Sisters

Elizabeth and Sarah STEWART Edgcomb, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Sisters

Elizabeth STEWART and her widowed sister Sarah L. STEWART, wife of Nathan EDGCOMB are buried together in the Stewart Hill Cemetery. I have both obits and I am transcribing them. In front of this monument are their headstones side-by-side with just faint initials on the top. Their obits give a lot of information about them.

This photo is the one I took in 2004 because I had no idea who they were at the time and I needed the dates.

When Brian Zoldak visited this cemetery this year, he took a photo of this stone. I wanted you to see how the stone has changed even though his shot is of better resolution than mine.

Sarah's husband Nathan is listed in the cemetery transcription for the Edgcomb cemetery in North Stonington with his parents. Brian can't find it on any map so I think I may ask Gladys Chase to tell me if it is in the woods. As this is the STEWART family cemetery, I think she decided to bury him with his parents. This is a New England custom and is more common that I thought. That's very inconvenient (!) for us gravestone photographers, isn't it?

Welcome!

GTS_Day 2, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

This is my newest descendant. He was born yesterday. 

Well, I was looking for new material to write about. This is as new as it gets.

Sentimental Sunday: Favorite Chairs

 

My husband and I were talking about chairs and I remembered this photo of my grandfather enjoying the porch at their beach house. When I looked at it again, I was surprised to notice that the chairs we bought this year have a pull out footrest just like this one.

When I first saw this type of chair at Target, do you think I unconsciously remembered this photo? How much am I carrying around in my visual memory?

Just think, my grandfather, gone since 1955, would be a second great grandfather today just like his grandfather was to me when I first saw that man's photo! That's when I became a genealogist.

Built From Stone

Built From Stone, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Resting on my granite countertop is the newest book in my collection. This book is about the granite industry in the Westerly, RI area. I am enjoying reading it this summer. It is full of information about gravestones. I didn't know there was so much to know about granite.

It is sold by the Babcock-Smith Museum. I found it from this Web page which has some samples from the newspaper articles that inspired the book.

Edward Stewart

Edward STEWART

Stewart Hill Cemetery (#39) located on Wyssaup Road in North Stonington, Connecticut. 

Last evening, Gladys Chase responded to my email telling me that the North Stonington, Cemetery Committee had undertaken a restoration project for this cemetery. I am so glad to see Edward's stone (and others) upright and repaired. This photo was taken by Brian Zoldak on 11 May 2012. It is used here with his permission.


You can see the ground where the stone lay prostrate and broken for a very long time. The only way I could be sure that it was his gravestone was by its placement next to his wife and because there was an intact footstone.


In/ Memory of/ EDWARD STEWART/who died/ April 29, 1837./ in his 63rd year/of his age

Edward (Nathan, William, William) was a "farmer by occupation and all who knew him loved him".  You can't imagine how I felt reading that in Wheeler's History of Stonington in 2004 when I purchased this used book from Alibris for $124.95. [p. 606 and 607 Stewart family: Edward Stewart #36]


Knowing even just that much about my 3rd great-grandfather, kept me pushing onward to learn as much as I could. Visiting the cemetery twice in 2003 and working with Gladys of the Historical Society where she found many excellent documents and family group sheets really made me the genealogist I am today.

Edward, son of Nathan and Barbary STEWARD was born 8 Dec 1775, married Rebecca Noyes on 15 February 1801 and died on 29 Apr 1837. He was the father of eight children. His last child, Dudley was my ancestor.

Location of the grave of Edward Stewart

Inside the Wall, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Where is Stewart Hill? 

Brian Zoldac has shared all his photos of the gravestones at the Stewart Hill Cemetery that he took on 11 May 2012. I am so excited! See the orange arrow? That's Edward's gravestone!

Long ago, this road was called Stewart Hill because generations of my ancestors lived on it. After the last Stewart sold the homestead, the road was renamed.

With every cemetery that you research with your ancestors buried in it, you should find out how it was identified in the past. This read is now called Wyssaup Road after the large nearby lake of that name. My little family cemetery finally made the map!

I am still trying to decide who the people are standing in front of the Stewart homestead. Gladys Chase sent me some obituaries from the North Stonington Historical Society, so I am working on them to try to figure this out.

Brian shared his photo with the GPS he carries with him. 41degrees 28.721N, 071 degrees 52.844 W.

