Death, "Ciortic ancussion". A Google search suggested that the words were typed incorrectly. So a "status" was posted on Face Book, got lots of responses, all with the same conclusion about the Typo. I said from the beginning that I had to find another source of the Cause of Death. 

That is where the Genealogy Gems Podcast comes in. In my email box was a Newsletter that Lisa Louise Cook sends out. In this weeks newsletter was 3 questions. The third was:

Question 3: What's a quick way to find a funeral home located near an ancestor's home?

GEM:  Check out www.iMortuary.com  

Went to that website, browsed to the town where the cemetery is located. Low and behold one of the Funeral Home names, was the SAME name as the Undertaker's Surname on the Internment Record. An email has already been sent to the Funeral Home. Can't wait to see the response from the Funeral Home.


Copyright © 2010 by H R Worthington

52 Weeks To Better Genealogy - Challenge #22

Not being a writer, participation in the Genea-Blogger Challenges are few and far between. However, this one caught my eye and I said "I can do this one". Here is the Challenge:

Week 22: Spend some time at Find-a-Grave. Most of you have probably heard of Find-a-Grave (http://www.findagrave.com/) and probably used it in your own research as well. The challenge this week is to simply browse this web site. Just click links. Look at the different ways the information is sorted. Study the tributes of others and see if there are ways you can improve your own entries. Don’t do any research of your own, simply study the efforts of others. If you have a genealogy blog, share your impressions of Find-a-Grave and any interesting entries you found at the web site.

Earlier this year, I visited a local genealogy group presentation on Find-A-Grave. Actually, it turned out to be a journey that the presenter had in various cemeteries locating his ancestors. Hit presentation did not say too much about how to use Find-A-Grave.


As I do take pictures for Find-A-Grave, I have learned how to use this website as "A" Genealogy Research Tool. Certainly not THE tool, but a nice tool to have "in the bag of tricks".

With some encouragement, I have even created and have given a presentation on this topic and have been asked to give it two more times this fall. Me, doing presentations, No Way. But, you have to start somewhere.

For this challenge, a couple of observations of what you might or might not find on Find-A-Grave.

1. Names
2. Dates
3. Relationships
4. Inscriptions of what is on the headstone

What I have observed on Find-A-Grave is that "just because it's written in stone" doesn't mean that it is accurate. The best example that I can think of, is a military headstone that has a different birthdate then the headstone itself. Which one is right?

I had an interesting phone call on that posting, which I blogged about here, from the son of the person whose headstone I had posted. The military is correcting the mistake. I only bring this up, as that some of the information on a headstone may not be accurate. However, it is a tool to further research. In looking at this specific stone, there is another name. As it turns out, that name is the name of the person who called me.

What can be helpful, but not always done, it linking families together to reflect the relationships. I have one family where three generations of headstones are linked together. Three different states and cemeteries are included. In the Find-A-Grave page, you can click on a link to see the other family members. I have been trying to make sure that my family links are up to date. This helps show the relationships.


Looking at the symbols on the headstone, on Find-A-Grave, may help tell some more of the story about the person. There are books around that help describe what these symbols mean. A couple that come to mind, was one that had a surname with a farm view inscribed on the stone. It was the name of a local farm. Another headstones with a firefighter's tag on a stake. Not to mention the military symbols and other markers that can be seen on Find-A-Grave.


As a contributor, visiting a number of local cemeteries, I see the same surname showing up. Are they related, I don't know, but I have taken a number of pictures of that surname from other cemeteries. In wondering around these cemeteries, local street names, village names, community names show up. No wonder that street name is down the street, that family is all over the place. A little local history may be found.

Using some searching techniques for Family History research can be used on Find-A-Grave. An example: What was known was the Name and general area of a family of interest. Searching on Find-A-Grave for any cemetery in this one county, I found 27 entries for the surname in question in 3 cemeteries. Found the name I wanted, went to that cemetery. Found the first headstone grouping, but not the one I was looking for. And only 4 headstones. Walking around the cemetery, there was a very large group of headstones that was loaded with genealogy information on the family I was looking for. The monument in the center of the plot had dates and relationships on all four sides of the monument. A look at the Census Records confirmed the family groupings.

