Cemeteries....where else would you find your dead relatives?

Guest Blogger, Lisa Rienerth, Library Associate, Medina Reference

Friendsville Cemetery - Westfield Twp.

Woodlawn Cemetery - Wadsworth

Using gravestones and cemetery records can be extremely helpful when doing your family research.  They can provide information on a relative who lived and died prior to the state or county recording vital records; it may lead you to other vital records; and it is always good to have one more source to provide the proof for your research. Plus it is one of the few physical connections you will have with a deceased ancestor.

There are a few hurdles you may need to overcome when doing this type of research. First, the gravestone only provides the birth and death date, but you have to remember, this information, though carved in stone, may be incorrect. Tombstone carvers make mistakes. Also, it may be hard to find the final resting place of your ancestor and even if you do find it, the stone may be unreadable due to age and other damage.

Don't let these reasons discourage you. The following instructions will help with these hurdles.

Let's start with an online search.

Two websites that I use are Findagrave.com  & Billiongraves.com. These sites depend on members to upload memorials and photos.  Finding your relative on one of these sites can be a tremendous help. Even if there isn't a photograph of the tombstone, the information given for the memorial is helpful and it provides a name of the cemetery where you may find even more records. There is usually a map of where the cemetery is located, which is helpful especially with the small and out-of-the-way cemeteries.



Look for other online sources. Sometimes the cemetery is large enough to have their own online database and sometimes the city, county or state may have one. Sometimes I just google the name of the city/county/state with the word "cemeteries" and see what comes up. I just found Ohiogravestones.org, a site for the State of Ohio, the other day.

Different online genealogy sites can also be helpful. The main two I use are FamilySearch.org & AncestryLibrary Edition (through your local library). These type of sites are adding more and more cemetery records to their databases and digitized images. They also will link to other sites like Findagrave and Billiongraves.

If you don't know where or when your ancestor died, you can use the U.S. Census to narrow down your search. This is another source you can find on online genealogy sites like the ones I mentioned above (this type of research was covered in the MCDL Genealogy Blog on 3 April 2019). If you find them in the census records and follow them through the decades, whenever you come to a year they are no longer listed, this may be a clue to where and when they died. For example, George Smith was found in the 1850, 1860 & 1870 U.S. Census in Montgomery County, Ohio. He is not located in the 1880 U.S. Census in Montgomery County, Ohio or anywhere else. This may be a clue that he died between 1870 & 1880 in Montgomery County, Ohio. This isn't a definite answer, but it does zero in your research to a smaller area.

Another online source is Archive.org. This site will help you find transcribed cemetery records and find where the cemeteries are located.

Findlay Republican Courier - Newspaperarchive.com

Obituary and death records can also be found online through genealogy sites and databases.

You can search for obituaries in many of the newspapers that Kathy Petras talked about in her 7 August 2019 Blog. Sometimes the place of burial is mentioned in the obituary.

The more recent 20th century death records are more apt to have the cemetery listed than the pre-1900 records.

 




Cemetery records can also be found in libraries, archives, historical societies or government offices. You need to research the area where you believe your ancestor died and see which repositories are in the area and what types of records are kept there. For example, the Medina Library has a Tombstone Inscriptions book compiled by the Medina County Genealogical  Society. It is nice to have, because some of the transcribed tombstones are no longer readable.








The Western Reserve Historical Society is a local repository that owns not only local published cemetery records, but also out of state records. You can do an online search of their collection to see if they may have what you are looking for.

Trip Preparation

After using the above resources you should have a good idea of where you ancestor is buried. Now it is time to prepare for your visit to the cemetery. You may not be going to the ends of the world, but you need to take a few items to make the visit a successful one.

For more ideas on what to take, check out Your Guide to Cemetery Research by Sharon Debartolo Carmack.

O.k....you are packed and ready to go! Here are a few things to remember when you arrive...

Shaw Cemetery - Lafayette Twp.

• Treat the area with respect and be careful of the markers.

• Do not try to excavate or fix the marker.