Stewart Hill Cemetery

Looking Toward Cemetery, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Stewart Family Cemetery #39, North Stonington, CT 

 

This excellent photo of the Stewart Hill Cemetery taken by Brian Zoldak, shows the cemetery from the road. This photo is used with his permission

This cemetery holds the graves of Edward Stewart and Rebecca Noyes, my third great grandparents. Rebecca's stone is standing upright but Edward was broken and is face down the last time I visited.

This is the first cemetery that I visited that I had never been to before. I didn't have any idea how to find it because I didn't know it existed!

Gladys Chase of the North Stonington Historical Society told us how to find it and when we returned she directed us to the Great Plain Cemetery where Edward's parents are buried. I so wish everything was this easy!

The Stewart Homestead had now been torn down and the land has been bought. Brian tells me that all the brush around the cemetery is cleared and it is easy to find now.

He sent me this shot and another and told me that some of the stones have been repaired. Dare I dream that one is Edward's stone?

I am anxious to collaborate with Brian to see if his photo help me finish piecing this family together.

I know his photos will be better than mine as I had my first Sony digital camera then and it took photos on floppy disk.
Transcription of this cemetery:

#39 Stewart Hill Cemetery
Directions: North of Town Hall 2 ¾ miles
Edgcomb, Sarah L. Stewart, wife of Nathan S. Edgcomb, born May 29, 1844,
 died Apr. 10, 1918
Stewart, Charles E., son of George W. & Phebe E., died Nov. 28, 1867,
age 21 yrs. 7 mos.
Stewart, Cyrus S., son of Edward & Rebecca, died Jan. 23, 1819, age 3
Stewart, Denison N., died Jan. 20, 1867, age 59
Stewart, Edward, died Apr. 29, 1837, age 62
Stewart, Edward F., son of Edward & Rebecca, died Oct. 27, 1843, age 24
Stewart, Elizabeth, born Jan. 9, 1842, died Apr. 30, 1904
Stewart, Ella W., daughter of Denison N. & Abby J., died Dec. 11, 1861, age 9
Stewart, George P., died May 21, 1851, age 65
Stewart, George P., born June 13, 1849, died July 19, 1905
Stewart, George W., born Mar. 31, 1816, died July 26, 1896
Stewart, Harriet H., daughter of George P. & Polly, died Apr. 20, 1823,
 age 6 yrs. 4 mos. 11 days
Stewart, Isabel, daughter of George W. & Phebe E., died Feb. 11, 1860,
 age 4 yrs. 8 mos. 22 days
Stewart, Nancy, daughter of Edward & Rebecca, died Nov. 2, 1843, age 30
Stewart, Phebe E. Palmer, wife of George W. Stewart, born Sept. 13, 1818,
 died Aug. 7, 1889
Stewart, Polly Hewitt, widow of George P. Stewart, died Mar. 15, 1870,
 age 79 yrs. 7 mos. 19 days
Stewart, Rebecca, wife of Edward Stewart, died Sept. 30, 1842, age 61
Stewart, William, a soldier in the Revolution, died Jan. 23, 1843, age 91
Swan, Betsey R, wife of Frederick, died Feb. 26, 1849, age 44
Swan, Frederick, born June 23, 1832, died Mar. 8, 1856
Tomlinson, Emma, daughter of Henry & Julia, died Dec. 19, 1864,
age 5 yrs. 1 mo. 5 days 

My Cemetery Class

As many of your know, I teach an online course for cemetery beginners for Family Tree University. Today, as part of his assignment, the student made a blog about his adventure in the cemetery. This is a first!

Walter's Excellent Colorado Adventure

The Legal Genealogist Speaks

What an excellent post by The Legal Genealogist. It is a must read.

Buried in Vernon, British Columbia

Broadfoot Gravestone Inscriptions, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

 The Mystery of James H. Broadfoot's Burial
Tombstone Tuesday

 
Despite what it says here on this closeup of the gravestone of his parents, John and Jane Broadfoot in Dalbeattie, Scotland, young James H. Broadfoot, (my grandfather's brother) is actually buried in an unmarked grave in Pleasant Valley Cemetery (also known as Vernon Cemetery) in Vernon, British Columbia.

Relentlessly, a Broadfoot cousin searched until she found the right cemetery and then she traveled there to see the exact spot where he is resting. No marker marks his burial. When his parent's found out he had died so far away, they must have decided to bury him there and add him to their own gravestone. Not everyone listed on a stone may be actually buried there. We don't know what James was doing there when he died.