But, it also left a couple of questions. What was the relationship between the two family plots, especially since there was one name but different people, in both plots.


Reading some of the inscriptions, hopefully recorded in Find-A-Grave, can be interesting as well. Looking at a number of burial grounds associated with a church are sometimes interesting, when looking at inscriptions. For the most part, based on what I have seen on Find-A-Grave, there may be a scripture passage reference. But, in one very old cemetery, whole passages were recorded on the headstone. Unfortunately they weren't very clear in photographs, but the question was, Why entire passages in this one cemetery?


One of the research tricks that I have learned, is looking sideways or looking at your neighbors. This includes at a Cemetery on Find-A-Grave. When submitting a request for a picture, it's helpful to include other surnames that might be related to the person who the pictures is being requested. One request that I received was for a name, went to the cemetery and could not find that name anywhere. But, the request had another surname in the request. That 2nd surname was on a headstone and right next to it was the one I was looking for. The plot had family members for the two surnames. This helped the requester put the family together.

One other example of Find-A-Grave and searching. Was looking for a cousin. He was not buried in any family cemetery that I had visited or was not on Find-A-Grave. Why not? Doing a search, but backing away from the details in the search, the cousin was located, but in a cemetery not close to the rest of the family. Went to the cemetery to take a picture, was the answer to the question "why was he buried there". He was buried with his in-laws. The cousin was killed in a motorcycle accident, was young, and the family didn't have any preparation for his death but his in-laws has space in their plot. Mystery solved.

Find-A-Grave isn't THE answer, but it can be a tool, in your genealogy tool kit.

For the most part, I have been doing a similar thing on this Blog. What has become important to me, is that people doing Family Research use various tools in their research. I figure that IF I take a picture of a headstone, some one might be looking for it. But, I don't know how or where they might find it. So, I double post the pictures.

There have been two cemeteries that I have visited, based on Photo Requests where the cemetery is in a state of dis-repair, but some of the headstones are still readable (for the most part) but they need to be captured. I have taken pictures of all of the headstones and have posted them.


Thanks to Amy Coffin of We Tree (http://wetree.blogspot.com/) for the inspiration!

© 2010, Copyright H R Worthington

Happy 101 Award

Debbie Blanton Mccoy at Blanton Family Roots and Branches has awarded me the Happy 101 Award.  Thank you, Debbie!  What a wonderful way to start the day. I appreciate the award and thank you for reading ths blog.

I am supposed to list 10 things that make me happy and list 10 blogs to whom I want to pass on this award. What a difficult task, to limit the list to 10. I am attempting to not pass along this award to blogs that have already received the award.

10 Things That Make Me Happy:

My family (including grandchildren and grand pups)
My friends (in real life and online)
Being retired 
Being able to research from home
Learning my Family History
Finding ways to share my findings
Helping users of the Family Tree Maker program
Reading and learning from Genea-Bloggers
Taking Headstone Pictures
Walking a cemetery



10 Blogs I would like to nominate for this award:

AnceStories: The Stories of My Ancestors

Bootcamp for Genealogy Bloggers


Cemetery Photography


Elizabeth Powell Crowe


Family Matters


Family Stories in Stone


Genea-Musings


Granite in My Blood


Illuminated Ancestries



The Graveyard Rabbit Student!

One way to do a Find-A-Grave Cemetery Visit

From time to time, folks who volunteer to take pictures for Find-A-Grave, will receive an email requesting pictures to be taken. I also take pictures for my family research. There have been a number of not so successful visits, so this is the process that was done for today's, successful visit. Thought I would share it, in case others do the same thing. Perhaps sharing what WE do, will help others.

In a previous Blog:

Tombstone Tuesday and Find-A-Grave Follow Up

Information on an EXCEL file that I use for tracking what I have done.