• When walking among the stones be careful where you step. The ground is not always level. 

Guilford Center Cemetery

Photograph more than just the tombstone....

Take one of the surrounding area to help you find the stone again if necessary.

Mound Hill Cemetery, Seville 

Take one of the tombstones around the one you found, these could be family members.

No headstone!?

You have walked the whole cemetery and you didn't find a tombstone...yet you know the person you are looking for is buried there....or you found the headstone, but you can't read it due to the fact that it is over 100 years old and the carvings have been worn smooth.

Do Not Fear! There are other places you can look! 

The Sexton, the person who looks over the cemetery and its records, may have the information you need. Even if you find a readable headstone, these records may give you even more information than what is on the tombstone. 

There is usually an office on the grounds of the cemetery. If there isn't one or you don't know if there is a sexton or not, go to the city or county offices. The Parks & Recreations office can usually tell you where those records are located or they may have them. If there isn't a Parks & Rec office, just check with the City Hall, they may at least be able to point you in the right direction.

Fostoria Fountain Cemetery, Ohio

The sexton or cemetery records may give you more than a name and dates. Sometimes it list other family members and sometimes cause of death.

Wilson Family Cemetery
Findagrave.com added by Medina County Graves, ID # 47506344

If the cemetery is affiliated with a church, contact the church to see if they keep the records. If it is a private family cemetery, you may need to get permission to search.

When you get home after your successful cemetery trip don't forget to download, identify & update as soon as possible! If you wait too long you will forget the details.

Searching for my ancestors in cemeteries is one of my favorite types of research. I hope you enjoy it and may all your searches be successful!


Sources:

All Medina County cemetery photographs, unless otherwise noted, were taken by me, Lisa Rienerth.

AncestryLibraryEdition, census records

Solether obituary, Findlay (Ohio) Republican Courier, 3 February 1966, page 24; digital images, Newspaperarchives.org.

FamilySearch.org, Ohio deaths, 1908-1953

Medina County Genealogical Society, Tombstone Inscriptions from the Cemeteries in Medina County, Ohio, 1983 (Evansville, IN: Whipporwill Publications, 1984).

Fostoria Fountain Cemetery, cemetery records, Fostoria, Hancock County, Ohio.


Bibiliography:

Findagrave.com

Ohiogravestones.org

Archive.org

Western Reserve Historical Society catalog (http://catalog.wrhs.org/collections/search)

Your Guide to Cemetery Research by Sharon Debartolo Carmack

10 Tips for using "The Ancestor Hunt"

Hello! It's Lauren Kuntzman, again, guest blogging once more for Kathy Petras. For this week's post, I'll be discussing one of my new favorite resources - The Ancestor Hunt!

Why would you want to use The Ancestor Hunt? Well, it has a lot to offer, including links to...

• 26,000+ Newspapers
• 1,700+ Obituaries/Obit Indexes
• 2,000+ Birth/Marriage/Death Record Databases
• 3,800 Yearbooks
• Collections of Historic Photos
• "How To" Articles & Videos

And, it's all free.

Because of its massive collection of newspapers and obituaries, The Ancestor Hunt is now my first stop for tracking down these essential documents. If you're also looking for these sources -- or if you want to find vital records, yearbooks, or old photos -- then you should definitely check out this website, too.

Here's a little bit more about the website and 10 tips for using it: 

Overview

The Ancestor Hunt is created and managed by Kenneth R. Marks. Though I've only discovered recently, the website has existed since around 2010. It reminds me of Cyndi's List, in that it points users to resources located elsewhere on the web.

10 Tips for Using The Ancestor Hunt

1. To find information, The Ancestor Hunt is first organized by resource type, and then by geography. Generally, it's divided by country, then by state/province, and then may get to a city/county level.

2. Speaking of geography... The Ancestor Hunt focuses on the United States and Canada. (Exception: there are a few "world" newspaper links.) 