She took this photo of the cemetery caretaker and his plot map, showing her the location.

That's a dedicated family member! She solved the mystery of where James is buried!

Broadfoot Men in Granite

Broadfoot Men in Granite, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Granite-in-My-Blood: An Understatement

What would be more appropriate for me but to own a book about the Granite Workers that lived in Westerly, Rhode Island?

I didn't know that this year, 2012, would be all about finding out as much as I can about the men in my family that came from Scotland to work in the quarries in Rhode Island. It started out in January with my Broadfoot cousins in California, joining Facebook and communicating with me. 

We gained more information about each other. What surprised me was what very little I really know about the people buried at River Bend Cemetery in the Broadfoot plot. I spent months on them after taking photos of the headstones. I did determine that there must be very few of us left that are not of the California Broadfoot folks. 

Sadly, one of my researchers in Georgia has passed away. He and his wife (my cousin) took photos of my great grandparents who retired there and are buried in Lithonia City Cemetery.

One day, I discovered a book about the Granite industry in "South County". It is a hardcover book and with shipping was quite expensive. I decided early in June that I would buy it so I ordered it from the Babcock Smith Museum in Westerly. It arrived in my mailbox last Friday. This clip above, it a shot of the men who lived in Westerly that worked in the quarries. The bottom name is my grandfather.


So, in addition to reporting on cemeteries this summer, I am going to blog about the amazing information in this book. Yes, it is all about granite.

Cuff STANTON

Cuff STANTON
Originally uploaded by midgefrazel

 The Davis Cemetery

Blog Post #2

This is one of the Stanton graves in the Davis Cemetery

 Cuff, son of Venture SMITH and his wife Margaret was born in 1758 into slavery probably in the household of Thomas STANTON 2d, and his wife Thankful DENISON.

Cuff's father Venture, purchased his son's freedom for $200. Cuff was a soldier in the East Haddam CT unit in the Revolutionary War. Cuff lived to be 92 years old and is buried (note the American flag) in the Davis Cemetery, also known as The Farmhouse Cemetery on Greenhaven Road, in Pawcatuck, CT.


Previously, I blogged this statement: 


"Cuff is recorded in the Bradford and Dickens Yard and not in The Davis Yard where he is resting. Grace Denison Wheeler's "Old Homes of Stonington Book" states this inscription."

But, this is not correct, The Bradford and Dickens Yard and the Davis cemetery are the same place. It is not known why Grace Denison Wheeler recorded them as separate places.

"COLORED"-- Cuff Stanton, died March 19, 1846, ages 92 years. We believe he was a Christian"


Cuff's father, Venture was widely know and much is written about hi.

The DAVIS Cemetery

The Farmhouse Cemetery, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

The Davis Yard (#6)

Blog Post #1

Located in a section of Stonington, New London, CT, the Davis Cemetery, also known as the Farmhouse cemetery, once was a family burying ground. In the Stonington Graveyards book, it has been given the number 6.

Go south on Greenhaven Road, just east of Wequetequock Cove and drive 2 8/10 miles SE  you will see this stone walled cemetery with the white fence. These are clips of the map at Google Maps. I am pleasantly surprised to find it shown on the map since cemeteries don't have street addresses. Notice that if you drive by it, you come to the Stanton-Davis Homestead, nestled in a working farm.

  The Homestead is the oldest house in Stonington, CT and is on the National Registry. It is currently under renovation. If you love old houses, then you will want to click on the link for the Homestead Museum and check it out.

In 2008, the Thomas Stanton Society held a reunion under a tent on the grounds of the house. It was my first family reunion for this Society. I am a life member. Someone said to me that day, "Did you take photos in the cemetery you drove by?" I hadn't even seen it! So, you can see that you could drive by this cemetery and not see it.

 

Mount Auburn Cemetery

Mount Auburn Cemetery

For my summer project, I am going to report on cemeteries where my family is buried. This includes my own line and of course, hubs family. But, my son-in-law's family counts too.

 I enjoy a good cemetery even if I don't have anyone buried there so I may deviate from this "mine" rule as I go along.


Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, MA is ALWAYS mentioned in every book as one of the most amazing places to visit so you can see why I got excited when my son-in-law's family told me (rather offhand) that there is a family plot there. Wow.


I probably won't get there this summer but I have started investigating it. The Web page is chock full of gorgeous photos and great information. I thought you might like to see it.


