Those Murderous Trees!!

Early on in my blog writing about cemeteries I wrote of Thomas Lynch who was killed by a tree at a young age.  Since then I have come across another young man murdered by tree.  The environment is a dangerous place, more so in the 1800's.

In Memory of

Mr.

HENRY BALLARD.

who was killed instantly

in felling a tree

Jan. 12. 1830.

AEt. 36

"There was but a step between me & death"

"Watch, therefore, for ye know neither the

day nor the hour, when the son of man

cometh"

I think I like the older cemeteries because you get this sort of anecdotal information more often.   In the times before information was so easy to find, you documented where you could.  And what better place than on your headstone. 

Finding a Grave

I've been away for a couple of months.  Usually I can't keep myself from writing something but it's been a slightly stressful time and I've been working.  I did take some time to do some volunteer cataloging of cemeteries for Findagrave.com.  I started doing some volunteer photo requests made by people doing genealogy on that site for cemeteries local to me.  In doing this I discovered that I could actually add and manage what they call "Memorials". 

The Cemetery in Warren that I wrote about previously  That's The Rest of the Story...So Far had only one memorial entered until I had entered the Cobleigh monument.  I decided, oddly enough on a fairly damp and drizzly day, I wanted every person in that cemetery to be remembered. (I have issues with being "forgotten" myself, so I assume others should be remembered.). I drove out and I did something I don't generally do.  Instead of wandering and photographing here and there, I examined the layout and started in what I felt was a logical point and took two to three pictures of every single headstone one by one, row by row. 

Then once home and dried off, I went through them and added all the information I could gather and that was readable from the headstones and entered it onto their upload template.  After the upload, I went through and edited and added an image, or in many cases two images, to each listing and linked up husbands and wives, parents and children - if I was absolutely certain.  When I was done I  had added approximately 120 memorials. 

I have gone on since then to do two very small cemeteries in Oakham, Massachusetts - Southwest Cemetery on Lincoln Road (131 memorials - there is one more that is a broken puzzle, I need to see if I can photograph each piece and Photoshop them together to read the names and dates); and Green Hollow on Crawford Road.  Green Hollow happened to have one memorial entered by a family member requesting a photo.  He got a photo and there are now an additional 55 memorials.   I am not terribly interested in the recent dead - and I assume the newer town cemeteries are well documented.  It is those 1700 and early 1800 ones that I am drawn to.

People don't understand why I would do something like this for free.  For me, it fulfills a need I have to do something with a clear start and finish - most of my work does not have that.  And I get to seek out and find all sorts of interesting little cemeteries in beautiful rural locations.  And someone...me...is taking a moment or two to remember each one of those people.  Mothers, Fathers, brothers, sisters, babies, unnamed infants, soldiers. 

Oddly, I don't want a grave or a headstone.  But I want every single one of the people in these to know they are remembered.  I found a small town not far off with 16 little cemeteries, most not cataloged. 16!!!  I am going to go out and shoot four or five at a time.