Yes, You Can Dig In A Cemetery And Not Get Arrested

Some years back, Br'er shared a tale about his researching a family cemetery. If you haven't read that, you may want to take a few minutes to peruse it for a basic understanding of the cemetery this post references.

Done? Ready to continue? Good. Let's go.

Papa Br'er wanted to do "Flower Day." This means two things. First, he has "tactically acquired" several cubic feet of silt flowers. (If you are unfamiliar with the term, ask any military veteran to explain it.) And second, he wants to go and place them on the graves of family and friends. 

This means a busy day for Br'er serving as chauffeur and general flunky. Today was no different. These excursions always entail a visit to two cemeteries. One is the sizeable perpetual care where Papa Br'er's parents, grandparents, and numerous friends are interred. The second is the small family cemetery noted above.

Today included a third location to place flowers on one of Papa Br'er's aunt's grave for one of his cousins. But that is not relevant to the matter at hand.

The first stop was the large cemetery. We split up to be as efficient as possible. Papa Br'er took the graves of his childhood friends. I took the family (primarily because I knew where these are). Because we got an early start, and I thought to take my cemetery gear bag with me, I was able to take a few extra minutes at each headstone to clear back the encroaching grass, weeds, and dirt. And to brush off any debris on the marker. Everything looked much better when I was done if I do say so myself.

Exercises like this inevitably mean hearing tales from Papa Br'er about the people whose graves we are decorating. Sometimes this means uncomfortable moments for Papa Br'er. Today involved one such moment.

We were decorating the graves of three brothers Papa Br'er hung around with 'back in the day.' He paused to read the dates on the markers. I mention that one looks more like a father or uncle to the other two. His birth year reads 1911 whereas the other two were born in 1937 and 1939. This, Papa Br'er confidently announces, is wrong. The third brother was not that old.

Naturally, this is a gauntlet thrown down to old Br'er. I whipped out the smartphone and executed a quick search on the elder brother. The first thing I pull up is the 1930 census. Hmm, his age in 1930? 19.

This was a stunning revelation to Papa Br'er. It was a classic "I now question my whole life" moment. And it was glorious.

Then it was off to the family cemetery mentioned at the outset.

And to the Great Discovery.

Just in case you haven't read the previous post, allow me to pull an Inigo Montoya and "sum up."

This is a small cemetery in a heavily wooded area that is, fortunately, next to a gravel road. It has at least two generations of my direct ancestors buried there. Possibly more in unmarked and unrecorded graves. It is near the homestead site where my paternal grandfather and his siblings were born. I have been working over the years to find the names of all those buried there that I can. And to uncover the relationships of each to my family. A married couple there, H G and Judie Lane with hand-marked concrete slabs remain a mystery (I have found the relationship to me line for all the other marked graves, and for those unmarked but reported or suspected to be buried there.  Yay, me!)

I suspect the reversed "N" is intentional rather than an illiterate error.

I find the horizontal guide lines on both markers fascinating.

We occasionally visit to clear brush, maintain the site, and swap out flowers in an effort to protect the cemetery. The reasoning being, if it looks visited and maintained then it less likely someone will disturb or destroy it. Hence "Flower Day." You can appreciate how many times we have walked these grounds over the years.

Imagine my surprise to see something new.

I noticed a straight line where I had not seen one before. Nature is not a big fan of straight lines, so it stood out in my mind.

Can you spot it?

How about now?

I grabbed my tools and started digging. What I found as a matrix of roots holding a combination of dirt and duff (Yes, that is a proper word in this case. It means 'decaying organic matter of a forest floor."). Some of the roots were upwards of a quarter inch thick and had to be cut. They were too thick and firmly in the ground to just pull up!

The whole thing eventually rolled back like a section of shag carpet revealing a slab marker no one - and I do mean no one - has ever recorded. It does not even appear in the volume of cemeteries published by the county historical society.

This is clearly a child's grave. It measures about 4 feet long and about 2 feet wide. H G Lane's marker is about 5 or 6 feet to the left as you stand looking at this marker in the photo.

"Ok, gang! We've got a mystery to solve!" - Fred Jones

Seriously? You don't know Fred Jones? Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby-Doo? Come-on, man!

Name, location, and size are good clues that this is a child of H G and Judie. So I dusted off my prior research to (unsuccessfully) link the Lanes to the my tree.

H G was Harrison Greene Lane (1825 - abt 1861). He married Judith Leak "Judie" Maddox in 1844. They went on to have several children :

Francis Jane (1845 - ? - still researching)

Joseph Laban (1848 - 1938)

Harrison (1850 - ?)

