Tombstone Tuesday, or How a Tree Helped Me Find a Grave

The birds in the tree were singing so loudly during my Grandma Ruth's graveside service that I found it impossible to pay attention to what the priest was saying. It was as if all of our departed ancestors had come to sing Grandma's soul aloft. Her grave and the guardian tree are located at a high point in St. Joseph Cemetery in Bristol, CT. The funeral was twenty-four years ago this July. Wow, that's hard to believe. 

Don't Forget to Ask for Directions

Fast forward to last May 2010. As I mentioned, while attending my cousin's wedding in Glenn Cove, New York, MJ and I took a little trip to Calvary Cemetery to find my 2x great grandmother Sarah's grave. I had done my homework and knew she was buried in Section 2, Avenue 11, Plot P, Grave #8. There was just one key question I had forgotten to ask: Is there a map with sections, avenues and plots marked or are these locations clearly marked within the cemetery?

MJ and I arrived at the cemetery full of energy and ready to go grave seeking. The building at the main entrance was deserted. 

View Larger Map

There was a groundskeeper's truck parked nearby. The female in our group wanted to ask the gardener for directions, but the male was sure we could find the grave without assistance, so we started driving around. Luckily Section 2 was clearly marked. We hopped out of the car and started our search at the lowest point of the section. Immediately we realized that many of the gravestones were either missing or appeared to have melted. What were the odds that Sarah's grave would still exist after one hundred and ten years?

How a Tree Helped Me Find a Grave

After about an hour of reading stones and running short on time, MJ jumped in the car and left to try to find the groundskeeper and ask for help. While he was gone, I was suddenly transported back to my Grandma Ruth's funeral. There was a large tree at the pinnacle of Section 2. It felt just like the tree from which the birds had been singing at the funeral. I felt drawn to walk up to it.

Still scanning stones on my way up the hill, I immediately found this one:

Sarah Grace's parents were John and Sarah Murtagh, but from my research I knew that there were two so named couples. I hadn't yet determined John's date of death or place of burial, but took photos of the stones for later research.

Was it the Tree or Something or Someone Else?

I continued further, reading stones and waiting for MJ to return, but felt a strong pull from the tree back at the top of the hill. I stood very still and listened to the quiet voice. I asked this voice if I was imagining it, but decided that I didn't need an answer and, thinking about my Grandma Ruth, I wandered back to the tree.

The Duh Moment

MJ returned and reported no success in finding anyone to help us located the grave. I shared my recent experience and showed him the stone I had found and then we decided we must return for the wedding. Once in the car, I had the brilliant idea to try calling the cemetery office and luckily they answered. The helpful person at the other end of the line explained that each gravestone was marked with the section, avenue and plot. Hmmm....and we didn't notice that. Yikes, as my daughter would say. What a learning experience!

We jumped back out of the car and started looking again, this time for the location engravings. Using the engravings we were guided back to the stone I had photographed just a few minutes earlier. Although we could not find the location engraving on the Murtagh stone, here is the bottom of the Keilt stone from the photo above:

Section 2, Ave 11, Plot 10

 Genealogical Serendipity

A simple math equation of ten minus two made the Murtagh grave Plot 8, the unmarked burial place for their daughter Sarah and her infant. Some would say that it was all coincidental, but I know that we had some help finding this grave. It may have been my Grandma Ruth, or my Murtagh 3x great grandparents, or Sarah, or even her baby. Or, it may have been the tree, at the top of the hill.

Section 2, Avenue 11 is directly behind this street side grave

All I know is that genealogical serendipity has struck again and connected me just a little bit more strongly with my ancestors.

Scrappy Gen, looking weird because she couldn't figure out how to pose with a gravestone

Has genealogical serendipity happened to you? I would love to hear about it. 

Scrappy Gen

Let's Remember!

Related articles

• Tombstone Tuesday - How to Find a Grave (scrappygenealogist.com)
• Tombstone Tuesday - Kokoska (chicagofamilyhistory.wordpress.com)

Scrapbook Sunday - Catherine Grace

My scrapbooking time has taken a big hit with the advent of The Scrappy Genealogist. And, I miss it! Today I renewed my determination to get our family stories documented with a page about my great grandmother, Catherine Grace. You will recognize several photos from photo repair posts. 

The materials are all from a page of the month kit by Basic Grey. I chose these colors because Catherine's favorite color was said to be rose and the blue of the background reminds me of her eyes.

Check here next Sunday for another family history scrapbook page!

Happy Sunday!

Scrappy Gen

Let's Remember!

