Genealogy question.

[archieclement]

I encounter it some in my lookups, which is somewhat limited, I don't do it alot outside of my family or occasionally specific individuals. But was curious of people who do it alot, how often do you encounter individuals of the era, including postwar for those of age in ACW, with no known gravesite?

Was curious how common or rare it is.

 

[lupaglupa]

Maybe 5 percent of my tree have no gravesite that I can find. It's more common in older eras

 

[Snowbound]

Mine are well above 5 percent. A lot also depends on geography and social/economic standing. I've improved my detective/research skills and ocasionally make new discoveries. Found my GGF in a small Fayette WV cemetery (1895 marker obliterated). It only recently appeared on Findagrave, a wonderful tool.

 

[donna]

Several of my ancestors have no grave site. I have idea where they died and when but no grave listing.

Some are buried in family cemeteries, where no stones and stones there are in terrible shape.

 

[Tennessee Union Gal]

I encounter it some in my lookups, which is somewhat limited, I don't do it alot outside of my family or occasionally specific individuals. But was curious of people who do it alot, how often do you encounter individuals of the era, including postwar for those of age in ACW, with no known gravesite?

Was curious how common or rare it is.

Some of my ancestors do not have gravestones. Some are complete mystery, others, I have a map of the cemetery with the graves located, but no marker. Not super commen but not rare either. Mine are mostly folks that could not afford a stone, or in the case of one of my gg grandfathers, he was so despised by his son that my ggrandfather did not put up a stone. He could certainly have afforded to.

 

[John Winn]

In my research of both sides of my family and those of my wife's family I'd say something like five percent are burial unknowns. Some of those are women who I suspect got married but no record of the marriage can be found so don't know their married names and thus can't search for a burial place. A few just disappeared - weren't on several censuses and left no findable trace.

Unmarked graves are quite common (and I volunteer at an historic cemetery) so I've got quite a few where I know the cemetery but there's no stone (sometimes the cemetery records say where the grave is but sometimes not or I only know the cemetery from an obituary). Many just didn't have the money or maybe they left town immediately after the death of their spouse and there weren't any remaining relatives to get a stone. I know of a number of Civil War veterans who didn't get stones until the GAR got one a number of years after their deaths.

 

[nc native]

Of my eight 2x and 3x great grandfathers who fought in the Civil War, I do not know the location of the gravesite for only one of them.
Pvt. Martin R. Thorne of the 2nd NC Infantry died in October 1862 after the Maryland campaign in Lovettsville, Virginia of disease. The hospital he was at was captured by Union forces shortly before his death and he received a parole. The farther back one goes in a family tree, the harder it is to find to find records of burials in most cases especially if one has ancestors who were not well to do, well known, illiterate and for many families who lived in the South due to the fact that some of the courthouses were records were stored were damaged or destroyed by the Civil War. The five percent figure that has been mentioned is a good rule of thumb for ancestors dating back to the Civil War period. I just looked at my tree for example and out of my 2X great grandparents, one out of sixteen has no known gravesite. The one I am missing information for became an alcoholic in later life and dropped dead on a city street in Raleigh N.C. in 1924 and was probably buried in a paupers cemetery I am guessing.

 

[Discipulus]

I agree with all of the above. But my attitude, rightly or wrongly, is that the gravesite exists it is only up to me to find it. I have one 3xg-grandfather who has had me stumped for three decades. But I know he is in one of three neighboring counties in Illinois, so I keep looking. Illinois, both state and local, didn't keep death records back then so I have been searching church records.

 

[archieclement]

In doing my family I know cemetery of all, one the stone has been lost so exact location as well.

I look up alot of outlaws, which would be drifters and probally aliases, and encounter it far more often trying to find info on them.

Actually what triggered the question was looking into Cora Hubbard, a female bank robber.

 

[lupaglupa]

ome of those are women who I suspect got married but no record of the marriage can be found so don't know their married names and thus can't search for a burial place. A few just disappeared - weren't on several censuses and left no findable trace.

Some years ago in doing my husband's tree I found a way to find those lost daughters - social columns in the newspapers! I would search for the the phrase "Mr and Mrs John Smith" or whoever the parents were. Often (though sadly not always) I would find a notice in a news paper - "Mrs Thomas Morgan was in town recently visiting here parents, Mr and Mrs Smith...." Then I would look at Mr Tom Morgan and sure enough, his wife was the right name and age. I filled in a lot of holes that way.

