Randy Seaver, a prolific genealogy blogger, wrote about finding cemetery images on Google Images recently. Naturally I had to try it. I am not sure how it works but searching for “Robert Downing cemetery” brought up his stone, his relatives’ stones, my non Downing relatives’ stones, photos from my blogs of unrelated people, even pictures of me. I guess he is linked to me in their logic. A search for “Samuel Downing cemetery” did not produce a photo of Samuel’s…
Billion Graves is a relatively new web site which attempts to photograph tombstones and locate them on a cemetery map using GPS codes. This is a great idea. They also plan to transcribe the stones, either by the photographer transcribing or by a volunteer coming along later and transcribing stones from photos online.Billion Graves support told me the GPS is so “other people can know the distance they are from the cemetery.” I tend to think it is more useful…
It was a long and miserable December thanks to the cold from hell. The bright spot is when I was able to be up but not able to go out I worked on my “10,000 Dead People” database and got it to a place where it could be uploaded. I had to divide it into thirds to do that and fidget with the formatting to get each part to reasonable size. It went up the last week of December and…
Coming very soon – a database of south Logan County cemeteries. Rather than reinvent the wheel, go here for more information: Logan County Genealogy Graveyards of South Logan County
For several years I have been working on a massive database of, basically, burials in south Logan County. It includes cemeteries from Hurlbut, Elkhart, Mt. Pulaski, Lake Fork, Laenna and Aetna Townships and two in Chester. Elkhart is not complete. I frivolously named it “10,000 Dead People.” Otherwise it gets a bit too close.It is more than just a list of the burials. Jane DeWitt, who set up the original list, looked up these people in various sources and added…
William Nelson Downing married Delilah Downing [no evidence of them being related has ever been found] and soon departed for service with the 106th Illinois. She was pregnant. He never returned, never saw his son. He’s buried at Downing Cemetery with his father and other relatives. She’s buried at Bowers Templeman with her parents, grandparents and other Downing relatives. She and her second husband have an imposing stone. More than 20 years ago some of his descendants decided to give…
In Mt. Pulaski Cemetery there is a brick mausoleum. It is unique in that it is the only mausoleum in the cemetery. It is not attractive. But it is more unique because it is sealed tightly. For years I thought it was an abandoned storage building, not realizing it was the mausoleum in my grandfather’s story. This is the mausoleum of Henry Beidler who died in December 1888. I know very little about Mr. Beidler. He escaped mention in the…
This stone is not in Logan County. It isn’t even in Illinois. Marble Maven Jane DeWitt sighted this tombstone somewhere in Kentucky and had to take a picture. Do you suppose the Duncans manufactured chairs? Graveyards of South Logan County
John Winans Clark was born in Somerset County, New Jersey, in 1779, traveled to Kentucky and eventually Illinois, and died at Yankeetown, Logan County, Illinois, on March 5, 1859. He is buried at Laenna Cemetery, Chestnut. Yankeetown is long gone but once was about where he is buried. Along the way John Winans Clark served in the War of 1812 in Captain Jeremiah Martin’s Company, Kentucky Mounted Volunteer Militia, mustering in on August 31, 1813, at Newport, Campbell County, Kentucky….
Photo by Jane DeWitt This the stone, literally, for Henry Volle at Mt. Pulaski Cemetery. Henry was born September 7, 1874, and lived for 92 years until October 3, 1965. He and his wife Margaret Horn had three children. The children grew up and moved away. I have no idea why he chose this very large rock. Graveyards of South Logan County