Photo Edits - Catherine Grace - Tear Repair and Spot Healing

Here is our starting image of Catherine with lighting and color adjustments:

Lightroom is always my starting tool for photo repair. I try to do as much as possible there and then, if necessary, move into Photoshop Elements for further editing. The Clone or Heal Brush included with Lightroom is quite effective with small damaged areas. Here is a closeup of one area that needs fixing:

With just a few clicks of the Clone Brush these small dots disappear:

Before cloning or healing a larger damaged area like the background, first I like to use the Adjustment Brush set to Clarity -100, which smooths out some of the funky marks and pixels. You might remember that one of the challenges with editing this photo is that it was scanned at a low resolution and is therefore a small file with pixels easily visible upon enlargement. 

Before Clarity Brush at -100

After Clarity Brush at -100

This shows the background before and after the clarity brush set to -100 has been applied.

Next I used the Clone/Heal brush on the background. 

Looking good! Here is the image with all of the healed areas marked.

Now onto the challenging tears. This tear I was able to fix with the Clone brush in Lightroom: 

The larger tear really needs Photoshop. You can see how it looks using the Lightroom Clone tool. To undo the changes, just select Ctrl Z for each change you want to delete. Then right click on the image and choose Edit in Photoshop, and then edit a copy with Lightroom Adjustments. 

Here the tear has been repaired with a similar tool in Photoshop called, you guessed it, the Clone Stamp.

In Photoshop I saved the image as a copy, then went back to Lightroom and opened the new image. Just three more steps; 1) smoothed the skin on Catherine's face, neck and arms with the Adjustment Brush, Clarity -50, 2) lifted the highlights in her hair and eyes with Adjustment Brush, Sharpness +35 and 3) applied a light vignette. 

Here are the final and original images:

Don't know why, but that crooked grin reminds me of someone else. I can't help but smile when I look at her. She was so young and pretty. Believe it or not, those are not blond highlights in her hair, but white. The story goes that her hair was completely white by the age of 25. I won't tell you who in the family has her genes. 

Hope that these photo repair steps were helpful. If you have any questions, just give me a shout.

Happy Friday!!!

Scrappy Gen

Let's Remember!

Wordless Wednesday - Fearless Female - Catherine Grace

Something is going to have to be done with this damaged photo. It doesn't do justice to the beautiful, strong and fearless female within its margins. Stay tuned. 

Happy Wednesday!

Scrappy Gen

Let's Remember!

Fearless Females: Single Mothers

What makes a woman fearless? Perhaps she is born fearless, or perhaps she earns her fearless title due to life's circumstances. Both my father's and my mother's paternal grandmothers earned their fearless titles the hard way. Both women, separated by time and family of birth, presumably fell in love, married, had children and then were promptly deserted. 

Irene Hammond

Catherine Grace

Both desertions occurred between 1910 and 1930. After the Who Do You Think You Are episode with Kim Cattrall, whose grandfather also left his family, there was some discussion among genealogists about fact that desertions were more common during this era. The evidence in my family sadly backs up this assertion.

My two fearless great grandmothers went on alone to raise these two kind, thoughtful and intelligent men and their siblings. 

Stanley Brainard, Son of Irene Hammond

Edward Smith, Son of Catherine Grace

These men my great grandmothers raised became, in their turn, good and loving fathers. It takes guts to be a single mother. Many of that era probably gave up some or all of their children. They could have chosen this path. It would have been easier. I am so thankful to my fearless great grandmothers, who met their challenges with strength and raised the men I remember with love every day of my life. 

Happy Monday!

Scrappy Gen

Let's Remember!


Lisa Alzo of The Accidental Genealogist offered us a series of writing prompts called Fearless Females to celebrate Women's History Month. Thank you Lisa! My posts might not follow your prompts exactly, but they will portray Fearless Females!

Genealogical Goodness - Top 10 Genealogical Experiences in 2010

Shhhh....don't tell anyone, but I didn't have a genealogical plan for 2010. It is just by luck and on the fly planning that I did have some incredible genealogical experiences. 

This year my kids said...What do you MEAN you want to spend a week in Los Angeles going to classes and not even leaving the hotel? Why in the world do you want to go to a cemetery? It's filled with dead people. Why exactly are you standing with tears in your eyes on some street corner in New York City taking pictures just because some great, great somebody lived there more than ONE HUNDRED years ago?! But I say, these were a few of my top ten favorite genealogical moments during 2010. Here are all ten;

February 2010 Bristol CT: Visiting with two of my Smith great aunts and scanning valuable family papers. Same trip:Visiting with my mother's sister and starting to scan Bubba's printed photos. 



















May 2010 Warwick, RI: My husband (who does not love cemeteries) volunteering to tramp through a cemetery. It must be true love. From one of the tombstones, we learned that his great great grandfather Feldman's first name was Noah. We gave our son this name eleven years ago.

 








May 2010 Queens, New York: Finding my great great grandmother's (Sarah (Murtaugh) Grace) 'room with a view', her grave in the Calvary Cemetery overlooking New York City.

July 2010 Los Angeles, CA - Three Experiences in One:  

Meeting MJ's cousin Cathy, a Brisk descendant on his father's side.