 

[Niagara1864]

I have a list of 2110 Civil War veterans from my local area who lived past the year 1865. After meticulously researching each one individually, I've found that 1740 of them have known grave sites, while 370 do not. That gives an average of about 17.5% burial locations unaccounted for.

 

[John Winn]

Some years ago in doing my husband's tree I found a way to find those lost daughters - social columns in the newspapers! I would search for the the phrase "Mr and Mrs John Smith" or whoever the parents were. Often (though sadly not always) I would find a notice in a news paper - "Mrs Thomas Morgan was in town recently visiting here parents, Mr and Mrs Smith...." Then I would look at Mr Tom Morgan and sure enough, his wife was the right name and age. I filled in a lot of holes that way.

Now, that's right clever. Somehow hadn't thought of that but it's right as rain. I'll be giving that a try soon.

 

[lupaglupa]

Now, that's right clever. Somehow hadn't thought of that but it's right as rain. I'll be giving that a try soon.

Let me know if it works for you!

 

[Discipulus]

Some years ago in doing my husband's tree I found a way to find those lost daughters - social columns in the newspapers! I would search for the the phrase "Mr and Mrs John Smith" or whoever the parents were. Often (though sadly not always) I would find a notice in a news paper - "Mrs Thomas Morgan was in town recently visiting here parents, Mr and Mrs Smith...." Then I would look at Mr Tom Morgan and sure enough, his wife was the right name and age. I filled in a lot of holes that way.

I just wanted to add that with newspapers of the time, type space was considered a valuable commodity. ALMOST ALWAYS when dealing with local residents, the newspaper uses initials for everything but surname. "John E. Smith" became "J. E. Smith." "John Smith" becomes "J. Smith." You will get more hits searching initials than full names.

 

[Tennessee Union Gal]

Some years ago in doing my husband's tree I found a way to find those lost daughters - social columns in the newspapers! I would search for the the phrase "Mr and Mrs John Smith" or whoever the parents were. Often (though sadly not always) I would find a notice in a news paper - "Mrs Thomas Morgan was in town recently visiting here parents, Mr and Mrs Smith...." Then I would look at Mr Tom Morgan and sure enough, his wife was the right name and age. I filled in a lot of holes that way.

Great idea. I am a bit of a collector of old wedding announcements, obits, etc. I love the flowery language.

 

[lupaglupa]

Great idea. I am a bit of a collector of old wedding announcements, obits, etc. I love the flowery language.

Smaller towns papers had a huge amount of chatter on ordinary events. "Jim Thomas came to town yesterday" type stuff. People's parties, travels, minor illnesses - all collected and printed. If you have an uncommon family name it's easy to find. With a more common family name you can combine it with the community where they lived. Often these snippets were listed in columns written by locals. So one page would have the news from Belmont followed by the news from Boomtown followed by the news from Campbell. It's fascinating stuff!

 

[rbortega]

I can identify with this situation. Even though he is my only Civil War ancestor that I have any photos of, I do not know the final resting place of my 3 x Great Grandfather John M. Jordan. At the time of his death in a railroad work accident, John was a resident of Salem Township, Knox County, Illinois. A family story that has been passed down is that after meeting his gruesome end, John's family brought home what was left of him in a wicker basket and buried his remains. It appears that the cemeteries located in the area where he lived are either in poor condition or possibly ploughed over.

 

[DixieRifles]

I have not found the gravesite of my 2XGr-Grandfather who was killed at Fort Pillow. But his son makes up for that because he has two headstones. One is at his home next to his mother and the other is located at the camp where he died in December 1861. The later one was erected by the SCV when they found documentation of soldiers who died of disease---but they probably had no documentation of where these men were buried.

 

[Snowbound]

My 4th GGF is in a mass grave. I'm sure this was often the case in wartime. It was not difficult to determine this location. Its's now known as Ceder Grove Parking lot. Between Fort Tarr and historic Cedar Grove Cemetery. I was able to create this memorial.

PVT Anthony McGraw (1775-1814) - Find a Grave...

Pvt Anthony McGraw was in Capt John McClung's Co, Col Josiah Boyd's 4th Virginia Militia Regiment. He marched with his regiment in March 1814 from Greenbrier to the defense of Norfolk. Initially these troops were encamped in the Peach Orchard between Fort Norfolk and Fort Tar. The NARA pension...

www.findagrave.com

 

[C. Cash]

Common pre 1900 East TN. Lots of "fieldstone" used as markers.