St Paul Baptist Church

 There is an old saying about how something is always easy to them what ain't gotta do it. I thought I had learned that lesson long ago. And perhaps I had. But I received a refresher course today. 

I need to set the scene properly.

Not that I am old (ok. I am old), but in a rather unusual set of circumstances I have lived on the same street all but about the first 18 months I have been alive. Almost all of that time in one of two adjacent houses. Explaining at would take far too much time and would be tangential to the main tale. Just accept that I have been in the immediate area a considerable time. And as that covered my post diaper childhood you can imagine that it also involved a great deal of rambling through the surrounding vicinity. There weren't many places we did not trespass on investigate.

Less than half a mile from the homestead sits a house with what we all assumed as kids was a massive front yard. Lots in the area at that time averaged about a half acre. Some were larger, some smaller. This place is closer to a full acre with half that being the front yard. 

Or so we thought.

Not all that many years ago we learned that the open expanse in front of the house was actually a cemetery. Understand that there were no markers or monuments of any kind on it for years upon years. Suddenly as we passed by (doubtless on our way to something we should not have been doing) we see standing there a large granite marker reading 'St Paul Baptist Church Cemetery'. Over the years following about 3 or 4 individual markers were placed. Whether these are on the exact spots of the graves or not I cannot say. Now to say I was taken aback about there being a cemetery from a long gone church is to understate the case in the extreme.

Much as I tried to get more details on the church there simply wasn't much to glean. Even newspaper archives were coming up dry (so far - still searching). What I did manage to find at one point was a minor blurb from one of the local TV station news show that covered the highlights. Even that was woefully lacking in any real details and confirmed sources. Just a recap of claims.

Basically it was not one of the better periods in our social history. We are talking about Georgia, relatively near Atlanta, Decatur, and Stone Mountain (the granite mountain and the city). The church was established some time before the late 1910s (perhaps much earlier that then), and was a Black Congregation. At some point in the 1950s (perhaps 1960s) a certain group of people decided that the church had to go. There seems to be little doubt that this was on racial/racist grounds. The precise Whats, Whens, and Whos are all but impossible for me to pin down. But the bottom line is that the church relocated and the cemetery was left behind and was not tended or maintained. 

At some point in the ensuing years a few descendants of those interred there stepped up to reclaim it. Hence the markers and monuments. There were, according to the one report I was able to find, accusations that several graves were paved over. Apparently there were attempts to determine if this was the case but they were, at best, inconclusive. There is a map of the larger area from 1915 but it is of little help as the quality is simply not sufficient to accurately place many sites on a current map.

But until today there were only about 4 memorials in Find A Grave for this cemetery. Clearly, if this was an operating church graveyard for decades then there should be many more than 4 graves. So I started delving into the larger local newspaper archives looking for obituary or death notices mentioning the church. I managed to add about 13 memorials based on this. I then tried to find these people in Ancestry so I could include their birth year, at least, if not definitive birth and death details.

What an exercise in frustration that turned out to be. Which brings up the re-learned lesson. 

Anyone who has done any amount of genealogy research at all knows well the frustration of not finding any records. Or what you find being so vague that you cannot possibly link it to the person you are researching which any degree of confidence. But unless the person you are researching is 6, 7, 8, or more generations back, or is an immigrant whose name was changed or came from somewhere where records do not exist or are not accessible. it takes a while to hit that wall. People living in the 1930s or 1940s in the States are generally not that hard to research.

So here I was, researching a Black church graveyard. The people I was finding had died anywhere from 1928 to about 1949. Two were children, one 8 years old, another only about 6 months. I could find death certificates for several, though their details about parents, etc. were often DK - Don't Know.

And the majority? They might as well have never existed as far as the records are concerned. No Census entries. No Death Certificates. And recorded births? Don't be silly. 

I have long known that for Black people tracing their family there is a massive, almost impenetrable wall immediately before the 1870 US Census. That being the first census where the former slaves were enumerated by name. Prior to that they were usually just counted by sex and age as property to be taxed. What I never really grasped is just how late in history that wall continued to exist for so many. Yes, there was Segregation, Jim Crow, Oppression, and all that baggage. I just never knew (or appreciated) how much all that pushed into basic records of the time. Nor how insanely difficult it is for Blacks today to find ancestors and relatives in the records less than a century old.