Mount Auburn Cemetery

Summer in the Cemetery

Hydrangeas in Bloom, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Summer in the Cemetery

This lovely hydrangea in full bloom in the garden cemetery in Mystic, CT is a reminder to all of us who love the graveyard that summer and early fall are our best time to get out there and take photos.

My summer will be a bit different this year as I don't have a vacation trip planned. I am going to the Stanton reunion in July and the Rice reunion in September but that is all.

I have been thinking that I don't know as much about the cemeteries that I have been frequenting for the last several years so maybe it is time to work on where they are, what is their history, and who do I have buried there.

Find a Grave has really taken off in the last few years. Some people are posting photos and not being careful what cemetery they are adding them to. I found one with there different names!

I worked hard in the beginning to locate cemeteries.  Someone who shares my ancestral line posted one or two of my photos to Find a Grave and put his name on it. Should I complain or just say, "Well, thanks for doing my work for me?"

So, this summer, I want to make sure I have the right information. I'll be posting it here but not every day. I need a vacation, too.

Scraps with Record

Scraps with Record, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Where did the Craig family come from in Scotland?

Tracking a person with Scotland's People's web site with little of no information is hard. Even when asked years ago, my mother-in-law didn't know exactly where her father was born.

I have tried without luck to find his birth record. He had a twin sister and a younger sister. I was hoping to find one of them so I could find the others.

Tucked in a strongbox, along with my mother-in-law's teaching certificate and other mementos was an envelope with scraps of a record. The reason I could not make sense of it was that it was two birth records with incomplete pieces. Twins!

You will be pleased to hear that I did find the birth records at Scotland's People. When I searched for his great aunt that was the twin, I found that the numbers for the GROS were the same! This meant that the twins were recorded on the same page. If they hadn't been recorded on the same page, I would have paid extra for the next page. (The pay by credit system used by Brightsolid works this way and I don't like it.)

  I think that is my biggest rant with the "pay as you search" is that you can't look at the next page with census records as I have been taught.

No Cemetery Photography?

 I have been hearing a lot from my gravestone photography friends that there are cemeteries that are prohibiting cameras.

Swan Point Cemetery in Providence, Rhode Island has a no photography policy. I thought you'd like to see the page of the cemetery rules.

What do you think of this? Do they have the right to "protect the lot owners"?

Pigs May Whistle

Blogiversary 6 Years, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Blogiversary 6 Years

"Pigs may whistle, but thay hae an ill mouth for't"
(Said when somebody is trying to perform a task for which they are incompetent.) Scottish Proverbs by Colin Walker (p. 78)

On June 6, 2006, I decided the best way to share the gravestones I was photographing was to start a blog. I already had another Blog called Beyond the Horizon. But, even not being new to blogging, I didn't envision that six years later, I would still be doing it or that I was capable of writing 1, 466 posts. Was I a competent enough writer to make this topic interesting and informative? 

I think the hardest tasks this year involve trying to find out more about my Scots. It started in January when my BROADFOOT family had a relative who lived in Scotland who could take gravestone photos for us. 

Then, I suddenly found my living AIKEN family working on obits and photos. After a long time, I found my Aiken grandmother's birth record. Hubs has Scots too and I have made progress on his based on what I learned about mine. It's been a good year.

This weekend, I decided to try to use Google Maps to find the locations of houses in Aberdeen. Here's the first one I found at 27 Gladstone Place in Woodside, Aberdeen. David AIKEN and his children returned here from Rhode Island. His daughter, my grandmother, took a job as a housemaid in a huge manor house while they lived here.

All of the houses look like his, all are GRANITE, up and down the street! Well, no wonder all of my family were granite dressers! The one with the yellow door is where my ancestors lived.

Feeling confident, I went looking for 50 Hadden St. only to be disappointed that the house no longer stood. But, as I whirled around, I discovered that the shop where the house would have been near has a reference to GRANITE! They sell skateboards and surfboards. (Surf, skate and snow!) It is a nice little plaza. I'd like to sit down on one of the chairs and just look around.

It is said that there are no coincidences in genealogy but I definitely think that this is a sign that I should keep working on this!

Thank you for reading Granite in MY Blood.

AITKEN or AIKEN?