A collection of items to take along was posted here:

Cemetery Visit Planning

So far, so good. What wasn't mentioned before, is that I enter this information into Outlook, as I can sync Outlook to a PDA, if I don't have the computer with me. Information is recorded in Outlook, like Address, Phone Numbers, Information about the Cemetery from Find-A-Grave and any other notes that are found over time. Some cemeteries have name listings on other websites, one even has a plot maps, online. That information is noted in Outlook.

The EXCEL spreadsheet that was talked about earlier is also printed with the Names of the individuals who have already been photographed by Cemetery. An Outlook printout and this EXCEL spreadsheet are put into a Notebook. The notebook is separated by State, as I visit cemeteries in a tri-state area. Within the State, it's sorted by Cemetery Name. This is a summary of the cemeteries that have been visited or I plan to visit. The Date of the Cemetery Visit is also recorded in Outlook.

In preparation for a Cemetery Visit the following have been very helpful for me.

Print of the Find-A-Grave Cemetery Page:

This has some basic information about location, sometimes the street address, less a phone number, but most of the time GPS information. On may pages, there is a picture of the entrance of the cemetery (very helpful for a driver of the car or the navigator)

But, taking that a step further, a Hybrid View of the Map has been helpful for a visual view of the area. For example, from the satellite view, you can actually see the cemetery, you know that you should be able to see it. The hybrid view adds the street names to the satellite view. That is also printed.

One example of this, is that the Find-A-Grave information on the Cemetery was very little and it was about 25 years old. From the Map, there was a long walk that didn't sound too easy from the Find-A-Grave information. However, that satellite view showed that there was a farm across a lake from the description on the website and there was a driveway that was very close to where this family burial ground was located. That extra step was very helpful.

GPS information. Not all GPS units are the same. Mine will not accept GPS coordinates, but it will accept Intersections. That is where the review of the Map comes in very handy, especially when you do not have the exact street address. These intersections are noted in Outlook.

Bottom line here, getting familiar with the area of the cemetery.

If I am working from a Request for a Photo, I look at the Find-A-Grave website to see if there are other Photo Requests. There have been several that were posted prior to my signing up to Find-A-Grave. So, I'll look at all of them.

Printing that page with the information about the request is the next thing to do.

By clicking on the Name of the Individual for the request, there may be other information about that individual that doesn't appear on the request page. Sometimes relationships are posted, Obituaries have been posted there as well. This page is printed.

Taking this a step further a print out of all of the Surname of the individual of the request are there other people with that Surname are in the Cemetery. If a spouse is listed, or a female's birth surname, that page will be printed. Some times, but certainly not all of the time, they might be in the same plot or a near by plot.

On the printout with that surname, there is an ICON if there have been pictures taken for others with that surname. If there are pictures of others with that surname, it is also printed. Several times, it helped identify WHERE in the cemetery that headstone is. Trees, type of headstone, a general view of where that head stone is has made two visits very successful; we knew what we were looking for, at least a place to start.

All of this paper work are put into a Folder with the Cemetery Name, State, County, City are on the tab of the folder. These folders are put into a portable files box, sorted by Cemetery Name.

The location is known, the area around the cemetery, what the entrance looks like (in many cases, but not all), who the individual is, others with like surnames, and with any luck, a potential reference headstone, it's off for a visit.

The first picture to take, is the Entrance. This will help when I get home as to what the cemetery is, especially, like today, where we visited 5 cemeteries. Now the fun begins.

This is not addressing what one might do on the visit, like doing anything to a headstone, cleaning up the area, only the picture taking, preparation, and follow up.

Generally, specific headstone information is taken using the tools each of us has to get the most information out of a headstone. If there are other relatives, or potential relatives within the same plot are nice to take pictures of. The Plot may also be helpful. In larger cemeteries a broader view for reference of the headstone may help.

Notes are recorded on the paperwork that is in the folder. Information like a more specific location for the street address, if it isn't on the Find-A-Grave website. For example: Across the street from ....., so that the next time, that address can be entered into my GPS.

