A Rabbit's Tale 12/30/2010

Wrapping up 2010
by Gale Wall

As we prepare to say goodbye to 2010 those of us behind the scenes at The Association of Graveyard Rabbits would like to take this opportunity to say thank you for your membership, contributions, sharing and preservation of cemetery related information and photographs. Our membership continues to grow and we expect new members in 2011 as those that share our interest find and connect with us. Having been named one of Family Tree Magazine’s Top 40 genealogy sites in February helped us gain recognition in the blogging world. And, this year our GYR Online Journal and many of our member blog sites were nominated for the 2011 list. Voting closed a few days ago and the results will be revealed in the July issue and on the FTM blog, The Genealogy Insider.

In the new-year I want to dust off my blog some and perhaps give it a new look. This year Blogger has released many new templates, formats and recently announced the ability to upload your own background photograph so it should be fun coming up with an updated look for my blog. Check out what your platform offers.

As your Online Journal Editor I would like to thank our contributors for 2010 and 2011.

2010 Contributors:
Sheri Fenley
Linda footnoteMaven
Janet Iles
Stephanie Lincecum
Denise Olson
Sandy Peavey
Randy Seaver
Julie Tarr
Tammi Thiele
Henk van Kampen
Gale Wall
Joe Whitfield
LisaMary Wichowski

In the coming year I am looking forward to the 52 articles that will be shared on 13 different columns. This is expanding beyond the 8 columns that we started with. We hope that you will take the time to read and share your comments as they are posted each week. Let our authors know that you appreciate their work. And, perhaps you’ll consider responding to the call for volunteers next year.

2011 Authors and Column Topics:
Ruth Burks - A Rabbit's Tale
Tess Conrad - Mausoleums or Columbariums
Linda [footnoteMaven] - The History Hare
John Grant - Final Word
Linda Hagen - Cemetery Spotlight
Janice Hays - Cemetery Spotlight
Janet Iles - International Rabbit, Maus
Michelle Kratts - Cemetery Spotlight
Stephanie Lincecum - Graveyard Guru, Final Word
Angela Lucius - Cemetery Spotlight
Denise Olson - Tech TIP
Dorene Paul - A Rabbit's Tale
Kim Sawtelle - Famous File
Randy Seaver - Digging for Answers
Tammi Thiele - Cemetery Art
Henk van Kampen - International Rabbit
Gale Wall - Maus, Photo Monument
LisaMary Wichowski - A Rabbit’s Review
Anna Wilder - International Rabbit
Russ Worthington - A Rabbit's Tale
Kim Zunino - A Rabbit's Tale

I wish each of you a Happy New Year and look forward to seeing you in 2011.

Gale Wall
Hutchinson, KS
Digital Cemetery Walk
http://digitalcemeterywalk.blogspot.com/
Cemetery walks offer an afternoon of discovery.
Every stone has a story. And they are waiting to be told.

A Rabbit's Tale 12/23/2010

What to do with all these photographs?
by Tammi Thiele

This was a question I started asking myself after I had accumulated a few thousand photos. I didn't want to just delete them since I had gone through all the work of taking them. And, I knew that at some point someone somewhere would be interested in seeing at least one of them.

So I started showing off all my interesting finds on my Graveyard Rabbit Blog but that still left me with a ton of photos that were unused. So I started searching the internet for sites that were used as photo preservation sites for cemeteries. This is how I discovered the Arkansas Gravestone Project, since I live in Arkansas and the majority of my photos are from cemeteries in Arkansas this was a perfect site for my pictures.

The Arkansas Gravestone Project is a privately sponsored, non-commercial, non-profit, educational site, who's success depends on the generosity of volunteers and individuals who contribute photographs to be archived. The main mission of the Arkansas Gravestones Project is to capture and archive digital images of ever gravestone in every county in Arkansas. As the years pass the inscriptions on many gravestones become difficult, if not impossible, to read. This results in a loss of so much information that may or may not exist anywhere else. Archiving theses images is a wonderful means of preserving these important records and simultaneously assisting genealogist who use this valuable information to help expand their family trees. The Arkansas Gravestone Project has just over 411,000 photos stored on the site and growing daily.

