Finding Your Ancestor’s Grave (Or Not)

Many of my clients come to Germany to find their ancestor’s graves. Unfortunately, in Germany graves are cleared after a few decades (20 to 30 years) to make room for new graves. Therefore, you will hardly ever find graves of your ancestors, who died some 100 years ago. 

    Berlin-Friedrichshain, Friedhöfe Friedenstraße / Landsberger Allee ©Angela Monika Arnold

Also, sometimes when a grave is cleared, the name is mentioned on a family gravestone, but this does not mean that this person is actually buried there. Actually they might even have been buried in a different town.

If the family had a large monument next to a cemetery wall it is often kept and sometimes even sold to other families who keep it and pay for the maintenance; they either to use it as a place of burial for their own family or just to see to it that it is saved.

Berlin-Friedrichshain, Friedhöfe Friedenstraße / Landsberger Allee ©Angela Monika Arnold

 

Also often graves of famous people are taken care of by the municipality, this grave, for example, is kept as a grave of honor.

Berlin-Kreuzberg, Friedhöfe vor dem Halleschen Tor ©kvikk

  

Therefore, before you come to Germany, it may be wise to check with the local church or, if the cemetery belongs to the local community, with the so called Friedhofsamt. You will find the way to contact them through the website of the municipality. Some municipalities (for example Berlin) do charge a fee for this kind of information, others do not. Also be aware that it might take time until they answer, in some parts of Berlin it can take about 6 months as they have to take care of burials as well, which, obviously, has first priority.

Sometimes the cemetery has seized to exist. In the past the cemetery often was close to or even next to the church. The graves were marked with either stones or wooden crosses that simply were destroyed due to the weather and then removed. Later a new cemetery was set up but the graves were not moved so you will be walking over unmarked graves.

The church of Groß Leppin, Brandenburg ©Ursula C. Krause

However, sometimes, if you are lucky, a new cemetery is set up and the old one in not cleared and falls into a deep sleep. Maybe the grass it cut, maybe some stones are removed, but you will still see that there once was a cemetery.

    The old cemetery of Groß Leppin, Brandenburg, situated on the Mühlenberg ©Ursula C. Krause

It is different for Jewish cemeteries. These graves were principally not cleared, however, many Jewish cemeteries were desecrated and destroyed during the Third Reich. Sometimes the cemetery ‘simply’ was destroyed and the tombstones knocked over, sometime the tombstones were taken and used for road construction (which was actually done with Christian German tombstones in Poland after the war). Today, many people are involved in saving the Jewish cemeteries and honoring those who were once buried there and most cemeteries are under preservation.

 Berlin-Weißensee, The Jewish Cemetery ©mazbln

Even if you do not find the graves of your ancestors, do take a look at the local cemetery, often they are a beautiful place to sit down and simply take a break from all the noise and the hurry.

    Südwestkirchhof Stahnsdorf, Brandenburg ©A. Savin

Speaking in symbols from the grave

As genealogists, by nature, we all have a special affection for graveyards. To find a family plot, with everyone’s information and sometimes parents’ info, is a sort of adrenalin rush. When I first started visiting cemeteries, my family stones were pretty plain. I get so jealous sometimes when I see the clues that other families left behind for their descendants. I can almost hear my ancestors giggling. 

This Still family stone lists Person G. (1884-1977), Mary K. (1885–1916), Margaret (1908–1909), James (1910-1979), and Dorothy (1912-1912). Through deductive reasoning, even if I did not know who they were, one could reason that Pierson is the father and Mary, the mother. Since there is a flag with a military marker at the grave, one could surmise that James had served, which in fact he had. The stone is very plain, just like Pierson was in life. While you cannot tell from just looking at this stone, it cannot be the first, or at the very least, it was erected after their other son, my grandfather Lloyd, had married since he is not included. The stone also does not mention that Mary died in childbirth and her stillborn child is buried with her. Without any decoration of any kind on the stone, one can not – and should not – assume anything about the family. 

Military

Most of my family members, who were in the military, did not have anything commemorative on their stones. However some use an anchor for the Navy. A castle may mean the deceased was with the US Army Corps of Engineers. The Southern Cross of Honor was used for Confederate Veterans. 

Organizations

Organizations may offer much insight to our ancestors. It can also be a source of records and documentation, even if just residence and age. Three links in a chain symbolizes the Oddfellows, for example. A four leaf clover may indicate Irish roots; however, if there are Hs in the leaves, the meaning now changes to 4H Club. Corn and wheat may indicate a farmer.  

Daniel M Herr and his wife Naomi Wiggins Herr are buried at the Zion UCC Church in Providence, Lancaster County. There is a large family stone that identifies them as Herrs. The symbols on this smaller stone are Masonic. Daniel is a member of the Free & Accepted Masons. Naomi is an Eastern Star. A crown with a knight’s head (the helmet) and crossed swords indicates an affiliation with the Order of DeMolay. 

