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"Along Those Lines"
10/19/2001 - Archive
We Are Not Alone: Serendipitous Cemetery Discoveries
We all work hard to uncover information about our ancestors and their
lives. Some of the facts come easily, while others require tremendous effort
yielding little in the way of results. At times, however, it seems as if we
stumble onto pieces of information with little or no effort whatsoever.
The Encarta World English Dictionary defines 'serendipity' as "a natural gift
for making useful discoveries by accident." It goes on to state that the phrase
'serendipitous discoveries,' often seen in print, "manages to suggest that serendipity
is nothing more than good luck." Now, I'll tell you that I am normally not a
believer in the supernatural. However, I have to admit there have been times
when I have felt that something other than pure chance has led me to find information
in cemeteries. I know that this feeling is not unique. In talking with friends,
I find that this feeling is somewhat common. In fact, author Henry Z. Jones,
Jr., has published two books titled "Psychic Roots" detailing a number of genealogists'
experiences of this type.
In the course of speaking at genealogical societies and in working with genealogy
collection librarians, people often come up to me and start a conversation with,
"You may think this is weird, but . . ." or "I'm really not crazy, but this
really happened to me . . ." In "Along Those Lines . . ." this week, I'd like
to share three such stories with you. Perhaps they will seem a little too much
like coincidence to you, or then . . . perhaps not.
Unexpected Guidance
While searching for the graves of ancestors in South Carolina, a friend and
his brother drove way into the country between Saluda and Greenwood to an old
Methodist church. They began walking the small cemetery and were having no success
locating the gravestones. A man in a passing pickup truck slowed to a stop,
and called out, "Are you looking for anybody in particular?" My friend responded,
"Yes, we're looking for the Rev. Jesse Pitts Bodie." "Well," said the man, "you
won't find him here. But if you have a picture of him, I can tell you where
he's buried."
In the ensuing conversation, it turned out that the man in the pickup was the
master of a local lodge, and he had acquired photos of all the past masters
of the lodge but two, and the Rev. Bodie was one of those two. Even though my
friend and his brother did not have a photograph, the man cheerfully told them
he would lead them to the right gravesite. They got into their car and followed,
driving for miles down gravel and dirt roads, until at last they arrived at
another, even more remote Methodist church. The man got out of his truck and
strode directly to the headstone of the Rev. Jess Pitts Bodie. Was it a coincidence
that this man came along at this time?
Something Just Led Me There
Several years ago, I decided to make a visit to Rome, Georgia, the place where
my mother and her mother before her was born. My great- grandfather had settled
there, along with his parents and his older brother, just following the U.S.
Civil War, and my trip was a long- anticipated pilgrimage of sorts to visit
the ancestral town.
As I drove into town, I had an unexplained sense of coming home. Don't ask me
why. However, as soon as I checked in at the hotel, I decided to drive to the
cemetery to get my first look at it. You must understand that it was late on
a Sunday afternoon when I arrived at the edge of vast Myrtle Hill Cemetery.
The cemetery is the final resting place of over forty-thousand persons, including
Civil War soldiers and the wife of President Woodrow Wilson, Ellen Axson Wilson,
who died 6 August 1914 while her husband was in office. I knew that my great-grandparents,
both of whom had died earlier in 1914, and three of their daughters were buried
there. As I parked my car near the gates, I noted that the cemetery would close
in twenty minutes. I felt a sense of dismay at tomorrow having to comb all these
acres of this beautiful yet steep graveyard terrain to locate my family members.
I reluctantly got back in the car and returned to the hotel.
The next morning, I was the first customer at the public library and made a
beeline to the genealogy department. There, I met a wonderful librarian who
helped me locate materials to confirm that my family were, in fact, buried in
that cemetery rather than in any of the other forty-plus cemeteries in the county.
Unbidden, she then called the city cemetery department and made arrangements
for a sexton to meet me at Myrtle Hill's gate.
