Hi Beth I wish you luck and just hope that your family is in a row that didn't have the headstones removed. My brother flew up from San Francisco and we flew over from England, primarily to see that grave. My husband used to say, how about visiting Chicago, but I never fancied it. How glad I am to have changed my mind, after I found out that my family were there! What a wonderful city and great citizens. I have a photocopy of the grave plan and will always be grateful to the lady at Gracelands Cemetery. She is no longer there, I was told when we called in. The ironic thing is that in the 1960's my brother left Edinburgh University in Scotland, went to university in Minnesota then worked in Chicago. Now we wonder if the grave was intact then. This line of my family has proved to be extremely difficult to trace, but I shall be forever grateful to several Americans who helped me gain a lot of information. You said you didn't have birth dates. Well neither did I but on the grave plan, as I said before, the exact ages were given, and the dates when they died, so I worked backwards and had the dates of birth. Good luck to you if you should visit the grave at Gracelands. You could of course telephone and ask them if the headstone is still there. Sheila. [email protected] wrote: > Oh no! The headstones were removed? Sorry to hear that...and that may > be bad news for me too. I have a family Bible record with the names > and death dates of three "mystery people" who must have been > relatives, since they were listed and the surname is one of the family > surnames. Unfortunately no birth dates were given. They were buried at > Graceland; the family record even gives the grave locations. These > people died in the 1860s, so death records will not be available. I > suspect they may be children that died young, but I don't know for > sure. One person had the same name as the father of an immigrant > ancestor, but I don't know if the father came over and died in > Chicago, or if a son or brother was named after him. I'm hoping that > the graves at Graceland will have headstones that include birth dates > for these people, because I would like to figure out who they were. > > Beth Gatlin > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Pentlands <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Cc: [email protected] > Sent: Mon, Jul 19, 2010 7:39 pm > Subject: Re: [COOK-CO-IL] Missing Death Record > > Hi Beth > > Oh boy! Am I familiar with what you say? > I have an ancestor ticked on the Census as a male under 10 yrs of age. > The bairn died and was listed as 'male child' on the cemetery plans. > It even gave exactly how old he was, 3 yrs. 3 mnths. and so many days. > I could then work out his exact dob but still there was no name. > We travelled to Chicago from England to see the grave at Gracelands. > The staff there had been wonderful with help. Unfortunately the > headstones had all > been removed from each 2nd row to allow access for the lawnmower, so > still I have no name. I took a photograph of a stone inset with a > number on it. > > >