A Second Unicorn!

Several months back I was out with Br'er Papa when we spotted a granite marker beside the road and stopped to check it out. Turned out it was for a family cemetery (some family - one grave!). But shocker of shocker, it was not in Find A Grave. I had a Unicorn on my hands - a cemetery not already in Find A Grave! The lone grave in it dates from 1994 thus making research more than a little difficult. At least more than usual since most of the people involved are probably living. 

Still, I was able to add a legitimate new cemetery which is tres cool.

Fast forward about a month and I start getting hammered about this "cemetery at the airport" from Mother. Seems an acquaintance of her and Pop knows of a cemetery near what they are calling an airport in North Georgia. Nothing will do but I look into it for them.

(sigh)

Naturally there are zero specifics. Not an exact location. Not the name of someone buried in it, Nothing at all.

(sigh)

Airport. Did I say 'airport'? No. Landing strip is far more accurate. Mother keeps urging me to simply go there and look around. I cannot get her to understand these are not places one simply goes wandering about uninvited and unannounced. Best case it is a legitimate operation and you risk getting arrested. Worst case it is far from legit and you risk getting shot. 

I am NOT going in and trespassing. No way, no how.

I spend a non-insignificant amount of time trying to find something on it on-line. It is in excess of an hour drive on the highway from home so I am less than sanguine about making the trip with so little to go on up front. Having put this off as long as I can I am force to make a site visit. With the parents. Whee!

Let's skip over the drive there and the socializing with their friend that presaged going to the actual cemetery. An entire day spent and we only get to the site at dusk. I literally had minutes to survey the place and gather information.

Damned if this isn't the second Unicorn in less than two months! The cemetery (which as far as I can discern under the circumstances) consists of a single headstone shared by three individuals: A husband, his wife, and their child. A surname, and a death date: "Mr. & Mrs. Knox, and Child Died 1847" Nothing more. I am told there are supposed to be more graves, but damned if we can find them in the few minutes of gloom available.

But there is no recorded cemetery for the site, nor do there appear to be memorials matching the family anywhere in the area. I get to add a second cemetery! I don't know that I can think of anyone I know or have even conversed with who has added one cemetery to say nothing of two!

Returning to the warren, I start trying to find out more about this family. Names alone would be nice so that their Find A Grave memorials could record them. Dates would be even better. Their story - how they came to die at the same time - would be glorious.

Would be. Those are the operative words. Because I found almost NOTHING! And what I did find I could not link to them.

I should note that 1847 is fairly early in the history of the area from the perspective of white settlers. There are several - well a few - Knox recorded in the area at the time. Some are buried in nearby cemeteries. Building out family trees for them quickly eliminates them as the Knox I am looking for. But I cannot find anything specific to deaths from 1847. There are some earlier tax records that could possible be my missing Knox patriarch, but then again may not be. And they are a couple of decades before the deaths. I cannot find a will, newspaper, or anything else on topic. At least not on-line. There may be hard copy materials in the county archives or library, and there may be an historical society with something. Sadly the pandemic has most of those resources closed for the duration.

On the bright side, this is not something related to my personal genealogy work. If it were I would be pissed off!