John Dixon (1850 - 1898)

James Charles (1851 - 1942)

William Bell (1853 - 1924)

Eliza A (1857 - 1954)

Harrison and John Dixon present a puzzle. Harrison appears on the 1850 census age 6/12. That page was dated September of 1850 making his birth March 1850. John D first appears on the 1860 census age 10. Harrison does not appear on the 1860 census at all.

What the . . . ?

Additional research fo John D gives a birth of 12 Mar 1850. Nowhere is there anything indicating John D and Harrison were twins. For the moment I am treating them as separate people. And based on that have a Find A Grave memorial for Harrison . But, I am seriously reconsidering this and facing the aparent likelihood that Harrison was renamed John D at some point in the 1850s. That fits the data better. More on this later.

Harrison Green died intestate in 1861. Judie does not appear in the 1870 census.

Joseph, John, Fanny (Francis), and Mittie (Eliza ) appear together on the 1870 census with 22 year-old Joseph as the head of house. Clearly their parents are dead by this point. 

But nothing about Alace.

I keep building out the Lane Family tree and find a copy of a handwritten family tree (list, really) for Joseph Laban Lane. It appears to be writen by one of his children as it refers to him as "Papa" several times.

It is a good thing I have atrocious handwriting. Being able to read what people like me write makes reading what people like this write.

Two things leapt out from this handwritten version in comparison to what I had found from all the other sources. 

First, no one named Harrison is on the handwritten history, though John Dixon is. 

Second, Alice (who died in infancy) is listed as being born between William Bell and Eliza. These two I have birth dates for!

Let's look at the first item. I know that Harrison was born in March of 1850 because he was 6 months old in late September of that year. And, John Dixon's birth date is given as 12 mar 1850. Let's think about this. There is noting on either the 1850 or 1860 censuses, nor in anything else indicating that Harrison and John Dixon are twins. Indeed, the data would tend to indicate that they are not. The only other logical conclusion then is that at some point between the two censuses Harrison was renamed to John Dixon. It is not like that was an unusual occurrence back in the day. And, it is not as if there was anything preventing parents (or even the person) just changing a name. It did not have to be filed with a court or the government.

So, I am now leaning to the conclusion that Harrison and John Dixon are one and the same, and that the Find A Grave memorial I created for Harrison should be deleted. Sadly, of all the children of Harrison Green and Judie, John Dixon is the only one whose grave I cannot find. He married in 1881 and fathered several children before passing away in Greene County, Ga about 1898. His widow appears in that county in 1900 with the children and listed as a widow.

I was fascinated to learn that another of the siblings, Joseph Laban Lane, served in the Confederacy (apparently notably), and received a formal invitation by the U.S. Government to attend the famed 75th Anniversary reunion at Gettysburg. I don't see any evidence that he was at the battle, so I suspect this was an invitation issues to every living veteran of the war.

Now we come to Alice. 

Elder sibling, William Bell was born 9 Jul 1853. That means that the absolute earliest Alice could have been born would have been around Mar 1854.

Younger sibling, Eliza, was born 24 Jul 1857. Using the same generous math, that means the latest Alice could have been born was Oct or Nov 1856.

Let's be honest, those dates mean pushing biology to the limit. It is far more likely that her birth was some months later than Mar 1854 and some months earlier than Oct 1856.

Taking into consideration the birth dates of all the siblings, there is a pattern of a 1-2 year gap between each birth. The one exception being the 5 year gap between the first two children, Frances J and John Dixon. 

All this makes a compelling case that Alice was born in 1855 and died in either 1855 or 1856. Though it is possible that she was born late in 1854. Still, the pattern screams out to me. I prefer the symmetry of an 1855 birth. 

And, frankly, the gap between Frances J and John Dixon makes me wonder if there was not another child born and lost between these two that was simply never spoken of. If that was the case, it would make the birth pattern all but perfect! Is it morbid of me to say that I actually want this to be true?

I don't care. I want it to be true!

At this point, I am in full-bore research euphoria. I cannot stop. So I press back on Harrison Green and Judie's lines. That revealed a bit of irony.

Harrison Green's paternal grandfather served in the American Revolution.

Judie's ancestor? He was a Tory (British Loyalist)! And he is noted in the above referenced family history as owning the land on which the Battle of Kettle Creek took place (A small victory for the American Rebels, and one of only a handful of actions in Georgia during the war).