3. You'll notice that there is a link for "Newspapers" and a link titled "Newspaper Links." "Newspapers" will teach you how to best search historic newspapers. "Newspaper Links," on the other hand, will take you to digitized newspapers. 

Options for resources are listed in the main menu. 
"Newspapers Links" will take you to the list of 26,000+ newspapers available online.

4. Some of the resource lists are a little long, so I recommend using the Find command on your web browser (Control+F for PCs or Command+F for Macs) and search for keywords.  By the way, your city or county make great keywords!

5. Most of the "Obituaries" category resources are indexes, however there are notes if the links include clippings or transcriptions. 

Here's a screencap of some of the Ohio Obituary/
Obituary Index links.  Some links include clippings and transcripts.

6. With the birth, marriage, and death (BMD) record links, many point to databases on FamilySearch or local library's webpages. Church records may be included, too. 

7. When using the "Photos" section, some links will include information about restrictions on rights for usage.  

8. Make sure you read the end of the lists as special collections, miscellaneous resources, and other information may be included there. 

Make sure you read the end of the resource lists, which may contain
miscellaneous collections, like this list of Ohio BMD Links.  

9. The "Yearbooks" are just for the United States, and are organized alphabetically by the name of the city, not the name of the school.

10. Be aware that the information on the site is periodically updated.  Until an update happens, however, some links may be dead and brand new resources might not yet be included. Following the Blog is a great way to learn about updates.



To get you started hunting for your ancestors, here are links to all of the Ohio resources on The Ancestor Hunt:

• Ohio Online Historical Newspapers Summary
• Ohio Obituaries and Obituary Index Links
• Ohio Birth, Marriage, and Death (BMD) Record Links
• Ohio Online Historical Photos Research
• Free Ohio High School and College Yearbooks Online

Happy Searching!

Newspaper Tidbits...

Newspapers are among some of my favorite resources to use for family history research. They can
illuminate our ancestor's lives in very personal ways. Learn how to use newspapers in research HERE.


But newspapers can also give you insight into the community and the times that your ancestors lived in.

And they can be entertaining.

For years, the Medina County District Library has maintained an online obituary index to death notices that have occurred in the Medina Gazette and the Medina Sentinel. The index was started in 1982 and was first entered onto 3" X 5" index cards.

Index card from the original obituary index.
The red line across the top indicated that the listing had been
added to the online database.

Over the years it has expanded and migrated and now lives on the Library's web site HERE.

The listings have been collected and entered by Library staff and volunteers. The work consists of reading through the newspaper microfilm, filling out the form with all the information and then entering the data into a computer. The work can be very monotonous. Boring.

And the articles can be depressing.

The awful tragedy appeared in the
September 5, 1933 Medina Gazette

This obituary for Lydie Welday in the November 13,
1908 Medina Gazette  displays the embellished
 language that was more normal in the past.

But, occasionally, the volunteers came across a particularly interesting article...

Luckily, they have shared many of these with me.

And now, I will share them with you!

ANIMALS

As you would expect from a rural county, many of the newspaper articles covered animals. But these are not the prize-winning-sow-at-the-county-fair kind of articles.

What I find particularly fascinating is that during these same time periods, a person's death might not get any mention, or a very brief line. But animals??

Lets start with CHICKENS!

Who would have thought that the death of three chickens was newsworthy?
Slow news day?
Medina Gazette 4 Sep. 1902, page 6.

This incident is a little bizarre, so somewhat newsworthy.
Medina Gazette 20 Nov. 1908, page 5

Along the same lines as the chicken story above.
Medina Gazette 24 Mar. 1881, page 1.

Is there some significance to the ear of corn in her mouth?
Did she overeat, or choke to death?
What happened?
Medina Gazette 2 Aug. 1907, page 6.

Horse stories abound. And apparently people were fond of their neighbor's horses...

Seems like everyone knew "Old Jim"
Medina Gazette 2 Aug. 1907, page 2.

"Old Ned" delivered the mail on a Rural Free Delivery Route.
Medina Gazette 14 Feb. 1908, page 6.