This folder is not returned to the File Box until the information has been updated, the Pictures from the Camera are on the Computer, and the pictures uploaded to Find-A-Grave.

The "plan" was tested today successfully. The plan was go visit a specific cemetery, however, after we left the house and were on the road, we changed our mind as to where we were going. We have several cemetery visit days planned, but my wife had recently found some information that she wanted to check out. Our visit planned for next week was close to our planned visit for today. So, on the road we changed our plan. We had all of the information that we wanted in the Note Book and File Box.

To be honest, we had a good news, bad news visit. One Cemetery with an online Photo Request, we were not able to fullfil, couldn't find the individual and only one of 5 individuals with the Surname. However, there was a number of old headstones in an uncleared area of the cemetery with lots of poison ivy. The good news, is that we found a number of headstones that my wife wanted. We found the first headstone based on a view of one of the headstones already online. We knew what we were looking for.

A second cemetery was a good news, good news visit. Its a large cemetery, we have visited a number of times before, and had 3 requests for pictures. The good news is that the Office was open. We gave Doris the names, she gave us the plot information (8 rows behind this name on a large headstone) and a Cemetery Map. 15 minutes later, the 3 requests were fulfilled.

Bottom line: the plan worked.

I thank Patti for being the co-pilot and proofreader for this adventure.

Headstones - Iconography and Symbolism

In looking through some old bookmarks in my browser, I re-discovered a list from Cyndislist that has a really great list of links to websites that discuss Iconography and Symbolism. This list can be found here http://www.cyndislist.com/cemetery.htm#Iconography. Rather then reinventing this list, a summary is here.

Iconograph; Symbolism

• Cemeteries and Cemetery Symbols
  Exploring the meaning of cemetery symbols and other graveyard mysteries. For genealogy sleuths, taphophiles and goth kids.
• Cemetery Iconography
  Article by George G. Morgan.
• Emblems of Belief
  Emblems shown on veterans gravestones and what church they belong to.
• Forgotten Faces: A Window into our Immigrant Past
  Forgotten Faces is the first book and site to present collections of early 20th Century Photo-Ceramic Memorial Portraits on tombstones. It explores early memorial portraiture as an art form and as valued historical artifact. It presents the unique beauty of this funerary art as related to immigrant traditions at the turn of the 20th century.
• Headstone Abbreviations
• Kolel: Reb on the Web Archives
  Why stones or pebbles are placed on Jewish tombstones.
• Monument Emblem Index
  An index of images of some emblems engraved by stonecutters on headstones.
• Monument Typology and Grave Markers
• Mourning Matters
  Educational & special programs dedicated to Victorian mourning.
  
  
  • Grave Marker Symbols
  • Widow's Weeds
    Mourning fashions of the Victorian era.
  
  
• The Olive Tree Genealogy: Graven Images
  Describes the symbolism of motifs on gravestones - from The Olive Tree.
• The Olive Tree Genealogy: Grave Symbols
  Describes the symbolism of motifs on gravestones.
• Taphophilia.com
  Thanatology and taphophile issues, cemetery, funeral industry and death related news.
  
  
  • Taphophilia.com: Encyclopedia
    
    
    • Death/Funeral Industry Terms
    • Symbolism found on Memorial Art
    
    
  
  
• How to Read a Hebrew Tombstone
  Information on reading Hebrew tombstones, including the Jewish calendar, numbers, common phrases, and special symbols.
• International Black Sheep Society / Grave Marker Acronyms
• Welsh Words and Phrases on Gravestones
• Why Do Jews Put Stones On Tombstones?

Headstone - Symbols

With the encouragement from some friends, I will be posting some images of headstones and will attempt to provide some information as to what the symbol on the headstone is all about. The pictures using the "Symbol" TAG will not include genealogy information, though there may be some. The cemetery where the image can be found will be included in the TAG for the Blog entry .


There are many other websites and bloggers who have done this, and links will be provided along the way.


