Well that explains a lot

I had submitted the requisite on-line request for official membership in the Association of Graveyard Rabbits and received what I found to be a very, shall we say, oddly worded and non-committal response. And the speed with which I received that response was such that I was virtually certain it was automated. Several days pass with no other word.

This I found suspect, so I started digging and researching more.

I already knew that the founder of the organization passed away in 2010. But, I figured, the other person listed as something like an admin had picked things up.

Not so fast there, skippy.

Looking at the associated bio I note three blogs the person maintains. Two of the three no longer exist. And the third hasn't been updated in literally years.

Association FB page? Nothing since 2010.

Other members' blogs? I checked about twenty and found three updated this year (only not since January). Every other blog? Nothing in years.

Hmmm....

So I tried the 'contact us' link on the association's web page to send a message asking if anyone was maintaining the page and association, or has it gone defunct.

Ping! Automated reply immediately appears in the in-box:

"Thank you for contacting The Association Of Graveyard Rabbits.

You will be receiving a response shortly.

Terry Thornton"

Terry is the founder who passed away in 2010.

I think I am safe in saying that the Association of Graveyard Rabbits is no longer a "thing" outside the hearts and memories of a few people. At least it is not anything official in any sense of the word. I suppose someone with the time and desire could try to wrest control of the site from Google (it is hosted on Google's Blogspot). But that person ain't me. It is almost certainly under a person (Terry Thornton?) and even if Google were willing to play ball then there would be family and other people to track down and deal with. No thanks. 

This blog will trundle on as is for as long as I care to futz with it. And I shall leave the GYR name and logo in situ just for grins and giggles. In retrospect, an association dealing with graveyards and cemeteries being dead kind of tickles my dark sense of humor.

Once more into the briar patch!

Up Front Caveat: Despite the member artwork on the blog. formal acceptance to the Association of Graveyard Rabbits is only pending.

I have scampered about various cemeteries, graveyards, mausoleums, and other myriad resting places for decades. Only recently has the notion of chronicling any of those misadventures become a 'thing'. At least for me.

At the urging of one Madam Br'er Graveyard Rabbit this blog is the launching point to share some of our tales as we "go cemetery stomping" in the North Georgia environs (with the occasional excursion into locations further afield).

Being something of a wag, I felt I needed a voice - a particular persona - from which to author posts. Something distinct from my day to day persona, but still clearly myself at the same time. Any reference to 'Rabbit' in these parts will almost always come around to the writings of Joel Chandler Harris (Whose home was a few miles away from this Br'er Graveyard Rabbit's own home warren. And whose grave turns out to be close to some of Br'er's distant relatives. I shall have to relate that tale in a future post).

Many of these expeditions are in search of distant relatives revealed while documenting the family tree. And those have been eye opening! One example was learning that a church cemetery I have literally passed hundreds of times over the years. I knew I had a couple of relations interred there (a couple of my father's uncles), but little more. Tracing down from one of my 5th GGFs I learned that I am directly related to about 10% of the 1,000 recorded burials in that one cemetery!

As we say in the South, "I have a number of people there."

Beyond family research (oh, at the tales coming on THAT subject), I will share the random roaming TW (The Wife) and I do in and about the countryside. Nothing can change our plans faster than spying an old cemetery with interesting markers. "We will just stop for a minute." invariably ends up seeing at least an hour spent reading markers and searching for more information about someone (provided I can get a good cell signal).

Look for posts covering discoveries of various cemeteries I never knew existed. Some are close to the home warren that I only learned of after living DECADES in the area. Others were revealed looking in the the family history. Others are simply the result of a random factors aligning and resulting in a new find.

One suggestion to any readers: Never start reading anything I post without first getting a lovely beverage and a comfy spot to sit. Once I start telling a tale it can end up being closer to a saga than a postcard!

You have been warned!