Care for another little coincidence? Guess who had a 5th Great-Uncle who was a Captain in the American forces at the Battle of Kettle Creek?

If you guessed Old Br'er then you guessed right!

How odd the long chain of totally unrelated events that led to an infant girl being buried and forgotten in a remote family cemetery with some of Br'er's ancestors and family only to have Br'er rediscover her grave almost 170 years later?

Missed it by THAT much!

Would you believe that I dare you to read that title again without hearing Don Adams' voice in your head. Don "Agent 86 of CONTROL" Adams.

Anyone who has spent much time wandering through active cemeteries has almost certainly come across at least one headstone where the first two numbers of the death century were pre-carved as "19". Many people born in the early years of the 20th century were so confident that they would die before the year 2000 that they left only the decade and year numbers to be added to their headstone only to find themselves still around in the year 2000 and later! This necessitated crossing out the "19" and replacing it with "20".

Such cases never fail to make me chuckle. Among other things, I hear the negotiations with the stone carver. ""I'm sorry, Mrs. Seward, but we will have to charge extra to fix the date. Yes, I understand that it is not wrong. But, we did not make a mistake. We carved the stone precisely to your orders, as you can see here on the original paperwork. And it has been over 25 years since we carved and set it. You cannot possibly expect us to call this 'fixing a mistake.'"

Doris, on the other hand, clearly had other plans. I mean, you cannot fault her for expecting to live past 83 years (82 to be pedantic since her 83rd birthday would not come until much later in the year 2000). She simply did not make it, passing away 23  Sep 1999 a mere 100 days from being able to use the '20' year prefix. 

Missed it by that much!

I was curious enough that I was compelled to see what else I could dig up on her (if you will pardon the pun). Frankly, I was not expecting to find as much detail as I did!

Would you believe that right off the bat, I found photos! (Sorry. Not sorry for another Agent 86 crack!)

Doris in High School, 1934

Doris as a university student, 1937

Doris, again at University, but now as faculty, ca 1957.

Imagine my surprise when I also found an obituary. And not a basic, one-inch column version either.

I think it safe to say Doris was a most accomplished woman. More remarkedly so considering the expectations society held for women of the time. 

A detail from the obituary that raises more questions comes from the 3rd from the last paragraph. "Interment will be at the Columbarium." This seems to imply that the marker is, in fact, a cenotaph. 

Unfortunately, I can only speculate on this point. You see, the marker and columbarium are in Indiana, and I have not been there in person. 

I suppose an explanation is in order. I saw Doris's marker on the internet. The humor of the year change has not been missed by others. Someone had shared the photo, and it went viral. I will not be shocked in the least if anyone reading this drivel has not seen the image before. 

So,  clearly, I have to confess that this excursion was entirely virtual. However, that doesn't make it any less interesting. At least to me. 

A Century Late and a Fortune Short - Updated!

There is an old expression about being "a day late and a dollar short." In essence, this means arriving after a deal is done and with insufficient resources.

Well, based on the little data available, Ol' Br'er is showing up about a century too late to even have a chance of finding any answers.

As has been told all too often, one thing Br'er likes to do is check back in on cemeteries and graves to either confirm or add GPS coordinates for them and to perhaps update the description of and/or directions to the site. 

Being one of 'those people' who utterly loathe waste and inefficiency, Br'er does a good bit of research before setting out. He first finds all the cemeteries in a given area and then examines each to determine if they are good candidates for a visit. Some of the things he considers are:

• Are there any photo requests that have not been flagged as having a problem?
• How many memorials are registered (Is this a candidate for a full audit of all memorials in the cemetery?)
• Does it appear that there are unphotographed markers?
• Do the GPS Coordinates (if recorded) look correct using Google Maps Satellite View? Or do they appear incorrect?
• If there are no coordinates given, are there good directions? 
  
• Is the cemetery visible in Google Maps Street View?
• Are there any relatives in the cemetery? 
• How accessible is the cemetery? (i.e., Can you drive to it? Is it a hike to access it? Do you need permission to be on the property?
• How old is the cemetery?

Taking everything into account, he makes a plan for the most efficient route to visit the sites in order of priority.

Two tiny cemeteries piqued his interest. One was a single grave (to be discussed later). The other?

Schroeder Cemetery

One marked grave flanked by four unknowns. All soldiers. The oddest part is the location. These are just a few feet from the rear wall of a church. Indeed, there is only just enough space to accommodate a grave between headstone and wall! Obviously, these graves pre-date the structure. At least this part of it.