A group of Genealogists who are active in "Second Life", and online community, have been building, within Second Life, resources for genealogists. The Tag "Symbols", on this Blog will be used as a reference for the Second Life community.


For further information on this, please check out:


Second Life


and search for Genealogy, Family History, Live Roots, to mention a few.


Within Second Life, there are scheduled Online Chats and presentations by genealogists, including an open forum to help some of us 'unwind'.


Enjoy.

Mapping Your Route

The Hooked on Ancestry group on Facebook posted this message to the group:


Mapping Your Route:


When you’re visiting an ancestral hometown, you’ll want to map out cemeteries, churches and other locations you’d like to visit. Online mapping services like MapQuest (http://email.ancestry.com/cgi-bin13/DM/y/n5x50ZPyZl0HHn0Lt0Gs) or GoogleMaps (http://email.ancestry.com/cgi-bin13/DM/y/n5x50ZPyZl0HHn0joL0GZ) can help with this. For some features, you may want to try the U.S. Geological Service’s Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).



Don’t overlook the local municipality websites for other interesting information about the area. They may have detailed local maps and other helpful information for planning your trip.



I use Outlook to track the Cemeteries that I have visited or plan to visit. In the blog entry:

Tombstone Tuesday and Find-A-Grave Follow Up

I talked about what I track in EXCEL, but I also record the information in Microsoft Outlook. Most of the information on a cemetery that you will find on this Blog, under the Cemetery Listing and what I would post on Find-A-Grave I put in outlook. The nice thing is the there is a Mapping Feature built into it. so the direction are easy to optain and print. The information on that Cemetery can also be printed directly from Outlook. I put this into my Cemetery Notebook.



Before I go visit a cemetery, I make sure that Outlook is up to date, I have directions and a print out from EXCEL to see who I already have and any notation that I might want to re-take a picture.



I then make a list minute check at Find-A-Grave to get a list of internments and any photo requests that might be listed there. At this point, I don't "claim" the assignment, but will do that if I am able to find the headstone requested.



If the town that I am visiting has any local Church, Historical Society, Library with a Genealogy section, that might be of interest, I enter that into Outlook as well and print what I need. The printed paper lets me "take notes".



Just a couple of thoughts on planning a research trip.

Cemetery Visit Planning

The Mapping Your Route question fit right in to an Online Chat that a number of us participate it. All that were on the chat agreed that the online discussion could be posted on Second Life.


This past week (Tuesday Evening, June 2th) the Just Genealogy Second Life group had an online Chat on Cemeteries.


I lead the Chat and thought I would summarize the Chat, based on the format that I used to expand on what to consider when preparing for a Cemetery Visit.


As the group was gathering, another member of the Chat asked this question:


Did you know we have a name for what we are?

Taphophilia.

ORIGIN:

From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"

Before I get to far I should note that I am new at this, so please bear with me as we Chat about Cemeteries and Genealogy. What I hope to do, this evening, is to post some questions, then Chat about them for a few minutes. I will post some websites for you to look at along the way. I am NOT an expert, but a learner

If you want to find a little more about me, The Graveyard Rabbit Association posted some information here:

http://www.thegraveyardrabbit.com/2009/05/meet-russ-worthington-author-of-my.html


1 - What do you do on a cemetery visit?

• Photograph
• Sweat :)
• Weep?
• Walk a lot
• Pause for a Vet
• Go through the records. If I am able to get there to do anything
  

2 - What do you take with you?

• Spray bottle, towel
• Camera - Some mentioned Digital others mentioned Film
• One even mentioned Black and White file for a historical society
  
• Photos
  
• Brush
• Foil
• Take away trach if I find it
• Insect repellent
• Light weight paper and pencil for possible rubbings
• Notebook
• Money to pay for any copies
• Sheets of paper and charcoal
• Mini tape recorder
• Antihistamine
• Pruning shears, to cut back the overgrown plants
• Cell Phone or Walkie-Talkie
  

3 - How do you record information?

• Paper and Pencil / Pen
• Mini recorder
• Lots of Pictures - many of the same headstone for best use of shadows
  

4 - How do you share information found?