I am proud to say I have added about 8,000 photos to the site and adding more all the time. Connecting with this group has also connected me with a whole group of people who share the same interest in cemeteries that I have. So if you are interested in a group of this nature there are twenty-four states that have similar website:

Arkansas - www.arkansasgravestones.org
Arizona - www.arizonagravestones.org
Colorado - www.coloradogravestones.org
Florida - www.floridagravestones.org
Idaho - www.idahogravestones.org
Illinois - www.illinoisgravestones.org
Iowa – www.iowagravestones.org
Louisiana – www.louisianagravestones.org
Maine – www.gravestones.earlymaine.org
Massachusetts – www.magravestones.org
Maryland - www.marylandgravestones.org
Nebraska – www.nebraskagravestones.org
New Jersey – www.newjerseycivilwargravestones.org
New Mexico – www.newmexicogravestones.org
New York – www.newyorkgravestones.org
North Dakota – www.northdakotagravestones.org
Ohio – www.ohiogravestones.org
Oklahoma – www.oklahomagravestones.org
Oregon - www.oregongravestones.org
Pennsylvania – www.pennsylvaniagravestones.org
South Dakota – www.southdakotagravestones.org
Texas – www.texastombstones.org
Utah – www.utahgravestones.org
Virginia – www.virginiagravestones.org

So don't just delete the photos you have. There is a place for them that will help preserve the information on them. Just look around on the web and see what you can find. The USGenweb site is a good place to start looking.

International Rabbit 12/16/2011

Winter in the Northern Hemisphere
by Janet Iles

Genealogists try to find as much information as possible about the individuals they are researching. Death related records often are more plentiful than for other vital events in a person’s life. These include obituaries, church records, civil registrations and cemetery records. As graveyard rabbits, we are interested in all of them, but in particular those of cemeteries.


As winter begins to settle in the Northern Hemisphere, the words “spring internment” are once again appearing in death and funeral notices if the person is to be buried in a smaller cemetery. From December to April, the ground freezes and is covered in snow so no burials occur. So what happens to the remains of those who die during the winter months? What happens in your area or the area of your ancestors?

In the immediate Owen Sound area, we have two cemeteries: Greenwood Cemetery and St. Mary’s Cemetery. Both now conduct winter burials. Greenwood Cemetery has the facilities to store the remains for area cemeteries.

Cemeteries have several records that they keep. One is the Daybook. The superintendant or designate enters as they occur, all internments and the arrivals for winter storage in the daybook. Greenwood Cemetery’s daybook has been microfilmed from 1894 to 1990. A copy of the microfilm is at the Owen Sound & North Grey Union Public Library. The daybook shows the name, lot and date of internment for local burials. For those that are there for winter storage, in place of the lot information, it indicates the cemetery to which the casket will be transferred in the spring.

I looked at some pages of the daybook for the winter months of 1942 and 1943 and noted the following area cemeteries were listed: Durham, Tara, McLeans’ Cemetery, Wiarton, Sarawak, Walters’ Falls, Shallow Lake, Lion’s Head and Mount Zion Cemetery, Holland. Not included in those pages, Greenwood Cemetery also provides winter storage for Annan, Leith, and St. Michael’s in the Irish Block. On the pages I looked at, I noted two that were going to distant cemeteries. Robert L F Strathy arrived January 19, 1942 and was shipped to Port Arthur May 26, 1942 and John Herbert Leonard arrived February 16, 1943 and was to be transferred to Mount Pleasant, London Ontario. This is useful information if you know someone died in this area but can not find a burial record for them.