Meeting MJ's cousin, Evon, a Sumberg descendant on his mother's side.

Attending the Jewish Genealogy Conference during which I never left the hotel grounds, plus winning free registration for 2011 in Washington, DC.

 















October 2010: Taking a chance and starting to write and share on The Scrappy Genealogist blog. 

October 2010 New York, NY: Seeing a picture of MJ's Brisk great grandparents for the first time.  

October 2010 Manhattan, NY: Standing with tears in my eyes on this street corner in New York City taking pictures just because my Great Grandmother Grace (as well as her parents and grandparents) lived there more than ONE HUNDRED years ago.

December 2010: Wow, it's hard to stop at ten. Every new discovery is exciting. Just like a little kid, whose most favorite present is the newest one, I include the discovery I made this week of my great grandmother (Kiesel) Ginter's passenger list, which indirectly lead me to identifying two siblings. Her sister, Bertha (unknown maiden name) Mansfield is pictured here with her husband, Louis.

Thank you for reading along as I remembered 2010. It really was a year filled with genealogical goodness. Time to make some goodness goals for 2011!


Scrappy Gen

Scrappy Genealogist Learns to Blog - Footnote Friday and Privacy Concerns

A cousin of mine contacted me to find out why I had left the Grace surname off of my surname list. She pointed out that not only had I neglected to include it, but I also had not identified my great grandmother as a Grace. She asked if I was no longer claiming my Grace ancestry.

For the record, I am proud to be a descendant of the Grace family from Freshford Village in Kilkenny, Ireland by way of Quebec and Vermont. This happy couple is Edward and Catherine (Travers) Grace. They are great great great grandparents to me and great great grandparents to two cousins I have connected with through Ancestry.com.


This family treasure proved its value in confirming our relationship. They had the same picture! We were officially Grace cousins.

My cousin knew I was happy about our connection, so she had a valid reason to ask why I had not mentioned our ancestral surname. As you know, I am a newbie genealogy blogger. Part of learning to blog about my genealogical finds is deciding how much I feel is safe and comfortable to share.

For more recent generations whose publicized information might invade the privacy of living relatives, I have elected not to include any surnames. It’s a difficult balance to achieve. It’s a problem I ran into while creating my first Footnote Friday post. Within the source citations, I replaced names with [name for private use] and birth/death dates with (birth year-death year), instead of using the actual information.

Am I being paranoid? Probably not because identity theft is a clear and present danger. That said I would really like to find my groove and decide what my parameters are going to be. I would love to know how others have dealt with privacy concerns. If you are a blogger, how do you decide where to draw the line? Is your line permanent, or flexible? In the case of reports with citations, is it all or nothing? How do you handle this?

Thank you!

Scrappy Gen

Scrappy Genealogist Goes to New York – Part 4 Great Grandma Catherine’s Birthplace

The second day of our frenetic visit to New York City found us here:

  
With my family in tow (in a hired car), I was looking for the home of this precious beauty, my great grandmother, Catherine:



It’s hard to say who was cuter, Catherine, or this kid:



You have to love those freckles. This adorable guy was Catherine's son and you already know him as Bubba, the Sailor Man. While we were in New York City, we visited 401 East 10th Street in Manhattan. This was the home address of Catherine’s parents, Edward and Sarah, at the time of her birth in 1899 as indicated on her birth certificate. 




Here is the building (above) which is at the location Google Maps gives for 401 East 10th Street. The photo below shows the same building from the front, which faces Avenue C. The address above the door shows that it is number 170. A website of virtual walking tours in Manhattan called New York Songlines indicates it was built in 1967. 



Obviously this was not the home of my great grandmother, although the 1900 U.S. census did show them living at 170 Avenue C and not 401 East 10th Street. I had expected them to be living in a building similar to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum and similar to the buildings (shown below) across both Avenue C and East 10th Street from this more modern building. 

          

I took a look at some old maps to see what the area looked like in the past. This snippet of an 1852 map from the David Rumsey Map Collection shows Stage Stables at the future location of  401 East 10th Street. Click on the map to be taken to the original image. 



Here is a later image of the same address in 1891. The stables have become a Horse Car Stable and seem to take up a smaller area. The street number range provides for the house numbers in Catherine’s records.




The buildings along the stretch of Avenue C between from 162 through 172 appear to have been similar in size to other brick multifamily buildings still in existence today and which I photographed in the area. Most likely Catherine did live in a building similar to the Tenement Museum. Although I did not get to see the original home of my great grandmother, it still felt more concrete (no pun intended) to stand on the street where she lived. As much fun as I have with David Rumsey’s maps and Google Maps, nothing beats visiting a place in person.
This is my last installment of our two day whirlwind trip to New York City. You can read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 here.

Thanks for reading!

Scrappy Gen