• One has a very large cemetery / headstone database, so "My dbase" about 10 gigs
  
• findagrave.com
• interment.net
• USGenweb has a cemetery transcription project

5 - What do you do with the information that is found?

• Transcribe
• Check facts
• Birth and death dates
• Relationships
• Veteran status
• Symbols
• Firefighers, Police, Military

6 - Would like to talk a little about Headstone Maintenance

• One of the GYR (Grave Yard Rabbits) posted a blog about this
• The Blog is: The Peripatetic Graveyard Rabbit by Craig Manson
• Another has to do with Sandstone Headstones: Don't Rub Sandstone
• The Blog is here:
• There are some Headstone Photos post on the http://brickwalls.ning.com/photo website
• Dick Eastman had a show on Rootstelevision recently
  

7 - What Tricks do you use to capture the information that you want?

• Tin foil to bring out the inscriptions on a very worn stone
• Water and a Soft Brush
• Piece of cardboard wrapped in (cheap) foil. Impromptu mirror for throwing light into shadows
• Foil - Gently wrap it around the stone and press into the carving

8- Some Resources

• Interment.Net - http://www.interment.net/
• Find-A-Grave - http://www.findagrave.net/
• Cemetery Junction - http://www.daddezio.com/cemetery/
• Ask Olive Tree had an interest article on placing of stones on a grave - The Olive Tree Genealogy - Ask Olive Tree Genealogy a Question (5/27/09)
• Another Blogger said: My primary research focus is on the depiction of personal identity in a public space through the use of gravestone design and symbolism as well as grave ornamentation
• If you want to see what was posted today on Tombstone Tuesday, go to this website:
• National Park Services National Cemetery for Preservation Technology and Training

By no means is this complete, but for me, it's a starting point and reminder for my next visit to a cemetery.

Happy Hunting (Ancestors, that is)

Tombstone Tuesday and Find-A-Grave Follow Up

About a month ago, Blogger Randy Seaver of the Geneamusings Blog suggested that the connection between the Tombstone Tuesday postings here and the work on the Find-A-Grave website. These two 'projects' are related, to this blogger, to the Grave Yard Rabbit Association, of which this blog is a member of.

In the blog entry The Grave Yard Rabbit Association and Find A Grave the relationship was talked about and how this started. In response to Randy's comment to me,this was posted Tombstone Tuesday and Find-A-Grave

OK, that was then, how is it going now. Basically it is working as planned. Starting with the Find-A-Grave template that was talked about in the second listing, a master EXCEL file was created. Removed for this file, the Find-A-Grave formatting information, but retaining the following Column Headings from that Template:

• Prefix - Other then Mr or Mrs or Ms
• Last Name
• First Name
• Middle Name
• Suffix
• Maiden Name
• Birth Month
• Birth Day
• Birth Year
• Death Month
• Death Day
• Death Year
• Plot
• Inscription
  

This information will be used to be copied from this EXCEL file to the Find-A-Grave template when needed to upload to Find-A-Grave at a later date. It works as expected with the upload to Find-A-Grave.

Remembering that both of this projects, Tombstone Tuesday and Find-A-Grave, for me, were Photographs to be uploaded, certain information is available from the picture itself. However, many of the photographs are pictures of individuals that I am researching, so that information may be in my genealogy database. For example, the headstone may only contain birth and death years, but the full birth and death dates may be in the database. This information is recorded in the above cells in EXCEL.

To help keep the names related to cemeteries, additional columns were added to the EXCEL file. These columns will NOT be provided in the upload to Find-A-Grave.

• State
• County
• Cemetery
• Tombstone Tuesday
• Find-A-Grave
• Family Tree Maker
• Filename
  

The state, county, and cemetery information is used for the sorting capability of EXCEL and goes to make up the Filename format, which is:

State-County-Cemetery-LastNameFirstnameMiddleInitial

Example:

NJ-Hackettstown-Union-VreelandJohnH.jpg

In this specific case, since there are a number of Union Cemeteries in Morris County, the Town Name is listed. Hackettstown is in Morris County. Because this information is only for me, photographs can be kept together by the sorting of EXCEL. In many cases, there are more then one stone for an individual, so a "-#", like -2, will be added to the filename. The filename of the photograph will be the same that's listed in the EXCEL file for cross reference between the photographs and what is listed in EXCEL.