The cemetery superintendent or designate keeps special records for those slated for spring internment. The caskets are clearly marked with identifying information and each spot on the shelves has a location code. This is recorded in the winter storage files. When the staff from the Funeral Home comes in the spring for the transfer to the designated cemetery, the appropriate paper work goes with them. The Greenwood Cemetery Staff involved in the transfer, dress as they would for a local committal service, whether the family is present or not at the time of the transfer.

If you look at a family history and you notice a lag between the date of death and the date of burial, perhaps it was because the cemetery did not conduct winter burials.

Thank you to Acting Cemetery Superintendant, Tim Keeling for answering my questions.

A Rabbit's Tale 12/09/2010

My Gravin Gadgets: Gravin with an iPhone
by Tammi Thiele

I fought getting an IPhone for a long time. I was always happy with my Blackberry. Well, my last Blackberry finally gave out and my husband talked me into an IPhone 4. I am so glad he did because it has become my best gravin gadget.

Here is a run through on how I use my IPhone and the different apps that I use for gravin.

App # 1: MAPS (Comes standard with the IPhone.)

I plot my course to where I am going. Then I figure out what towns are along the route.

Next, I search for cemeteries in the town I will be passing. Here is an example. I searched "Cemeteries in Rogers, AR".

All the red pins are different cemeteries in the area. If you touch the red dot the cemetery name will pop up. I have found that several times they have left one or two out. So if you are looking for a specific one then type the name of the cemetery in and it should show up.

If you would rather see them in list form you can get that too. Touch the curled page in the lower right corner.

This page shows up.

Select "List" and now you have a list.

Next to the of the cemetery name, on both the map or the list page, there is a blue arrow, touch that and you can get the listed info for that cemetery. This one includes the phone number, address and web site.

If you would like directions to that specific cemetery then select "Directions To Here". You will get this screen:

Select "Route" and it will take you there from your current location. And they are nice enough to even give you the distance and time it will take you to get there from where you are.

Now it's up to you to follow the purple line and you will make it. As you travel along the purple line the flashing blue dot will keep track of where you are at on it. I have noticed that even when I am in areas with no signal the blue dot still keeps track. Not sure how that works but its pretty cool that it does. And of course you can zoom in and out on the map to get closer looks at street names.

Helpful tip: I like to use the drop pins. I generally visit numerous cemeteries in one trip so to keep track of the locations I visited I use a drop pin. That way after I return home and realize I forgot to photograph the cemetery sign (I generally photo the signs after each cemetery so that it marks the dividing point in my photos.) I can pull out my phone and see which one I forgot. To place a pin you hold your finger on the screen and the pin will appear then you move it to where you want it placed and remove your finger. The pin will remain until you delete it, even if you change directions.

The drop pin can also help with the location. If you are unsure of which town the cemetery is in the drop pin will show you an address with the town's name.

App # 2: Notes

I keep my phone in my pocket while I am out in the cemetery. (You never know when you might need it.) It has replaced my pen and paper. I like to use it to make notes of the hard to read stones. Like so:

Then when I'm done I can email them to myself and have them on my computer when I start transcribing my work.

I also like to to use the notes app for keeping track of stones I want to find when I am in certain cemeteries.

So there it all is, clear as mud now? I hope it will help you with your use of the IPhone while gravin. If you have any other useful tips please let me know.

Have fun and be safe while your out gravin.

Photo Monument 12/2/2010

Gifts For The Departed
by Gale Wall

As we enter the holiday season many things occupy our calendar. Many of those dates will involve spending time with family and exchanging gifts.

Some of us will also leave gifts on the graves of our loved ones. Why do we leave things on graves? Is it to share something with our loved one or tell those that pass by a little something about the one resting there?

I leave gifts to say "you are missed, you are loved, you are remembered". As I take cemetery walks I often take time to look at what others leave behind.

Do you leaves gifts? Flowers? Other items? Do they hold a special meaning? Please share your experience on this.