Researching is always easy for them what ain't doing the research. And only them what is doing it can appreciate just how hard it really is.

Rehoboth Cemetery

 There are dangers to getting lost, though you would not expect one of these to be finding what at first glace appears to be an old cemetery. As goes the old saying, looks can be deceiving. 

Having completed his mission to complete a full search of the cemetery where one of his great-aunts and her husband are buried in search of their markers (turns out they don't have markers - and there are two burials in their plot that are totally unexplained thus making for ANOTHER mystery to plague me - but that is a whole 'nother story for another time), Br'er was scampering off to another location by dead reckoning. 

Turns out his navigation was dead wrong. He wasn't precisely lost, mind you. But he found a really long way around to his destination. Out on a seriously 'out in the country' road he spied an interesting cemetery and decided to investigate it, if for no other reason than to stretch his legs a bit. This led to what that little girl experienced chasing a snowy bunny - a proverbial trip down the rabbit hole! What was to be a few minutes pause en route between destinations turned into a two day ordeal!

Any visit to a cemetery begins with pulling it up on Find A Grave to gather some basic information: How old is it? How many graves are recorded? Anyone famous or interesting? Any noted description or history? Any photo requests outstanding?

There is a photo request, so mental note taken to look for it (even though a problem has been flagged on the request). And there are some fairly old markers, so the brief stop is definitely going to stretch out a bit.

One of Br'er's many quirks is looking for military headstones. One of those is spotted straight off. But  either the marker has settled or the surrounding soil has risen over the years to obscure details at the bottom of the market. I could still see markings, but could not make out the details, nor determine what it said.

I usually pull up Find A Grave first and check it against the marker. Is something missing or in error? Is there a photo? GPS location?

In this case Find A Grave had only the name and cemetery. No birth and death dates. Was that what was at the buried bottom of the stone? Using a stout stick, I excavated to the base (the marker was set in a cement base) and revealed not only his unit but his birth and death dates. For whatever reason no one had made the effort to gather this data before.

Yes, yes. I added the data and photos to the Find A Grave memorial record.

There's at least one good deed for the day done!

But as I continued I started into a full audit of the cemetery. In the August heat and rain this was far from the wisest of choices. Especially as I came wholly unprepared for such an undertaking. I had brought none of the usual tools needed. No gloves, bug spray, pruning clippers, etc. 

What the hell. I am already started and daylight is burning. Let's do this!

Using a grid search I carefully pull up each marker in Find A Grave and insure that the facts are recorded, there is a photo of the marker(s), and the grave has its GPS location tagged at a minimum. This leads me to add several memorials that are not yet in Find A Grave. It also leads me to the realization that, all appearances to the contrary, this is very much an active cemetery. The last burial was about a year previous in 2019! Not at all what I expected.

Several hours later and several brier scratches to boot (not to mention the loss of a pound or two in water leaking from my skin) I am forced by nature to give up for the day. A light sprinkle, or even a short downpour, isn't enough to make old Br'er run for cover. But a torrential rain coupled with lightning will do the trick every time.

Just as well as I want to do some research on one grave. There is an infant marker with the surname of some of my ancestors from this area. Now I must learn if he is a relation or not.

I will leave off the hours spent on the search. The bottom line is that he is a 3rd cousin twice removed. And being the only one in the entire cemetery with that surname it makes for YAM (Yet Another Mystery). How did he come to be buried here of all possible locations? Alas, there is no way to every learn for certain.

All my research turns up something I wish I had had at the beginning: Someone make a detailed list of all the headstones and names back about 20 years previous organizing them in something of a Row and Column list. I had difficulties locating some graves that day. Having something giving me a better idea of who is next to who is a big help. So I bookmark the web page so I can reference it on site the next day.

Oh, yes. There has to be a second day. I am too committed to this now to quit before I have completed the audit.

Finding the previous list and returning paid dividends. First, I was able to locate one grave that was only ever marked by a funeral home "temporary" name plate in 1959. Knowing where the grave should be based on nearby marked graves I poked about a but and uncovered the nameplate. It had fallen over and been covered with leaves and weeds. I reset it as best I could and made certain to update the Find A Grave memorial with a photo and GPS coordinates. It may well be in a few years that that GPS tag is the only thing confirming where the grave is.