The sexton arrived in a pickup and carrying a canvas map of the cemetery, patched
many times with tape and the plot boundaries retraced. He had already looked
up the burial locations of my Holder ancestors, and asked me if I hadn't already
found them. Puzzled, I replied I had not. "Funny," he said. "You're parked right
beside them." Sure enough, I had parked again in the same place I had late the
previous afternoon. My great-grandfather's headstone was no more than ten feet
from me. As I walked over to the plot where he, my great-grandmother, three
great aunts, and an infant first cousin once removed were buried, I experienced
the distinct sense that I had been drawn here and that these people had wanted
me to find them. Coincidence?
Another friend tells a similar story. He and his elderly mother were visiting
a municipal cemetery in Laurens, South Carolina, seeking the King family plot.
He parked but because it was cold, his mother stayed in the car. He walked each
row of gravestones in the cemetery, taking perhaps 45 minutes, but had had no
success in locating the graves. He returned to his car, frustrated. He paused
to look around the cemetery once more. As he pulled the car keys from his pocket,
he looked down, only to find that he had parked his car precisely beside the
grave he sought. Coincidence?
A Surprise at a Funeral
A woman I knew told of having searched for years for her grandfather's grave
in many of the cemeteries in Cass County, Michigan, but without success. She
had been unable to locate any obituary or mortuary records. All she knew was
that he had worked in St. Joseph and lived in Dowagiac, that he had died before
1905, and that he was not buried with her grandmother, who died in 1941 and
who was buried in Dowagiac. She had given up any hope of finding her grandfather's
grave.
In March of 1992, a close friend's father died in Dowagiac. She attended the
funeral service in the church and, even though it was snowing heavily, she decided
to accompany the procession to Riverview Cemetery in St. Joseph. The roads were
icy, especially those inside the large cemetery as the procession arrived. She
parked her car and started walking toward the tent covering the gravesite. As
she walked on the pavement, she slipped on a patch of ice and fell to the ground.
As she raised herself up, she could not believe her eyes. There, not fifteen
feet away, was the gravestone of her long-lost grandfather! The woman had been
searching in the wrong county all along—Cass County, where he lived, and
not Berrien County, where he worked. It turned out that her grandfather had
been buried in a cemetery plot provided by his employer because his family had
no cemetery plot in Dowagiac at the time. Coincidence?
Coincidence or Serendipity?
There are thousands of us with our own personal stories of serendipitous
discoveries in and around cemeteries. I've always thought that a great genealogy
society meeting would involve turning the lights down and sharing these stories
with one another. Since Halloween is right around the corner, maybe this would
be a fun idea for your next society program. In any event, don't be afraid to
share your own stories. The point is that, if something like this has happened
to you, personally, you are not crazy and you are not weird. In fact, you are
not alone.
Citation Corner
Have you ever cited a gravestone? It is helpful to provide as much information
as possible, especially the exact physical location. The WHAT, WHERE, and WHEN
are important. If you can contact the cemetery sexton or administrator, he or
she can provide you with the lot and plot information. Here are two examples.
The first shows a gravestone in a cemetery for which you know exact information,
and the second shows a rural cemetery with location as accurate as possible.
Green Berry Holder tombstone, Myrtle Hill Cemetery (New Front Addition, Terrace
1, Lot 1), Rome (Floyd County) Georgia. Transcribed by the writer on 18 July
1998.
Goodloe W. Morgan tombstone, Cooper Cemetery (9 miles south of Roxboro and west
1.3 miles on C.R. 52 - 4th row, west end), Caswell County, North Carolina. Photographed
by author on 13 October 2001.
Happy Hunting!
George
**EDITOR'S NOTE: If you enjoyed this article, you'll love "Coincidence, Serendipitous
Events at the Cemetery," by Christopher C. Bain. Find it in this month's issue
of Ancestry Magazine, September/October 2001, Vol.19, No.5.
Subscribe to Ancestry Magazine
George G. Morgan is a proud member of the International Society of Family History
Writers and Editors, Inc. (ISFHWE) at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~cgc/cgc2.htm.
He would like to hear from you at atl@ahaseminars.com but, due to the volume
of e-mail, he is unable to answer every e-mail message received. Please note
that he cannot assist you with your individual research. Visit George's Web
site at http://ahaseminars.com/atl
for information about speaking engagements.
Copyright 2001, MyFamily.com. All rights reserved.
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