Digging up History and Families

     Recently I started enjoying a new hobby as a Photo Volunteer with findagrave.com.  I have enjoyed several aspects of searching for tombstones and photographing them for families and historians to see.  I wanted to share a recent adventure as an example.  In a local cemetery, I went searching for a picture of the tombstone of J.E. Moore which was requested by P.Hamilton on findagrave.com.   I soon discovered that small cemeteries do not have an easily referenced index of names and locations of tombstones.  In fact, this cemetery had been in poor shape for a long time and had been taken over by the county commissioners who have done a great job of mowing and returning some semblance of order to the place.  They also had a 45 year old census of the cemetery on a piece of wood in a vault at the courthouse.

I walked the rows and did not immediately see the stone.  Little by little I realized that during the years of disrepair, many stones had fallen and lain on the ground until grass began to grow over them and swallow them up.  In some cases only a small portion of the stone remained visable.  This was the case with J.E. Moore.
   As I walked the entire cemetery again, more slowly this time I came across this area.

 

Seeing "J.E." I investigated more and uncovered enough to determine that this was the grave I had been searching for.  I took this picture, but was very dissatisfied.  Much information is not able to be seen.   

     I took a trip to the county records office where I was introduced to the limited records.  I asked if I could have permission to uncover some of the stones that had fallen and were sinking into the ground.  The clerk said to follow her and we walked into a room where the county leaders were in a meeting.  We asked them the question and they said "Knock yourself out" if you want to do that. :)  

     I went back to the cemetery and soon had this result.  

Rev. J.E. Moore

Died

Dec 3, 1875

AGED

45 years, 9 mos

above the crown it reads

"Receive a Crown"

and the words

"Holy Bible" are inscribed on the book.

the grass actually preserved part of it and tells me that it must have fallen a long time ago when the stone wasn't that old and deteriorated.

I sent the image to P. Hamilton on findagrave but it would not send.  I was so excited to have her see it, but no luck.  This blog entry will hopefully solve that problem.  :)

                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Next she told me that there should be children buried nearby.. Her information said Rev. Moore's wife had moved after his death.  I looked back at my original pictures and saw a stone nearby that was also mostlyburied.   I could see the word "Children" and "Moore" so I set out to uncover that mystery as well.












An amazing thing happened as I began to cut the sod and grass and pull it back.  First of all it came out in almost one piece and I was shocked to see that the roots of the grass had formed themselves into the shape of letters of J.E. Moore's children's names. Here is the picture.

Written on the same stone were the names of Mary  and Fidelia reversed in the roots of the grass.

I cleaned the rest of the stone and here were two daughters who had died before their father who was buried next to them.

Chilren of J.E. and A.E. Moore

Mary E.
Died
Aug  8, 1862
AGED
1 yr   11 mos

Fidelia B?

Died

July 22, 1858

AGED

2 years and 8 mos

I love uncovering history and preserving it for families and for history. 

As I read the biography for Rev. J. E. Moore, I read that during the last 5 years of his life, he ministered in several churches in the area, and spent half of his time serving at the same church where I am a minister today.  What an interesting connection.  Thank you to P. Hamilton and findagrave for getting me started on this meaningful adventure.

location in Maysville Cemetery on Water Street