In the case of married females, the married surname is used. The birth surname is listed in the Maiden Name column in EXCEL. Further, if the husband and wife are on the SAME headstone, two copies of the SAME photograph are kept, but with the wife's Firstname and Middleinitial used for the photograph filename.

Now, the fun part. I have the pictures in the photograph folder for this Blog and I know what information I have from my genealogy database, it's time to create a blog entry, with picture and to post to Find-A-Grave. This is tracked using the Tombstone Tuesday column and the Find-A-Grave column in EXCEL. A simple Yes is entered when either are uploaded.

Since some or most of these pictures will be entered into my Genealogy Software, which is Family Tree Maker version 2009, when the image is attached to an individual, that column is marked as yes.

Another GeneaMusing challenge was how to use your Genealogy Date Calculator. In responding to that challenge, there was a Blog that shows how to use the Date Calculator but will also show how to include the photograph as part of a Source-Citation in Family Tree Maker.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Family Tree Maker Versino 2009 - Date Calculator

For this Blog, the use of TAGS helps the reader check Surnames and Cemetery Listings. Each Cemetry has or will have it's own blog entry, as well as each Cemetery. The intent is that with the use of the TAG, one can find who has a blog entry for a specific cemetery or that a specific Surname may have listings in multiple Cemeteries. Vreeland, for example, to date, is listed in two Cemeteries.

For cemeteris, there will be a Cemetery TAG, so that blog entries for each Cemetery can be seen, along with the Cemetery Name, also as a tag. For the Cemetery pages, the following is attempted to be provided.

• Full Name
• Address
• Phone Number
• Web Site
• Picture
• Link to Find-A-Grave
• GPS Information
• Map, if NOT on Find-A-Grave
• Other Links, if available
  

Duplication of information will be minimal. My GPS unit takes street information, including intersections, but not GPS coordinates. Find-A-Grave provides that information, but it isn't always helpful to me. But the full address is.

Bottom line, as they say, the Plan is working, so far, and has made this internal coordination not the awesome task that it started out to be.

Questions, Concerns, Comments are always welcome.

Tombstone Tuesday and Find-A-Grave

At the suggestion of a Genealogy Blogger, Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings this Blog will provide a way for me to keep track of what Tombstone's that I have posted here and which ones I have posted to Find-A-Grave.

Over the years, I have several hundred photographs, taken with a digital camera and are in my files. I started the project of taking digital photos to record information for my wife for her ancestors. I created a website for her and posted the pictures here. http://home.comcast.net/~russ.worthington/patti/ There are 10 cemeteries posted there. Not sure how many photos are there, but that will be a piece of my current project. That is, tracking what has been posted and where.

That was before Blogging and our cemetery visits have been reduced as we have most of the photos we wanted.

The Genealogy Blogging Community, in http://www.geneabloggers.com/ and on Facebook challenged us to use our Blogs to share our photographs of Tombstone's and stories on Tuesday. There is a Logo to the right of this message about The Grave Yard Rabbits Association that is another group of researchers who share their research.

For some time, Find-A-Grave has been "out there" doing a similar project. That is getting photographs of tombstones Online.

So, how I have too many places to "put stuff". Oh, did mention that I want these photo's to show up in my genealogy software.

Another challenge to the Genealogy Blogging Community was to get organized in 2009 and there is a monthly reminder to Back Up your files. These two challenges reminded me that I had about 200 3.5 Floppy Disks (remember them) that need to get these photos on CD's or other media. How many PC's have Floppy Drives today.

Off to my local office supply store for a USB Floppy Drive. Then spent a number of hours copying the files from the Floppies to my Hard Drive. Of the 75 floppies done so far, 3 are reported bad, but haven't given up on them yet.