And I was able to find a marker for that photo request despite someone in the past saying there was no marker for the child (a distinct possibility for any child born in 1870 and dead by 1871). 

Another good deed accomplished. I think that clears my quota for those through 2025.

Add in identifying a couple of duplicate memorials and getting those corrected, adding about a dozen new memorials, and fully auditing a cemetery and you have a rather productive weekend!

A few random thoughts before closing: 

Another example where the previous list of graves and general locations paid off. This marker was totally covered by debris. Because I knew where it should be I was able to dig about a bit and uncover it. This is the first - and probably last - photo of it. I wish I had the time, skill, and wealth to restore markers like this.

Spotting bones in a cemetery is usually cause for alarm. Fortunately I could readily discern that these are not human.

Locklin Cemetery

 The allure of a road named for a cemetery is simply too strong to long ignore. Add in the facts that the name is known to be associated with Br'er's distant kin starting over two centuries back AND that it is smack in the area where all those kinfolk lived, and, well, checking it out becomes something of a moral imperative!

These days a LOT of initial research about where to go scampering is done on the internet. Learn what should be there, who should be there, what kind of access there is, and whether any distant relations might be buried there. Let's face facts - it is not possible to check every interesting old cemetery in the immediate area. And that only gets exponentially worse as one moves farther out from the home hutch.

So pick and choose are the order of the day. That means trying to stick to known people on the family tree, or the occasional famous grave or really interesting monument. That is not to say Br'er doesn't stop in on the occasional old cemetery on a whim. He does. More on that when I post about Rehobeth Cemetery in the future.

In this case the initial link is a 3rd cousin thrice removed who did not survive even his first year. Always a sad case to find. Pushing a bit further and it is clear that there are several more distant relatives there. Cousins all of various distance and generation. Time to go exploring. 

Ol' Br'er's nerves always get to twitching when it is obvious that there has to be some level of trespassing done to get where he aims to be. This was one of those cases. The cemetery is supposed to be a few yards off the road in a stand of trees between two houses. Out in the countryside. Where folks learn to shoot young and to be damned accurate. And usually do not cotton to strangers traipsing about their land without permission.

(sigh) No guts, no glory. In I go.

Fortunately there is not a lot of underbrush to hamper progress and visibility is good meaning and vertical markers should be readily visible at a distance. All this means saved steps. No need to grid search the area as would be the case if all the markers were flat.

Pausing to look around just a few feet into the trees and damned if I don't spot the cemetery! It is always better to be lucky than good.

(Ok. I stole the photos from Find A Grave. These are far superior to the ones I took.)

At least one marker previously photographed has gone missing or has fallen and been covered with leaves and weeds. I must confess that the layout has me perplexed. The graves are oriented on the East-West line as is traditional in Christian cemeteries (though less observed in recent times). But the border wall is not. This has the graves at an angle within the borders. Why? 

In researching how everyone here is related (and all those with names are, though three are spouses of blood kin) I uncovered a sad mystery.

At some point in 1978 - some 52 years after the wife died - relatives of one couple interred here had them disinterred and moved to a large city cemetery. Reasons were not stated (that I have been able to uncover), but I can easily imagine that they wanted their ancestors somewhere better maintained than the original family cemetery out in the woods. In and of itself this is not particularly odd or noteworthy.

It is what they did not do that is sad if not criminal.

They left the couple's infant child behind.

This couple was born in the mid 1800s, before "The Recent Unpleasantness", They married in at the end of January 1868,  a few years after the war ended. Later that year they had their first child. Their only child. There is no way of knowing whether the child was stillborn or lived a short time. But what we can state for certain is that it did not survive long enough to even be named. 

Whatever day the child was born, it died two days after Christmas 1868. And it was loved enough that its parents managed to purchase a headstone for it in the days of Reconstruction in the South when few had money to spare for luxuries.

They left the child behind. How? Why? I will never know. Perhaps that is best because I believe, were I to meet them face to face I might be moved to violence.