AITKEN , a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Tombstone Tuesday: AITKEN monument
River Bend Cemetery in Westerly, RI

 My father's maternal line didn't spell their name with the T as in AITKEN. However, the man on this gravestone named James D. AITKEN worked with my father and my maternal grandfather at the Victor Cleansing Co. in Providence, RI.

Just to see if I could find ANY connection to my family, I researched the father (1855-1920) of James D. Aitken who is listed on this gravestone. The 1900 census states that he came from Scotland and was a paving cutter. I still feel there might be a connection. 

Mr.  James D. Aitken grew up in Westerly and moved to Providence about 1928 after working as a laundryman in Westerly in 1915 (City Directories). He is shown here with my father. I think my father is wearing the brown uniform worn by the men who delivered the laundry and dry cleaning in trucks. This puts this photo after WWII probably in the area near the cleaning plant.

The history of my family business has this to say about Mr. James D. Aitken:

The last names on the gravestone probably were family friends or coworkers as Mr. Aitken (Sr.) had two daughters and Mr. Aitken (Jr.) had no children.


It is still a mystery to be solved.

 
 

Aiken Surname

Aiken Surname, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Highland Scots 

 

I've been working hard all weekend on my paternal grandmother's side of my Scottish family. This is how the name is spelled here in America. My dad told me that people with AITKEN were not my kin. However, I have found census records where the enumerator did put in the T.

This crop of the stone in Georgia was taken by the late Virgil Veal especially for me. Now, I find out that other descendants have their own photos of the headstones and the monuments. I thought they were buried in Rhode Island. I wouldn't have guessed Georgia.

I put these photos in my tree at Ancestry.com as "cousin bait". We have a team of four women plus some helpers working on getting the right people in this family. I am "project manager", I guess.

They came to America from a small section of Aberdeen, Scotland called Woodside in Old Machar. I think they were not a poor as my lowland Scots on my Broadfoot side but I will never know for sure.

I didn't know my grandparents at all and neither did my cousins. However, my dad and his siblings did give me the correct information to get started. Even the name spelling is right.

Aiken, Beveridge, Cruickshank, Taylor, Philip, Middleton, and as a second marriage Esson (that's a story in itself). 

There are two sensitive issues in this family: children born before marriage, and divorce. Different time; different problems or are they?

I love the occupations and the locations they lived. Google Maps is helping me look at where they lived. Isn't technology wonderful?

Did you notice that Google maps is putting an image date in tiny letters at the bottom left?

Scottish Genealogy Overview

The About.com's Scottish Genealogy Resource page led me to a Gazetteer of Scotland which helped me find out the names for places in Scotland in various time periods.

About half-way in the article it lists this resource for finding parish names. Gazetteer for Scotland called Scottish Places. This is the source for this reference.

Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885. 

I discovered that I can't always decipher the place names on the vital records or the census. My 2nd great grandfather, William Beveridge, master shoemaker was born in Fife, Scotland but what it says for the parish, I couldn't make sense of. It turns out to be Parish #16, ABDIE which translates to "abbey lands".

The 1881 census (LDS) that I paid to see via Scotland's People lists his birthplace as GIBDE in both the index at Ancestry.com and at the "index image" of this census at Scotland's People. According to books that I have here in my library, the 1881 census images are only available when you actually to to Scotland at the General Register Office.


Please notice that BEVERIDGE is spelled without the E in this "index image" despite the index at Ancestry.com where I found this family listed. The 1881 census was taken the night of 3/4 April 1881. At first, I thought, that is why there are two grandsons listed for this household. Maybe Annie's sister Margaret worked the night shift. She was the wife of James RITCHIE and he died in 1881, so there was no one to tend to William B. RITCHIE at night.

But, this is not the only problem to solve. Ann is unmarried and (yikes) her first born son is living with her at 52 Hadden St. in Woodside, Old Machar, Aberdeen, Scotland. She did not marry until November.

I hope you noticed that both grandson's were named for their grandfather.

Retired Aiken Family

David and Annie (Beveridge) Aiken with son David, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Retired!

I am always pleased to see a new photo in my inbox. I like this photo because it is just a snapshot and not the formal photo shoots like the others of this family.

My great grandparents, David Aiken and his wife Annie Beveridge with their son David. I wonder if this is their last photo? They died in 1928 and 1929 in Georgia.

I just looked at a family tree at Ancestry to see if David ever lived with his parents as an adult. I have been corresponding with that branch (owner of that tree) and now I see that David and his wife divorced in 1955. So, now I have another divorce in the family.