"Old Tobey" must have been VERY popular.
I have seen shorter death notices for women!
Medina Gazette 5 March, 1909, page 5.

Many women of the time did not get as much coverage at their death as Old Tobey did!












Now for a few words for our favorite animals - family pets!

Strangely, only one article in my files deals with a cat.
Medina Gazette 31 July 1942, page 12.

Man's best friend...

Seems the writer of this article was as attached to "Scott" as his owner was!
Medina Gazette 10 Dec 1909, page 7

WOW! We learn how long the dog had been ill
 and that he had been in the care of the vet for months!
Medina Gazette 7 June 1935, page 1.

And the final article on animals defies labeling...

Some friend, eh?
Medina Gazette 25 March, 1910, page 5.

And next we will take a look at some notices of the not quite dead... But not ZOMBIES!


NOT A ZOMBIE!

Just more lessons on not believing everything you read.

The movie Somersby had nothing on this story...

This soldier took Southern hospitality too seriously, abandoning
his wife, and committing bigamy with the farmer's daughter!
Medina Sentinel 4 Dec 1903, page 1.

Apparently, during World War I, the United States was not really good at keeping track of their soldiers...

He's alive and he's a new Dad!
Medina Gazette 8 Nov. 1918, page 11.

You would think the hospital could keep track of their patients.

Imagine the celebration his family had!
Medina Gazette 22 Nov 1918, page 2.

Howard lived to see  the U.S. return to fight Germany again.
He died in April 1942
Medina Gazette,  27 Dec 1918 p. 6

Really? No resting after a heart attack?

Medina Gazette 2 July 1935, page 1.

Undoubtedly, Anna has since passed away. But repeated searching failed to turn up a death record or tombstone listing.













BIZARRE HAPPENING

This event was probably terrifying for the victims. But I can't help but wonder if they all thought they were being collected by the devil en masse...

Medina Sentinel  29 April 1904 p. 1

MISSING!

All sorts of things go missing...

Medina Gazette 14 Aug 1908 p. 5

How embarrassing! I am guessing that person didn't smile after that!


And from the article below, it seems the "chompers" had been missing for quite a while!

Medina Gazette  9 Oct 1908 p. 5

And of course, money frequently goes missing as this following article details:

Missing Money - Gazette 4 Sep 1902 p. 6

 Medina Gazette 11 Sep 1902 p. 7 

But what is lost, can be "found" again...








But then again, now all of Medina County knows where he keeps his money!



And of course, people go missing for all sorts of reasons.

Medina Gazette 15 Feb 1965 p. 12

But why would she want to visit him?














And back in the days before "political correctness" became a buzz phrase, the newspapers told it like it was...

Medina Gazette  3 Aug 1906 p. 6

Medina Gazette 12 April 1907

Perhaps there was a follow-up article about a divorce??









The fellow in the article seems like such a sentimental guy - NOT!





The following two articles are even more chauvinistic!

Medina Sentinel  4 Jan 1900

Medina Sentinel 11 Dec 1902

Apparently, the Doctor thought he was above chopping his own wood...

Medina Gazette 23 Dec 1910 p. 5

This next article is just bizarre!

Medina Gazette 26 Aug 1897 p. 6

The next two articles were funny, because the volunteer working on gathering data wanted to know if she should include them in the obituary index...

Medina Sentinel 15 Nov 1918 p. 1
P.S. This was the editor's cute way of announcing the
passage of the Prohibition Act.

 Medina Sentinel 15 Nov 1918
"Kaiser Bill" was Kaiser Wilhelm - the leader of Germany
during World War I.

And this one struck me funny because of the name...

Medina Gazette  4 Dec 1934 p. 3

In all fairness to Donald's parents, Disney's cartoon character was created the very year this article appeared...


But I wonder if it contributed to what followed....

 Medina Gazette 14 April 1941

And this is what click bait looked like before the Internet and Facebook...

And if you have reached all the way to the end, let me know and I will give you a Hershey's Kiss!