Cemetery Look-up
Replies: 11
Re: Cemetery Look-up
| KN7Yjack (View posts) | Posted: 5 Jul 2008 2:05PM GMT |
Classification: Query
Dear Bob:
I've been researching "long distance" in Lorain County for 9 years. A story from my dad's long lost cousin found in 1999 still living in Battle Creek, MI at the time, was our source. Roberta (Mains) Whitbeck (1916 - 2004) led us to Wellington, where I have since found my ggg-grandparents, and then numerous other relatives in several of the Lorain County area Cemeteries. My son and I visited in 2006 and tried to see them all. I think we made it to about 70% of the county cemeteries in the span of 2-1/2 days.
DEATH RECORDS
I believe the 1908 and subsequent death records are mostly online, and a fellow researcher has guided you to the Ohio Death RECORDS, which is a treasure of information. If you ever come across an ancestor death record there, by all means order one because they are full of information.
On Ancestry.com select the "SEARCH" tab at the top of your home page and then scroll down and select "Ohio" and then you can check out death records from about 1908 on. Again, this does not help you with the 1800's. The death records from the 1800's were mainly hand written records in vital records books kept at the county court house.
In the 1800's, the records are there only if reported. Mostly a date and a name, kept in chronological order. I have copies of the pages of my ggg-grandparents death records, which do not indicate the cemetery (although I know they are in the LaGrange Twp. Cemetery). These records are, in my experience, fairly complete but there have been instances where some of my ancestors simply "disappeared," where the only thing I could find after years of research was a notation in the newspaper "Aunt Maria Woodmansee is seriously ill." Even though there is a notation in the 1908 listing on Ancestry.com, it is a different person.
Another avenue is to again select "SEARCH" at the tab at the top of your "HOME" page here, and then scroll down and select the newspaper and periodical search link. Many of Lorain County newspapers were scanned and are visible online there. Know that in the 1800's, obituaries were not regularly reported, but you might be able to find something there.
TELEPHONE BOOK
At dogpile.com select the White Pages link and then type in Kingsley in Amherst, Ohio, and I think you'll be surprised. I am not shy and have made many a successful phone call back to the Lorain County folks, and have met distant cousins this way. Also use the towns of Wellington, Elyria, Oberlin, and LaGrange as the "City" since they are all in the county.
CEMETERY RECORDS
Burial records were not kept, at least for the LaGrange Cemetery, until approximately (If I remember what a local historian told me) about 1935. So, you might try to find the Sexton in the area.
LORIAN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Researching long distance, I have found that being a member of local genealogical and historical societies has been one of the greatest assets. The Lorain County Historical Society, located in Elyria, can be found here http://home.alltel.net/thehickories/
Among many things, they can point you to the cemetery sexton in Amherst Twp.. The sexton in LaGrange met me at the cemetery there in 2006 and much of what the township had (in addition to the transcription online) was in an old book that he carried around with him. I've been in contact with him over the years, and he has also been a wealth of information.
http://www.pbase.com/azsheldon/image/67636340 Please check out this photograph. This is the sexton at LaGrange, showing me the repairs he made to one of our ancestor's headstones. Polly Woodmansee died as a teenager, and I cannot locate the death or any other reference to her parents. However, look just to the left and you'll see a base stone right by his shoe, the type that used to have two pillars now gone. It is my hunch that Bradley B. and Sylvina Maria (Sheldon) Woodmansee are there. That's my best educated and well researched guess at this point. So, until I come across anything "concrete," my guess is as good as yours!
I hope the above helps, and wish you the best of luck in your search.
Sincerely,
Jack L. Sheldon, Jr., CPA
Genealogist, The Sheldon Family Assoc., Inc.
Mesa, Arizona (formerly of Owosso, Michigan)
I've been researching "long distance" in Lorain County for 9 years. A story from my dad's long lost cousin found in 1999 still living in Battle Creek, MI at the time, was our source. Roberta (Mains) Whitbeck (1916 - 2004) led us to Wellington, where I have since found my ggg-grandparents, and then numerous other relatives in several of the Lorain County area Cemeteries. My son and I visited in 2006 and tried to see them all. I think we made it to about 70% of the county cemeteries in the span of 2-1/2 days.
DEATH RECORDS
I believe the 1908 and subsequent death records are mostly online, and a fellow researcher has guided you to the Ohio Death RECORDS, which is a treasure of information. If you ever come across an ancestor death record there, by all means order one because they are full of information.
On Ancestry.com select the "SEARCH" tab at the top of your home page and then scroll down and select "Ohio" and then you can check out death records from about 1908 on. Again, this does not help you with the 1800's. The death records from the 1800's were mainly hand written records in vital records books kept at the county court house.
In the 1800's, the records are there only if reported. Mostly a date and a name, kept in chronological order. I have copies of the pages of my ggg-grandparents death records, which do not indicate the cemetery (although I know they are in the LaGrange Twp. Cemetery). These records are, in my experience, fairly complete but there have been instances where some of my ancestors simply "disappeared," where the only thing I could find after years of research was a notation in the newspaper "Aunt Maria Woodmansee is seriously ill." Even though there is a notation in the 1908 listing on Ancestry.com, it is a different person.
Another avenue is to again select "SEARCH" at the tab at the top of your "HOME" page here, and then scroll down and select the newspaper and periodical search link. Many of Lorain County newspapers were scanned and are visible online there. Know that in the 1800's, obituaries were not regularly reported, but you might be able to find something there.
TELEPHONE BOOK
At dogpile.com select the White Pages link and then type in Kingsley in Amherst, Ohio, and I think you'll be surprised. I am not shy and have made many a successful phone call back to the Lorain County folks, and have met distant cousins this way. Also use the towns of Wellington, Elyria, Oberlin, and LaGrange as the "City" since they are all in the county.
CEMETERY RECORDS
Burial records were not kept, at least for the LaGrange Cemetery, until approximately (If I remember what a local historian told me) about 1935. So, you might try to find the Sexton in the area.
LORIAN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Researching long distance, I have found that being a member of local genealogical and historical societies has been one of the greatest assets. The Lorain County Historical Society, located in Elyria, can be found here http://home.alltel.net/thehickories/
Among many things, they can point you to the cemetery sexton in Amherst Twp.. The sexton in LaGrange met me at the cemetery there in 2006 and much of what the township had (in addition to the transcription online) was in an old book that he carried around with him. I've been in contact with him over the years, and he has also been a wealth of information.
http://www.pbase.com/azsheldon/image/67636340 Please check out this photograph. This is the sexton at LaGrange, showing me the repairs he made to one of our ancestor's headstones. Polly Woodmansee died as a teenager, and I cannot locate the death or any other reference to her parents. However, look just to the left and you'll see a base stone right by his shoe, the type that used to have two pillars now gone. It is my hunch that Bradley B. and Sylvina Maria (Sheldon) Woodmansee are there. That's my best educated and well researched guess at this point. So, until I come across anything "concrete," my guess is as good as yours!
I hope the above helps, and wish you the best of luck in your search.
Sincerely,
Jack L. Sheldon, Jr., CPA
Genealogist, The Sheldon Family Assoc., Inc.
Mesa, Arizona (formerly of Owosso, Michigan)