Family History Tips--Part 31

 Stop Being an Armchair Genealogist and Get Away from Your Computer: Exploring Cemeteries
by Brenna Corbit, Technical Services Librarian

After having written thirty blog entries on useful online family history tips, I am going to drag you out of your chair and thrust you into the light of day. Contrary to what many may think, the Internet is not the end-all be-all of genealogical information. Although family history sites have gazillions of online records, gazillions exit offline. They are housed in places of worship, government archives, and genealogical societies, to name a few. Seeing the actual records in your hands is simply ten times more exciting than a digital image, or even worse, the dreaded, despicable indexed transcriptions brimming with errors. Seeing is believing, so get out of your seat and let’s get moving.

Today, we will start with cemeteries. So, why go traipsing to a remote cemetery attached to a several-centuries old church when you can probably view it on Findagrave.com or Internment.com? I will tell you why. 

One, not all online cemetery databases are completed. Two, not all tombstones have been photographed. Three, many are just transcriptions, and you know what I think of them. Moreover, when they are photographed and transcribed for indexing, it is amazing that so many errors occur. And finally, you do not see the stories online that a trip to a cemetery can reveal. 

Five rows of the Borkert family, an example of a family grouping of headstones in 
Aulenbach’s Cemetery, Reading, Pa. Photo: Brenna Corbit and Jolene Flamm 

Often, family members are buried together. Because of this, you can find clues to piecing together families. If you see, for example, a Robert McCauley born in 1854 and died in 1899 and you see others of the same surname older and younger by a generation, you may be seeing the parents of Robert and his children. Findagrave.com does not reveal this.

Sometimes the remoteness or a poverty of a people is revealed. In a remote cemetery in northern Berks County, I came across early Pennsylvania German grave markers that looked like flat field stones chiseled in a runic style as if the families didn’t have the funds or access to a professional tombstone maker. Similarly, in an African American cemetery in South Coatesville, Pa., I came across a few of these types of stones from the 1950s, indicating that the families probably had limited funds for a tombstone, so they found a flat stone and made their own to honor their dead. 

Possibly a homemade headstone for Magdalena Kiefern. Notice how the name 
wraps from line to line. New Bethel Union Cemetery, Kempton, Berks County, Pa.

Photo: findagrave.com 

There are other benefits to visiting cemeteries. I went to a Friends (Quaker) cemetery at an Exeter Meeting House in Berks County that had no stones. Luckily, a caretaker who was mowing grass said that in their religion tombstones displayed too much pomp, as you will see in other cemeteries. In death, he explained, we are equal, so no one can have a fancy memorial stone next to a humble headstone. 

In another church cemetery at New Hanover Lutheran Church in Montgomery County, Pa, I was able to see my ancestor’s name Georg Burchardt inscribed on the outer wall of the 18th century church. The caretaker gave us a tour of the church and explained that the inscribed names were individuals who funded the church’s erection. My early Burkhardts (later Borkert) were masons and eventually bricklayers. Thus, Georg may not only have helped fund its erection, but perhaps may have helped cut and lay its stones.

Probably the best part of visiting a cemetery is to stand in the same spot that perhaps 200 years ago your ancestors stood when laying a beloved family member to rest. You certainly can’t get that online.

So pull yourself from your computer and follow these few tips I have learned about visiting cemeteries.

• Take good walking shoes. You will do a lot of walking, sometimes over rough terrain. 
• Take a camera and a notepad. Even when taking a photo, you should still write down the information because the photo may be unclear. Many stones are old and weathered. 
• If a stone is weathered try looking at it from different angles, or try doing a rubbing of the stone. YouTube has many tutorials on reading worn headstones. 
• Learn how to identify periods of tombstone styles. If you are looking for a headstone of someone who died about 1810, the stone will look quite different from someone who died in 1945. The oldest part of a church cemetery is generally closest to the edifice, itself. Here is a link for identifying styles and periods: http://www.gravestonepreservation.info/articles/stone-identification
• If the cemetery is huge, like Charles Evans Cemetery in Reading, Pa, go to the office attached to the cemetery. They will be able to lead you to the exact location of a stone or family plot. 
• Go in a season that is not too hot or too cold. I hate walking in hot sunlight, and as much as I love winter, snow can obstruct the stones, and my fingers get quite numb when trying to record the information. 
• Use binoculars to scan the cemetery as you look for a particular name. This will save some time and much walking. 
• Many grave markers give the birth/age of the deceased in years, months and days. Here is a calculator to determine the birthdate. http://www.longislandgenealogy.com/birth.html
• Use county atlases. When you are not sure where your ancestors are buried, look at the cemeteries close to where they lived. Many detailed county atlases mark every known cemetery, many of which you may not have known existed, especially small family cemeteries. Did you know, for example, there is a tiny family cemetery just off of the intersection of Lancaster Avenue, Route 10/Morgantown Road and the Warren Street Bypass? 
• Some old family cemeteries are in the middle of corn fields or hidden in wooded areas and are often on private land, so always ask permission. 
• Do not make much noise. There may be others visiting and mourning loved ones. 
• Don’t go alone. Go with a friend or small group. You can cover more ground this way by splitting up. 
• Many cemeteries are in isolated places, another good reason to go with a friend or group. A few times I have seen people who made me nervous, but this is a rarity. 

You never know what you will encounter when strolling through cemeteries. Once a whole Mennonite congregation was pressing their noses against the church windows wondering what I was doing in their church cemetery. Another time I found a twenty-dollar bill that bought my wife and me lunch. And one time a death rocker working at a Turkey Hill thought it was just the coolest thing in the world that I was buying a Berks County atlas to locate cemeteries.