A name, a unit, and CSA. Not much information. Who was John? When was he born? When did he die? Did he leave a family? The only other fact that could be gleaned from the headstone is that it was placed no sooner than the late 1920s. 

How can this be determined? Two things: First, it has the Southern Cross of Honor. That was not created until 1895. Second, the stone is obviously issued by the Veterans Administration. These were not provided for Confederate Veterans until the late 1920s.

Finding out more and updating his memorial would be a good thing. And probably a challenge.

Game on, Skippy!

You would think someone like Ol' Br'er would know better than to accept such fool dares. 

Hours upon hours later, almost no results. 

Four images related to the military records.

Well, that confirms the unit details. And that the headstone was ordered in 1929.

This places him on the unit roster and in New Orleans in 1861. If only his address were legible!

  

Not certain what can be gleaned from this page, but it was in the soldier's file.

More confirmation, this is the man! 

But that is the end of the factual data. From here, it becomes speculation.

Census records list 7 men named John Schroeder living in Louisiana in 1860, born between 1820 and 1837 inclusive. 6 have a birthplace of Germany (or a German city). Of these 6, 2 are married with children. These 2 married men are not as likely to be this John Schroeder, given the lack of evidence that he left a family. 1 (the only one born in 1837) gives his birthplace as New Orleans.

I believe this last man is this John Schroeder. In 1850 he was 23 years old and living in the household of P and Sophie Schroeder, who appear to be his parents. And as a young man of 24 years, he is the most likely to join the Confederate Army.

Sadly, there, the trail ends. It would have been nice to connect him back to his family.

Update!

I threw the challenge of tracking down additional details about John to the Brain Trust (i.e., other genealogy researchers on the net), and they came through.

I was able, with some excellent suggestions, to find additional records that shed more light on John. 

First among these was to look for a City Directory for New Orleans. In the days before Telephone Directories, City Directories were the resource to locate someone in a city or town. Name, address, occupation (and in the days of segregation, race), and other data were published for everyone in town. This suggestion led me to an 1861 City Directory for New Orleans. There were several Schroeders listed, at least two of these with the name John. Intriguingly, one of the John Schroeders is listed as a Tin Smith.

Oooh! The Unit Roll remarks sure look like it reads "Tin Smith!"

Second, additional eyes on looking the street name came up with a couple of suggestions. These allowed me to determine the street to be Casa Calvo. Unfortunately, none of the Schroeders lived on this street or anything like it.

Damn!

Then I stumbled across a notation in the City Directory that Casa Calvo (or at least a portion of it) had been renamed Royal St. And, there is a John Schroeder is living at 632 Royal St. Damned if the unit roll address number does not look to be 632.

With this data in hand, I returned to the census records. Infuriatingly, there are no addresses on the census. But it does have Ward listed.

Back to the research! I find a couple of New Orleans maps from 1860/1861, one using color coding to identify the dozen or so Wards. I cross-check all the references, and 632 Royal St is in Ward 5. 

So now it is back to the 1860 Census. Putting all these new pieces together, I find one - ONE - John Schroeder living in New Orleans in Ward 5, born in Germany in 1825. Ok, his occupation is listed as "Segar Dealer," but people can and do change jobs. Still, this seems to be the only census where I can find him enumerated.

More digging reveals an immigration record for Johann Schroeder, born in Bremen, Germany, in 1825, arriving in New Orleans in 1854. Many immigrants swapped Johann for John, so that fits. The years fit. Everything fits.

I do believe that this is our man. 

Johann Schroeder: Born 1825 in Bremen, Germany. Immigrates to the United States in 1854 (aboard the ship Jhoanna no less), arriving in New Orleans. Works at a minimum of two professions, "Segar Dealer" (Cigar) and "Tin Smith." before joining Company F, Orleans Fire Regiment, Louisiana Militia, Confederate States of America in 1861. By 1864 he finds himself in Winterville, Clarke County, Georgia (a few miles east of Athens). Sadly, he dies here and is buried alongside four soldiers whose names are lost to time.

We can only speculate on his reasons to leave his home and move to America. Was he speaking adventure? Fleeing the law? Did he hope to strike it rich? Had he gotten a girl pregnant and was skipping out on his responsibility (or an irate father)? Was he an orphan? Did he leave family behind? There is no way to know now. Whatever his plans, hopes, or dreams may have been, he took them with him to the grave when he left this mortal world sometime before his 40th birthday.