Dedicated Cemetery Research

Dedicated Cemetery Research

Locating information about past researchers can be tricky. I found this Web site which gives me a little information about Mr. Hale. New Horizon's Genealogy seems to be responsible for the content and I did find a blog by them with his name and an explanation of the Hale numbering system. 

Since the source of this information is not given, I can only speculate about the WPA project and Mr. Hale. I do know that monies was allocated for historical research during this "put people to work" government project during the Great Depression. It is important to note that his research was done in the years 1932-1935 because that may have been the last time some of these gravestones in Connecticut were readable.

The database at Ancestry.com lists an index and 59 volumes for the headstones plus and index and 68 volumes for the newspaper notices. Information gathered includes the name, the death date, the age at death, the cemetery where buried and the place of death.

Death records are the least reliable. If you have even been responsible to giving information burdened by grief and worry as I have you can understand how hard even a rational person (holding information on a previously typed piece of paper) can be under pressure. 

Just think about people who are hungry, worried about their future and possibly lacking in experience in the graveyard participating in such a project. After they wrote down what they saw then it was transcribed onto index cards and transcribed again. Too much copying!

I think about this everytime I transcribe a gravestone. It is a miracle any are correct! Next Tuesday's post is the perfect example. 

Cemetery Indexes

What is a Cemetery Index?

North Stonington Cemeteries Front Page Hale Inscriptions, Ancestry.com

For information about the Charles R. Hale Cemetery Index, I turned to the Connecticut State Library for information about the collection. 

I knew that the collection consisted of more than just lists of transcriptions but the only pages I had seen were shared with me by the kind assistant town clerk in the town of Groton, CT when I sent for certified birth and marriage records of some of my family members and mentioned that I was research cemeteries in the area.

She sent me the listing of the Groton, CT cemeteries and I sent her a check for the photocopy fee. It was well worth it. I got to study the pages and compare what the indexer wrote to what I photographed. This particular cemetery has many old stones PLUS the extra added bonus of poison ivy. (It since has been cleaned up)

Every bit of information helps when trying to figure out family relationships in the cemetery. (link to my photos from the mentioned cemetery) [Old Packer Burrows Cemetery]

Hale Collection of Newspaper Marriage and Death Notices

I have been told that the only way to use this index was to go to the location of the books as they are bound in volumes by town or to send for the microfilm. But, now, Ancestry.com is offering the whole collection.