Beyond the Gravestone: Matthew Calbraith Perry

In my blog posts to be read today, was this great post by the Beyond the Gravestone folks who clean and repair gravestones and monuments. It caught by eye right away because this is part of my Perry family from Rhode Island.

Looks like more than one of us Bloggers has Sea Captain fever? It is nice to not be alone and "at sea"!

Family History Month: The Envelope Project

Envelope 1992, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

While my parents were both still living, I bought a photo box and a box of  plain, white envelopes so that they could easily start grouping the loose photos and putting them in envelopes. Hey, it was a plan.

I asked my mother to label each envelope so we could go over them together when I came to visit. On newer photos, I asked her to write the date and the place.

I had given her my old camera and some film and told them that I would pay for any photos they took. That part went fairly well and I do have some real treasures. 

My mother started out with the envelope project with great gusto but as my father got sicker, she began to have trouble focusing on our project. After my Dad died, we worked on it together but she was getting very vague and disinterested. That's dementia.

Today, I opened the box and starting looking for photos to blog about. As things always go, I pulled out a previously overlooked envelope and laughed out loud. Hubs came to look.

Notice the envelope is "dated" Thursday.  Hubs said, "Yes, that's how your mother thought!"

I was hoping the year was on the photos. Inside was this great photo of my Dad and a lot of scenery pictures.

The back of the photo was a big surprise. Dad labeled it. It gives the location (so I now know where the other photos in the envelope were taken Narragansett, RI). Mom did put the year, 1992. 

But, my father left me this message.

"Still have hair. Can't say the same for teeth." 

Yup, that's Family History.

 

Advanced Search Noah Mathewson Lot

Advanced Search Noah Mathewson Lot, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

RI Cemetery Database Advanced Search at NEHGS

For all of you that do Rhode Island Cemetery research, the FREE RI Cemetery Database project (hosted by Rootsweb) started by John Sterling is a wonderful resource. Unfortunately, not all RI cemeteries are included as many Catholic ones are not,  but, on the whole, it is incredible. RI even has a few pages of gravestones put up my members of the RI Genealogy Society and by volunteers in selected families.

For the smallest state in the Union, Rhode Island has a VAST number of family cemeteries. Some are deep in the woods, some are lost, some are in farmer's fields and some Rhode Islanders are buried in nearby MA and CT and some have bodies and stones moved to large cemeteries. You have to do your homework before you go to RI. (If you do go there, you will find the best food, great beaches and shop until you drop stores. You will have forgotten about cemeteries after all that!)

New on the scene is the RI Historical Cemeteries. It is just getting started.

But, it is hard to find a list of all the people buried in a single small cemetery. Because of the number of small family plots, it is essential to subscribe to NEHGS and search the NEHGS RI Cemetery Database in a "advanced" way.

Take for example, my Mathewson project. I know that there are more gravestones in the "Noah Mathewson" cemetery in Johnston, Rhode Island than the ones I am going to show you in this blog. (I found the name of the cemetery at the free site.)

I made a screenshot of one way that I use this method.(If you click on it, it will bring you to my photos at Flickr, where you can really see it up close.) In this example I wanted to search the surname Mathewson in the lot to eliminate other surnames.

But, to get a list of ALL (known) persons that are listed do the following.

1. Log into NEHGS with your username and password.
2. Locate the Rhode Island Cemetery Database in NEHGS list by choosing Search then Database Catalog. Choose the text link, "Click here to see all the NEHGS databases."
3. On the left, click the R and then, locate and click on the RI Historical Cemeteries Database Index.
4. In the keywords at the bottom, enter the exact name of the cemetery in this case Noah Mathewson.
5. The next screen will show you how many are recorded and who they are.

Little Rhody

Beaman Blue Books, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Rhode Island is my home state. It is scary how much I don't know about it. Cherry Fletcher Bamburg and the other folks at the RI Genealogical Society are a very big help. I have a folder now of information, some of which can be found right on their Web site.

This is a photo of the books of vital records (Rhode Island Genealogical Register) of Rhode Island compiled by a man named Beaman. These are aptly named the Blue books! He and his daughter also compiled a set of books which are called the Red books.  The older ones are distinguished by the words "New Series".


Imagine my surprise when I was offered a full set of these by the Society! I could hardly croak out a thanks, I was so stunned. I have put them in a plastic tote next to my genealogy files that are in my new basement. I pulled out the first book and started going through them. Amazing reading. I have had access to this by subscription to Genealogy.com. I hope that I can cancel that membership now that I have this set.


From this post on, I plan to focus on the gravestone photo I am putting on my iPad to take with me. Many of you may have read them already, so please bear with me.