McRae/Anderson Genealogy: Tombstone Tuesday - There's More Than Meets The Ey...

New Genealogy Blog:
McRae/Anderson Genealogy: Tombstone Tuesday - There's More Than Meets The Ey...: "The city of Brockton, Massachusetts has many cemeteries and if I look around hard enough, I can probably find someone of relation in each on..."

National Digital Newspaper Program

The Library of Congress has announced that it recently added 230,000 pages to its digital newspaper archives. The project includes some newspapers from 1860-1922, 22 states plus the District of Columbia. These newspaper pages can be searched, clipped, or downloaded to your computer.
http://www.loc.gov/ndnp/

The Journey Takers

I really enjoyed reading this book and thought I would pass it on.

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Leslie Albrecht Huber's ancestors were journey takers, leaving their homes in Germany, Sweden, and England behind to sail to the US and start new lives here. Huber sets out to trace these journeys and to understand her family - who they were and what mattered to them. As she follows in their footsteps, walking the paths they walked and looking over the land they farmed, she finds herself on a journey she hadn't expected. Based on thousands of hours of research, Huber recreates the immigration experience in a way that captures both its sweeping historical breadth and its intimately personal consequences.

Tombstone Tuesday: Alfred & Katherine VanNess:

My sister Michele and her friend went to Cedar Grove cemetery to photograph The VanNess’s tombstones. There was only one headstone the rest were flat monuments with nothing on them. There were two other monuments; one stated Wife the other Husband. We know from Cedar Grove Cemetery tombstones inscriptions and interment that Alfred A VanNess is buried in section CAT-844-2A, his wife Katherine (Jones) is buried in section CAT-844-2C. Arthur VanNess (I believe to be their son) is buried in section CAT-844-3B, Harold VanNess (relationship not established) is buried in section CAT 844-2B and Lillian(VanNess) Quillian, Alfred and Katherine's daughter is buried in section CAT-844-3C.

The headstone looks like it was knocked out of place or maybe the ground in uneven it looks like someone tried to fix it?

The symbol on the headstone is hard to read. I looked up the VanNess family crest and this symbol does not look like it.

Does anyone have any idea what it might represent?

Wordless Wenesday: Alfred Abram and Katherine (Jones) VanNess: My 2nd Great grandparents

I finally found information on my brick wall! Researching my 2 great grand parents I could not find any information on them, I had names, place of birth and approximate birthdates but nothing showed up on Ancestry.com or Familysearch.org. I gave up after a while then one day last week I decided to start reaching them again.

I knew they lived and died in New York so I googled  New York Deaths,  I found a site called http://www.italiangen.org, they have a online search index for New York  deaths, marriages and  naturalizations. I found this site before but I thought this site just catered to Italian genealogy so I did not even bother to look at their indexes, this time I gave it a shot and typed in their names. Bingo! They showed up on their death index along with a death certificate number. I could have had this brick wall solved months ago!

I sent for their death records and Katherine’s came in the other day. This is her! Her place of birth, birthdate and parent’s names match what I have. Her death certificate stated the cemetery where she was buried. I googled the cemetery http://thecedargrovecemetery.com and to my surprise they had an online interment search. I typed in her name and there she was! The site gave me her lot and plot number. Along with Katherine, Alfred and several family members are buried by her. They even had a map of the cemetery sections, how convenient.

My sister lives in Brooklyn, I live in Florida, so I called her and she told me she is only 15 miles from the cemetery. Guess what she is doing this weekend? Yep, she is going to the cemetery for me to take tombstone pictures.  The whole time family members were buried 15 miles from my sister and we did not know it!

Immigrant Ancestors Project

The Immigrant Ancestors Project, uses emigration registers to locate information about the birthplaces of immigrants in their native countries, which is not found in the port registers and naturalization documents in the destination countries. Check out their web site at Immigrant Ancestors Project

Sentimental Sunday: Family Traditions: Easter

My Genealogy Blog: Family Traditions: Easter: "When my children’s father and I divorced, one year I would have the kid’s for Easter then the next year he would have them. Fair enough but ..."