Cemetery, Historical, Media Coverage, News No comments yet

160 Year Old Cemetery Restored (Monroeville, IN)

By on April 25th, 2006

Kevin Leininger has an article in the News-Sentinenel (Fort Wayne, IN), Groups unite to restore 160-year-old cemetery near Monroeville about a genealogist and county coming together to help clean up a cemetery.

Except from the article:

Life is returning to a long-neglected cemetery in southeast Allen County a century after the last burial there, thanks to an unlikely alliance between government officials and one man who refused to let the past die.

“The first time I came out here, it was so sad I cried,” said Adam Barrone, 28, whose childhood fascination with his grandmother’s family history stories led to a job in the Allen County Public Library’s genealogy department and to a discovery that has consumed him for nearly a decade.

When Barrone’s research led him to the 160-year-old Brown family cemetery south of Monroeville eight years ago, it seemed little had been done to maintain the half-acre plot since Sophia Rider’s burial in 1906. Many headstones had nearly been wiped smooth by a century of wind and rain. Some had broken or toppled over; others had sunken deep into the soil. A dense thicket of trees, bushes and weeds made the cemetery nearly invisible from nearby Whittern Road.

But that is changing, thanks to $20,000 from the county and the help of various organizations who, like Barrone, believe the area’s pioneers deserve not only to rest in peace, but in dignity as well.

Surprising he’s so young, but great to see people are taking an interest in preserving these before they are lost.

Hints & Tips, Historical, Media Coverage, News No comments yet

140 Year Old Family Heirloom Retrieved

By on April 24th, 2006

A very interesting article in The Herald Bulletin, by Melanie D. Hayes, about a genealogist receiving a civil war medal that an ancestor had earned, and that nobody in the family had heard about. His great-great-grandfather was killed in action in Virginia in 1864, and was awarded a medal as a result.

The article mentions that just for West Virginia Civil War soldiers alone, there were over 5,000 medals that went unclaimed. The article notes “The medal stayed in a vault in West Virginia for over a hundred years, probably untouched, until Dyer requested it……“The packaging is as unique as the medal,” Dyer said. “After all these years the box is still intact. And the handwriting — somebody in 1867 wrote that in pencil on those things.””

Excerpt from the article:

Jeff Dyer has always been fascinated with history, especially genealogy — but he never thought he’d come into possession of an undiscovered family heirloom.

In the process of researching his ancestors he found out his great-great grandfather was killed as a soldier in the Civil War — and was awarded a medal that was never claimed.

After several months of paperwork and waiting, Dyer retrieved the 140-year-old medal that was originally meant to go to his great-great-grandmother.

Dyer, 52, an Anderson native, first got drawn into genealogy when his oldest son was born 14 years ago because family became a priority to him. His grandmother was a member of Daughters of the American Revolution, and he also helped his sister become a member as well. Dyer, who is a lab technician for the Purdue University College of Technology in Anderson, began tracing his family history, and some lines went pretty far back.

If you have an ancestor that served, it just goes to show that it’s never too late to claim things like this medal (and that it’s very important to document everything thoroughly).

Celebrity, Hints & Tips, Media Coverage, News No comments yet

Tony Robinson (Baldrick in Blackadder) and “Sexy National Archives”, Genealogy

By on April 24th, 2006

The Daily Telegraph has an article by Ben Fenton about Tony Robinson (Baldrick in Blackadder, as well as Time Team) and his family’s history. Those of you who follow him, know that he’s now become well-known for helping to popularise archaeology, but surprisingly, he hasn’t looked into his family history all that much. That’s changed recently.

Excerpt from the article:

You might think that Tony Robinson, normally to be found scrutinising a dirty brown object that might be a shard of Roman pottery or a dried-out slug, would find the precise world of the National Archives rather dull.

The actor, unearthed first as Baldrick in Blackadder, but now best-known for popularising archaeology on programmes such as Time Team, seems to be more at home in the speculative habitat of the dig rather than the exact and certificated world of censuses and marriage registers.

Far from it.

“Whoever would have thought that archives could be sexy?” says Robinson, his eyes sparkling in the sterile atmosphere of a windowless sideroom in The National Archives in Kew.

In the space of a few hours, helped by experts from the Archives, the internet genealogy company Ancestry.co.uk and Nick Barratt, The Daily Telegraph’s family history expert, he has already uncovered enough nuggets about his own past to fuel gossip in the Robinson clan for another generation.

“For instance, nobody ever told me that my mum was born only six months after her parents married!” he say

A very intersting article, and worth reading, but I’m a bit worried that people with only a mild interest in genealogy will read it and come away thinking that genealogy is just as easy as the click of a mouse button.

Genealogy Events, Historical, Humor No comments yet

Talk of 2006 Canadian Census, Headstones

By on April 24th, 2006

With all of the talk about the 2006 Canadian Census, and people having the option of whether or not the information will be revealed in 2098, The Genealogue mentions that headstone information will become optional as well:

The upcoming Canadian census will ask respondents whether they want their answers made public in 2098. Now comes news that privacy zealots in Canada want to make headstones optional as well.

Ontario MP Paul Morrison explains: “We’ve read that identity thieves sometimes practice ‘tombstoning’—copying the names and dates from gravestones and creating false identities with the information. Before it ever happens here, we must stamp it oot . . . I mean out.”

A measure before Parliament would require Canadian citizens to declare whether they want their graves marked. Those who “opt in” will have stones placed on their graves 92 years after their deaths. Those who “opt out” will lie forever in unmarked graves. Those who fail to respond will be deposited in a mass grave somewhere within the icy bounds of Nunavut.

Genealogists are said to be concerned.

Historical, News No comments yet

Texas Ranch House – PBS (US), May 1st

By on April 21st, 2006

Texas Ranch House (1867) is about to premier in the US on PBS on May 1st. It’s similar to several very popular series that have come out from the BBC and PBS over the past several years, where people (non-actors) are selected to live like our ancestors did at certain places and time periods (or at least pretend to like them) – Colonial House, Victorian House, 1940s House, etc.

Most have a lot of potential, but the problem is people let their modern attitudes creep into everything and sometimes overwhelm the shows or settings. It’s hard to put your modern attitudes aside, but at the same time some of the series seemed like they had one or two or three people cast deliberately to generate controversy or problems.

This one does look interesting, and on the surface, except for maybe one or two people, all who were selected seem like they will fit into it a bit better than in past series.

Here’s the official description:

The latest and most ambitious experiment in living history from the makers of COLONIAL HOUSE, this new series sends a group of modern-day people back to the year 1867. It is the era of western expansion, a time of rounding up and branding free-roaming cattle and taming wild horses.