Gravestone #33 Floyd and Sarah Helen Curtis, Middletown, OH

My great grandparents Floyd and Sarah Helen (nee Fox) Curtis at Woodside Cemetery in Middletown OH. This one was taken recently, during Memorial Day weekend 2013.

Gravestones 30 thru 32 East Maplewood Cemetery, Anderson, IN

 Edna (nee Groff) and Willard Clement Cookman, my great grandparents. East Maplewood Cemetery, Anderson IN.

 

Belle (nee Sharpe) and Martin Luther Forkner, my great grandparents. East Maplewood

 

 Samuel Forkner's obelisk, my great great grandfather. East Maplewood. He's near his son Martin.

 

Close up of Samuel Forkner

Gravestones 19 and 20, Anderson Memorial Park, Andeson, IN

 Harriett (nee Clifford) Forkner, my great grandmother. Anderson Memorial Park, Anderson IN.

Samuel Raymond Forkner, my great grandfather. Anderson Memorial Park.

I usually just refer to them as Grandma Harriet and Grandpa Sam. My father's middle name is "Ray" after his grandfather.

There's also a 'family plot' in Anderson Memorial Park that my grandparents own. They lost an infant son and he is interned there. I believe they have six spaces.

Gravestone 18 James Irish Grove Lawn Cemetery

James Irish, my fifth great grandfather on the Forkner-Clifford side. Grove Lawn Cemetery, Pendleton, IN.

Gravestone 17 Amasa and Betsey Makepeace in Otterbien Cemetery, Chesterfield, IN.

Amasa and Betsey Makepeace's obelisk in Otterbein Cemetery, Chesterfield, IN. It is off to the left as you enter the cemetery, near a large tree.

 Close up of Amasa Makepeace's carving. He is my 5th great grandfather on the Forkner-Clifford line. Otterbein Cemetery.

Close up of Betsey Makepeace's carving. She is my 5th great grandmother on the Forkner-Clifford line. Otterbein Cemetery.  She was born Elizabeth Babbitt and called Betsey.

And we just take a moment to reflect on how surprisingly old they were when they died? Amasa was seventy while Betsey lived to the age of seventy-one!

Gravestone 16 Penniston or Croan Cemetery

Penniston or Croan Cemetery, Madison County IN: The farmer who owned this land in the early 20th century removed the stones and plowed the cemetery, destroying the graves of about thirty people. Now its a small fenced off area in front of a house with only this memorial to mark the burials.

Samuel Moore, listed as a known veteran buried there, is my ancestor. My research shows that his wife Eliza, along with her parents Isaac and Sarah Elizabeth are also buried here.

Gravestones 13 - 15 Nelson Cemetery in Madison County IN

I took this picture of Nelson Cemetery, with the side visible because there was one grave we were unable to find. My research shows that Elizabeth (nee Curtis) Hollingsworth, the first white woman in Madison County, is buried here but her grave is unmarked and forgotten. She is my 5th great grandmother on the Forkner-Hollingsworth line.

 

 Hannah (nee Cornelious) Forkner, Jesse's wife and my 5th great grandmother on the Forkner line. If you can see, the last name is spelled "Falkner" instead of the modern Forkner. Nelson Cemetery, Madison County, IN.

Finding this grave was kind of funny. My Aunt Sarah knew where Jesse's grave was but my research said Hannah was buried there was well. I remember turning from Jesse's grave and seeing "HANNAH" with "wife of Jesse Falkner" underneath. I looked at my aunt and said something along the lines of "I bet that's Jesse's wife's grave".

If my memory serves me right (my research is not at hand), Forkner was "Falconer" then "Faulkner" then "Falkner" and finally was changed to the modern "Forkner" spelling.

 Jesse Forkner, my 5th great grandfather on the Forkner side. Buried at Nelson Cemetery in Madison County, IN. Him and his wife are along the east side border.

 

Gravestones 9 to 12 - Ridgewood Cemetery in Wellston Ohio

 

My great grandmother Calfernie (nee Braley) Fink. Also known as Granny or Grandma Fern. She's the original owner of my sewing machine and the reason it's named Fern.

 

Fern's parents: Cora (nee Gleason, daughter of Levi and California) and Ripley Braley, my great great grandparents on the Fink-Braley line. 

 

William and Minerva (nee Dupre) Fink, my great great grandparents. 

 

My great aunt Esther Jo, my grandpa Bill's older sister. Not a direct ancestor, but a favorite relative and probably the one that I got my obsession with genealogy from. 

All of these graves are in the Ridgewood Cemetery in Wellston Ohio. 

Gravestone #8 Levi and California Gleason

Levi and California (nee Bishop) Gleason. My third great grandparents on the Fink-Braley side. Salem Cemetery, not too far from Wellston. Their graves are near the little church that's in the cemetery. 

