December 2009 Graveyard Rabbits Carnival Posted!

The December 2009 Graveyard Rabbits Carnival has been posted! You can read it here. The topic for the next edition will be on the final resting place, and you can read more about it here. Enjoy!

November 2009 Graveyard Rabbits Carnival Posted!

The November 2009 Graveyard Rabbits Carnival has been posted! You can read it here. The topic for the next edition will be on "In the news," and you can read more about it here. Enjoy!

Tombstone Tuesday: A Jacobs Family Tombstone

For this week's Tombstone Tuesday I have posted another photograph of a grave in the Placeway/Whitcomb Cemetery. This grave is for a William Jacobs, and outside of the information on the tombstone, I do not have any further information on him. Enjoy!

A Cross-Posting: History Being Destroyed ...

Earlier today, I happened to post on my other genealogy blog an article about the destruction of a possible Native American burial site. You can read the post here.

Tombstone Tuesday: And Another View of Placeway/Whitcomb Cemetery, Again

For this Tombstone Tuesday, I have chosen to post another part of Placeway/Whitcomb Cemetery because I have not yet gone back to the cemetery to retake the pictures I took the last time. This photo is of the portion of the cemetery that is closest to the road and it would be put to the left of the second photograph that I posted. The first photograph is here. Of course, I plan to retake the pictures I took sometime in the future, but hopefully, I'll be able to do that within the coming weeks. Enjoy!

Tombstone Tuesday: Another View of Placeway/Whitcomb Cemetery

Since last Tuesday, I haven't been able to return to Placeway/Whitcomb Cemetery due to the fact that the weather hasn't been the best. So, I am posting another one of those photographs that I originally took. This photograph would be placed next to the other photograph on the left. If I do not get another chance to take photographs before next Tuesday, I'll post the other portion of the cemetery. (I had to divide photographing the cemetery into three parts as I was unable to take one whole picture like I wanted to do.)

2nd Edition of the Graveyard Rabbits Carnival Posted!

The second edition of the Graveyard Rabbits Carnival has been posted! You can read it here. The topic for the next edition will be on cemetery preservation, and you can read more about it here. Enjoy!

Michigan Cemetery Atlas - Revisited

As you may remember, I wrote about an atlas that lists all of the cemeteries in Michigan a few months ago. Well, I happened to notice that Harold over at Midwestern Microhistory mentioned the book in an article over a week or so ago, and I thought I would just let everyone know. Enjoy!

Some Wintertime Cemetery Thoughts ...

This is just a post of some of my ramblings thoughts on cemeteries, Michigan and winter at the moment. I'll try not to post too many of these posts in the future, but I just wanted to post some thoughts today because I have not posted very much on this blog since I started it.

At the moment, I am unable to really take photographs of tombstones because of the obvious fact that the weather is not the best for taking pictures. Michigan (and many other states) is blanketed in snow, and thus, to take pictures of cemeteries at the moment would be a waste of film or space. Of course, there are a few cemeteries nearby that I could take pictures of, but the weather is not the best. Over this past weekend, my area got about 8 inches of snow on top of the couple of inches that it received from last week, and so, many tombstones in the cemetery closest to my home are covered. Yet, I am kicking my self because over the holidays the majority of the snow we received in December had melted away, and that would have been the best time for me to have taken pictures of the nearest cemetery. Of course, I probably would have walked to the cemetery since it is just close enough to walk to, but I did not do so because it was still fairly cold at the time. (I would have taken one of my dogs with me when I visited the place, as it is not a very good idea to visit a cemetery alone, and the walk would probably have been too long for him in the wintertime.) Plus, I would have to walk down a dirt road (I live in a rural area), and in the winter time, walking down the road is probably not the safest thing to do since there aren't any sidewalks.

As you can probably tell, I am slightly frustrated that I cannot take any pictures at the moment. I'll have to wait for another thaw or until spring before I can take new pictures. So, until then, I will be posting pictures of cemeteries and tombstones that I took a few years ago. (And some of those pictures have yet to be developed.) So, please stay tuned for more in the future. ...

Tombstone Tuesday: Another Oswalt Grave in Beard Cemetery

The photograph above is of another Oswalt tombstone in Beard Cemetery. The name on the grave is Mary Oswalt, and as far as I know, this Mary is not related to me. I believe her parents are Albert and Claudia Oswalt since she is buried next to them, but I am not 100% sure. In another post, I will include some more information on Beard Cemetery. (Speaking of other posts, I just realized that I have not yet posted more information on Prairie River Cemetery, and I will do so in the future.)

Saginaw City Cemeteries Transcriptions

Although I realize that I am supposed to focus on Michigan rural cemeteries on this blog, I just felt I should mention that the City of Saginaw has put burial transcriptions of the three cemeteries it manages online. I've decided to mention the website anyway because I have a couple of ancestors who died in Saginaw, and I was waiting for the transcriptions to be completed so that I could look and see if my ancestors were buried in one of the three cemeteries. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find either of my ancestors buried in either of the cemeteries, but below is some more information on the website.

Saginaw manages the cemeteries of Oakwood, Brady Hill and Forest Lawn, and you can now search all three of the cemeteries' transcriptions here. Although I have not been successful, I hope that someone else will find this website helpful. Enjoy!