Professions

My great-great grandfather was a blacksmith. However his stone was very plain. Some symbols represent professions. For example an axe, joined with a knife and cleaver, may symbolize a butcher. A bowl and razor would indicate a barber. A chalice may indicate the person was a priest. A hammer and square may mean the deceased was a carpenter.  

Religious

Many people opt for a religious symbol. Crosses, angels, and lambs all indicate one final religious statement. Arches symbolize the door to salvation. The Bible is also often found on many Christian stones. Catholics may use rosary beads. Menorahs are indication of Judaism.  

My grandmother’s brothers, Michael J and Daniel J Welsh, are buried together near her at St. Patrick’s RC Cemetery in Kennett Square. The stone is simple but adorned with ivy and a cross in each top corner. The crosses are a Christian symbol for the Resurrection. In their case, they were Roman Catholic. The ivy symbolizes immortality or friendship.  

Some symbols are simply icons of death, mortality and grief. A broken column, for example, represents the loss of the head of the family. Doves may symbolize peace. 

People have erected tombstones for their loved ones since early Biblical days. The first mention of such a marker is one Jacob erected for Rachel (Genesis 35:20) when she died in childbirth. The Bible does not elaborate as to what the marker says or any etchings in it. Merely, we are told “Then Jacob set a pillar on her grave, which is the pillar of Rachel’s grave to this day.” 

Jacob set the pillar on her grave, just as we set markers on the graves of our loved ones. Thus tombstones are a way in which the dead may speak one final word.

 

Share YOUR thoughts

Have you thought what yours might say?

Don’t Be Reluctant to Say “I Was Wrong”

I have met those that meet a suggestion that the information about and an ancestor’s information could be wrong with hostility, derision, or just ignoring you.  I can say, I am not one of those.

The research on Jasper Newton Wells has never stopped since I first began trying to find the Hero’s family in 1980.  It started out as a granddaughter telling her memories of her grandmother, Martha Ann Maloura Wells, and the little information she had on her grandmother’s parents.  From there I turned to the Clayton Library Center for GenealogicalResearch in Houston for more information.  Mom said they were in Alabama.  My search began with looking for Jasper Wells in Alabama 1860. I searched the Alabama AIS Census Index for him.  I could not find him.  I was beginning to doubt.   Each time I went to the Library, I went back to the index in hopes.  This went on for a couple of years.  Then one day, when I opened the index, my eyes strayed to the other page, and there he was!  His name had been entered in the index out of alphabetical order.  This was one of my first research lessons; don’t trust an index to have all the information or even the correct information.  The second lesson on the same principle was searching through a book on Henry County, Alabama, “History of Henry County I”.  Jasper’s name was not in the index, but his daughter said he served in the Civil War.  I decided to browse through the different troops they had listed from that county.  There I found Jasper listed as a private in the Irwin Invincibles, subsequently called Henry Light Infantry with at note that said they were dispersed to Georgia 25^th Infantry, Co. E. 

I sent to the National Archives and Records Service requesting information on his Civil War Service. I received the information back that left me at 1862 and a big question mark.  Jasper in Nov. 1862 was at “St John’s “ sick.  

This is now found on Fold3 

Knowing that he was sick, and following the Georgia 25^th Infantry Co. E, I found a Jasper Wells who died in Virginia in 1864 of Typhoid. That seemed logical, hence pencil in death in 1864 Virginia…  Then later I found Nancy in the Ancestry.com collection “Alabama, Confederate Pension and Service Records, 1862-1947” with Jasper listed and a death date of Dec 1864.

Nancy Wells of Henry County, Alabama

Eureka! Hi Five! I was sure I had nailed it now.  It was down to finding St. John.  The Family was told of the find and I was doing the happy dance.

 Fast forward one year…  As I was doing some clean up on Jasper’s sourcing, I decided to search some more.  Lo and behold, someone had posted a picture of J N Wells’s tombstone from the Georgia 25^th Company E.  Whoot! 

The person who shared on Ancestry never gave his name dwightbrooks2, this is also on FindaGrave

There it was, so pretty, but wait, it was in Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia in April 1863.  How could this be?  This must be a mistake!  I did some more digging, (I still have inquiries out), only to find out that the Henry Light Infantry was in Savannah in 1862 from where they dispersed. There was a St John’s Church in Savannah, which could be the St. John’s I was looking for.   I looked inquired of the person who had posted the picture of the tombstone where he had found it and who had taken the picture.  He said lived in the area and was looking for Wells in the Civil War area and found it.  He was researching Wells, so he had added it in his tree as an unrelated person until he could research it more.  I then turned to FindaGrave who had more information about the cemetery Laurel Grove Cemetery (North).  Sure enough the grave was listed there. 

I admit it.  I erred.  He apparently never made it out of Savannah, Georgia and was lost in the shuffle.  My only assumption is that Nancy was giving when his death was confirmed to her.  I have not quit digging on harder proof, but I am sure this is our Jasper this time.  Hopefully the vial records were not burned, since the City of Savannah has burial record of his death and burial date. 

And that is me saying, I made a mistake.  It is okay, new information is coming out all the time.  Who would have known that a random save by a non related person would have pointed me to solving the mystery of where Jasper died.