In the midst of this, Find-A-Grave sent me an email requesting that I take a couple of photos at the request of a Find-A-Grave reader. Almost, Genealogy Over Load. In fulfilling that photo request, I remembered (re-descovered) that Find-A-Grave had a tool for us to use. It's an EXCEL spread sheet that can be downloaded, the submitted when complete. It can be found on the Find A Grave Spreadsheet Template website. The answer to the the Genealogy Over Load is there for me.

I have created a spreadsheet, based from that Template, for each cemetery that I have. Filling out the information on that spreadsheet with the information from the photographs on my computer, printing that form, will show me information that needs to be filled in from my Genealogy software. For printing purposes, the EXCEL file name and Cemetery Name are included in the Header of the spreadsheet. Since this is a spreadsheet, three columns were added. Tombstone Tuesday, Find-A-Grave, and my genealogy software.

Once this spreadsheet is printed, filling in the blanks from my geneal0gy software. The blanks being the full name, birth and death dates, Plot information, Inscription, and notes are filled in.

Since the use of TAGs, in this Blog will help identify what has ready been posted, a review of each cemetery will be easy to check off. Find-A-Grave provides the list of photos that have been posted, another blank will be filled in. After the online work is done, then inserting the photos in my genealogy program will complete this organizing.

All of the tombstone photos are filed together in one folder on my computer. The file naming that was chosen is:

State-County-Cemetery-SurnameForenameMiddlename.jpg

The EXCEL files are also saved in this folder on the computer.

The list of what has been complete and another "To Do List" is generated, but organized.

This is a work in progress, at this point, but it's working so far.

Note: there will be an Edited version of the EXCEL file will be used to upload to Find-A-Grave, removing the information in the file that is not needed by Find-A-Grave.

Questions, Comments, or Suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

My Tombstone Collection GYR Receives an Award!

With many thanks to JoLyn at http://mt-timpgraveyardrabbit.blogspot.com/, this blog has received the Kreativ Blogger Award. What an honor.

Thank you JoLyn

I now am excited to pass this award on to seven bloggers - people who author blogs that I really enjoy reading.

They are, in no particular order:

• The Philadelphia Graveyard Rabbit
  Charter Member of the Association of Graveyard Rabbits
  
  
• Lancaster Pennsylvania's Graveyard Rabbit
  A Graveyard Rabbit GeneaBlog © Linda Stienstra
  Charter Member - Association of Graveyard Rabbits
  
  
• Graveyard Rabbit of Moultrie Creek
  Charter Member of the Association of Graveyard Rabbits
  
  
• The Western Washington Graveyard Rabbit
  A Founding Member of The Association of Graveyard Rabbits
  
  
• The graveyard rabbit of Utrecht and Het Gooi
  A geneablog by Henk van Kampen
  Charter member of the Association of Graveyard Rabbits
  
  
• footnoteMaven
  footnoteMaven n: someone who is dazzlingly skilled at inserting a citation denoting a source,
  a note of reference, or a comment at the foot of a scholarly writing
  
  
• Genea-Musings
  Genealogy research tips, genealogy news items, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keypad of Randy Seaver, who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2009.
  
  
  

Be sure to visit them all!


Here are the rules connected with the KreativBlogger Award:


1. Copy the award to your site.

2. Link to the person from whom you received the award.

3. Nominate 7 other bloggers.

4. Link to those sites on your blog.

5. Leave a message on the blogs you nominate.


Congratulations to all - and thanks again, JoLyn

Russ

Introduction

This is my attempt in joining The Association of Grave Yard Rabbits, since I do have photographs of headstones taken while my wife and I have been doing our family research. The Labels will be used to attempt to identify the Burial Ground / Cemetery and the Surname of the individual(s) whose headstone is in the picture. Some basic information will be provided, as it is known.

Please feel free to leave a comment to the posting.

Thank you,

Happy Hunting, Ancestors that is.