Tombstone Tuesday: An Overview of the Stout Graves

The photograph above is an overview of my Stout ancestors' graves, and believe it or not, the header of this blog comes from this photograph. When I took individual pictures of Peter, Laura and Claudia's graves, I also took pictures of the area surrounding their graves so that I would be able to remember where these stones were located in case I forgot. This picture is one of the photos I took of the graves surrounding my ancestors' graves. Personally, I believe it is a good idea to take pictures of the surrounding graves in case one later learns that a neighboring grave happens to be of a relative of an ancestor. Plus, if I happen to forget where in the cemetery a grave is located, I can look back to the pictures of graves I took around my ancestor's grave to find it. (I should also mention that one of my grandpa's stories involved grave makers that were near my Stout ancestors' graves, and I took a picture of those graves since it was a landmark that my grandpa remembered from a previous visit. I'll explain what I mean in another post.)

I've Added a Coming Soon Section!

As you can see, I've added a coming soon section to this page to give my readers a heads up as to what I will be posting on in the future. At the moment, I have only posted my plans for future articles on the Prairie River Cemetery in Centreville. In the future, I plan to add more cemeteries to the list, but for the next couple of weeks, I do not plan to post on any other cemeteries other than Prairie River Cemetery. I hope you enjoy these future posts!

Tombstone Tuesday: A Grave Of A Stout Ancestor

The photo above is a picture of the grave of Peter Stout, my ancestor. He is buried in Prairie River Cemetery which is located in Centreville, Saint Joseph County, Michigan. Buried in the graves next to him are his second wife, oldest daughter and son-in-law. All, except for the son-in-law, have gravestones. For today, though, I have just decided to only post Peter's grave.

In the photo next to Peter's tombstone is a small marker that has, "perpetual care," written on it. Apparently someone had paid for the graves to be taken care of in the future. At the moment, I do not know who paid for this, but some day, I intend to look for any possible records, that is, if the records still exist. (I'll explain the reason why in another post.) Of course, I am grateful that someone paid for the graves to be cared for, and as one can see from the photo above, the tombstone is in excellent shape.

A List of Cemeteries I Hope To Talk About

I am not sure how many posts I will be posting between now and mid-December, but after Christmas, I definitely do plan on writing some posts on some cemeteries in Michigan. Here is just a list of cemeteries that I hope to eventually get around to posting on in the near future:

• Beard Cemetery, Saint Joseph County
• Calhoun Cemetery, Saint Joseph County
• Prairie River Cemetery, Saint Joseph County
• Placeway/Whitcomb Cemetery, Livingston County
• and of course many others ...

The cemeteries above are either ones where I have ancestors buried or ones that I am familiar with, and thus, these cemeteries will be among the first I will write about. Please stay tuned for future posts! Thanks.

Tombstone Tuesday ...

For this Tombstone Tuesday, I have decided to post a photograph of my ancestor's grave. This is the tombstone for Adam Oswalt, and since he was a veteran, his tombstone gives the name of the war he served in (which happened to be the Civil War) and the regiment as well. Adam is buried in Riverside Cemetery, Three Rivers, Saint Joseph County, Michigan. I realize Three Rivers is a city, but I decided to post this picture because Three Rivers is a small city and is located in a county that is primarily rural. (I will try to not post photographs of tombstones from urban areas, but every so often, I'll post a photograph from this cemetery when I won't have photographs from other cemeteries available for posting.) Enjoy!

Looking For A Cemetery in Michigan? Here's A Place To Look

If you happen to be looking for a cemetery in Michigan, and you do not know where it might be, here is a book that might help you: Michigan Cemetery Atlas (Lansing, Michigan, 1991). This book lists the names of cemeteries in Michigan, and gives a location for those cemeteries by county. This is one way a person might be able to determine where a cemetery is located, or if they do not know the name of the cemetery, looking at the map for the county might help a person narrow down the name of the cemetery he or she is looking for. I know that the Library of Michigan has at least one copy of this book in their genealogy section.

Another source one could use to locate the county of a cemetery is the Library of Michigan Michigan Cemetery Sources database on its website. Again, this is a website that will give a list of names of cemeteries in a particular location. It does not contain a map of where the cemeteries are located, and the burial records for the cemeteries are not online. This site, though, is a place to start, if you are looking for the names of cemeteries in a particular area.

Of course, if you are going to go visit one of the cemeteries in Michigan, I would obtain a map of the local county that you plan to visit, so that you are able to find the cemetery. In addition, paying a visit to the local library near the cemetery would be a good idea, especially if you are looking for a specific person buried in that cemetery. The local library might have a transcription of the tombstones in the cemetery, and finding out where a grave is located will save time when you visit the cemetery.

My Goals For This Blog ...

As I noted in the header, this blog is part of the Association of Graveyard Rabbits, and since I am a member of this association, I will be using this blog to focus on information upon cemeteries, cemetery research, burial customs and other subjects related to cemeteries or cemetery research. As for my geographical focus, I plan to focus on rural cemeteries in Michigan. The cemetery or cemeteries could be in any part of Michigan, but they must be located in rural areas. I hope, by blogging about rural Michigan cemeteries, that I can bring attention to cemeteries in Michigan and that I can educate others to prevent people from vandalising cemeteries. In addition, I plan to post as much as I can on this blog about Michigan cemeteries, and I hope you will find this information interesting and enlightening. Enjoy!