And with the name McIntyre, we can forgo any thoughts about Roman heritage (though the Legions did get to the border of Scotland...). If you have forgotten your Roman trivia, it was common practice to place tombs by the side of the road.
Ok. I will explain what the hell I am talking about.
Someone recently posted photos of an old family cemetery not too far from Ol' Brer's warren. His knee-jerk response to these photos is to check them against Find A Grave. Seriously. Ol' Br'er's reaction is damned near Pavlovian. He has to know where the cemetery is, how many graves, etc.
Well, damn! Most of the graves are not recorded! Why the person who took the photos did not add them is a mystery for the ages. But added they must be. Since it is bad form to use someone else's photos for anything, Ol' Br'er will have to fire up the jalopy and make the trip to take his own photos. Based on the published photos, it is clear that there are a number of graves with some kind of marker (there is a stone that is obviously cut - it has flat sides and right angles - but the photos do not show any detail (if there is any).
First, Br'er's research brain developed another itch that had to be scratched. Off to Ancestry to try and identify the unnamed graves and anyone related to those in marked graves. Could they be children? Other spouses? Parents? Siblings? Many hours later, Br'er had managed to confidently state who three of the graves belong to and reasonably state who another two probably are. Identifying five unmarked graves dating from the 1800s in the rural south ain't exactly bad.
Fortunately, aside from the Spring Pollen Storm, the weather is PERFECT for an outing, so it was time to head out, see the place with his own eyes, and take his own photos.
On the way there, Ol' Br'er passed a church cemetery that piqued his interest, but more on that later.
Arriving on site, Br'er found the cemetery to sit about 40 feet from the road and consisted of 14 obvious graves, 6 with marked headstones and 8 with blank cut stone markers. Only 3 of the marked graves were recorded in Find A Grave. Again, the question that will never be answered is "Why?"
A couple of the monuments are the tall modified obelisk style so popular a century or so ago. One had to have toppled at some point and proved too much for someone to repair. One section - the one with the name and dates - remains on the ground while the original top sections were replaced on the plinth. If Ol' Br'er had the tools and training (and some extra manual labor!), he would properly reassemble the whole thing.
You can see just how close the graves are to the road.
Returning with D/2 and spending a day cleaning everything may prove to be a Moral Imperative. Getting photos of the stones without a century-plus of accumulated dirt and lichen would be nice. And, with the limited number of markers involved (even with some being rather large), it would not take a massive amount of D/2 to do the job. The larger issue is always water. Cleaning requires a LOT of water, and there is never a convenient source nearby, so everything has to be carted in in jugs.
Thirty minutes each way to spend 10 minutes on location. (Sigh)
Before heading back to the barn, stopping in on that church cemetery was another moral imperative. Rather than spending hours on location checking each grave against Find A Grave, Ol' Br'er reverted to simply photographing everything and then doing the audit when he is back in The Warren (seated comfortably and with a lovely adult beverage). Even then, it took about an hour just to take all the photos.
As expected, there were clearly a score or more unmarked graves. Perhaps the church has complete records, perhaps not. Were Ol' Br'er a wagering bunny, he would bet on their not having them. And he would give odds on that bet!
133 memorials in Find A Grave when he started. 134 when he finished. Surprisingly, he found one unrecorded grave. And it dates from the 1800s!!
Whether one considers it a productive day or not, it got Ol' Br'er out of The Warren and exposed to fresh (if pollen laden) air and sunshine, and made him get a little exercise. So that was a positive.
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