Levi, a veteran of the Civil War, also had his own gravestone. He served in the 194th Ohio Infantry.

Gravestone #7 Jordan Mascall Mannering and his wife Elizabeth

Jordan Mascall Mannering, my 6th great grandfather on the Fink-Ewing line. He was in the Revolutionary War. This is his new tombstone. Centerville/Thurman Cemetery in Gallia County, Ohio.

Jordan Mascall Mannering's original gravestone.

Jordan Mascall Mannering, both headstones. Jordan is the only Revolutionary War veteran buried in Gallia County.

Elizabeth (nee Clark) wife of Jordan Mannering. My sixth great grandmother on the Fink-Ewing line.

Gravestone #6 John and Annette Fink

Annette (nee Ewing) and John Franklin Fink, my third great grandparents on the Fink side. Dixon Run Cemetery, Gallia County, Ohio.

Annette's the daughter of Mary from the previous post.

This cemetery was probably the most difficult to get to -- up a narrow winding guardrail-less 'road' at the top of hill. Next time, we park at the bottom and walk up.

Gravestone #5 Mary White Ewing

Mary (nee White) Ewing, my 4th great grandmother on the Fink-Ewing line and wife of William Ewing. She's buried in Franklin Cemetery in Gallia County, Ohio.

If I remember correctly, her grave is towards the front, on the left side of the cemetery.

Close us of her gravestone.

Gravestone #4: Abraham Franklin Dupre and Minerva A Clark

 Abraham Franklin Dupre and his wife Minerva A (nee Clark), my third great grandparents on the Fink-Dupre line. Mount Tabor Cemetery, past his parents' obelisk.

Also buried in Mount Tabor are Minerva's parents, Jeptha Clark and Mary (nee Null) Clark, but we couldn't find their graves. We did find two small square markers inset in the ground that read "Clark". Our thoughts were that the gravestones had been destroyed and replaced with these so that the graves wouldn't be lost. 
 

Gravestone #3: Abraham Dupre and Mary Deckard

Entrance to Mount Tabor Cemetery. It's right down the road from Brush Cemetery, near a little church.

 Obelisk for Abraham Dupre and his wife Mary Deckard called Polly, my 4th great grandparents on the Fink-Dupre line. Mount Tabor Cemetery, Gallia County OH. Close to the center, to the left of the entrance. This is the Abraham that was seven years old when his family immigrated to America.

 Close up of the Dupre carving.

 Close up of Abraham's details

Close up of Mary's details

Gravestone #2 Richard Deckard and Hannah Eagle

Richard Deckard and his wife, Hannah (nee Eagle) Deckard, my 5th great grandparents on the Fink-Dupre line. They are buried in Brush Cemetery in Gallia County, Ohio. If I remember rightly, they're over to the left side, surrounded by a bunch of other Deckard graves.
 

Close up of the grave.

Cemetery Research Weekend!

This weekend, my mother and I have big plans -- we're leaving early Sunday morning and traveling to eastern Ohio to visit cemeteries on the Fink side of the family, then driving to Anderson IN (and spending the night somewhere along the way) to do the same for the Cookman and Forkner sides. My aunt is off Monday, so she's going with us. I'm so excited!

Cemeteries on the visit list:

Ohio - Brush Cemetery, Mount Tabor Cemetery, Franklin Cemetery, Ewington OH (there's a cemetery there that doesn't want to come up on Google maps, plus it was founded by my family), Gilboa Cemetery, Thurman Cemetery, Dixon Run Cemetery, Salem Cemetery, and Ridgewood Cemetery. We'll be in Gallia and Jackson counties. We'll probably take a lunch break between Gilboa and Thurman and go down to Rio Grande to visit the first Bob Evans. There's a lot of cemeteries but they're all pretty close together.

Indiana - Grovelawn Cemetery, West Maplewood Cemetery, Otterbein Cemetery (supposedly near the airport but doesn't show on Google maps), Nelson Cemetery, Penniston Cemetery (doesn't show on Google maps either).

I have directions to all the cemeteries, a word document with details on each cemetery's location and some pictures, and a spreadsheet with all the graves we're looking for.

Gravestone #1 - Robert Algin Curtis and Zelow Pasley

This is the grave of my great great grandparents on the Curtis side - Robert Algin Curtis and his wife Zelow Pasley. It's located in the Middletown Cemetery (sometimes called Middletown Pioneer Cemetery) on First in Middletown, OH. It's towards the railroad tracks, in the back, near a small hump. The gravestone faces away from the hump.

Burial Records

I just found burial records on Spring Grove Cemetery's website for four ancestors: Edwin Bishop Dobell, Harriett Luck Dobell, William Luck and Lucy Luck.

Such an unexpected find!