The draft of the Low Dutch Cemetery (northern) I am speaking of was done back in the 1700's, never published and last in the possession of Russell Osborn, now deceased. Arthur Weaner believed that it was the original plot plan of the cemetery, made and kept by the early ministers. In the 1900's several groups such as the DAR etc. did transcibe those stones that they could read, however this is only a fraction of those buried there. It is really important to remember that many people who were buried have had their stones destroyed or the inscription broken off or thestones no longer exist, that kind of thing, so if your ancestor does not appear on the list which was created in the 1960's or so, that doesn't mean that they are not buried there. It is important to also remember that there was another Conewago Church, The Conewago Chapel or Church of the Sacred Heart which is a Catholic church and the two are often confused. I would be interested to see what you have and you can send it to me if you wish to: jacassidy22@verizon.net Thanks Judy On 04/23/13, Willora Glee<[1]gleek@ptd.net> wrote: I have given money in the past to maintain the Conewago cemeteries. I was given in the past the list of who is buried in the North and South cemeteries of Conewago. I also have a plot map for them. I could share them but there are seven pages and I cannot post them to the list. I have had these maps and burial lists for a long time for over 15 years. If memory serves me right I shared them with Carolyn Leonard and her Dutch Cousins list. I could post the burial lists but not to plot maps. Maria Stryker Banta is supposed to buried in one of the two cemeteries but there is not listing for her nor is there a stone for her. She was buried to Henry Banta 4th. He is supposed to be buried there too. I descend out of them. How do you want me to handle this? Glee Van Osdol Krapf At 11:12 AM 4/22/2013, you wrote: > Both the Dorland Cemetery on Sunset Road in Montgomery Twp. Somerset > County, NJ and the Conewago Cemetery on Swift Run Road are comprised of > grave makers which are basically field stone rocks which, if lucky, are > marked with initials and a date. The date of the Dorland > Cemetery is around > 1735 with burials ending by 1800, while the Conewago Cemetery probably was > established ca. 1772 however burials continued into the 1900's > with only two > burials, one a gypsy boy buried ca. 1910-1912 and David Weaner burial in > 1964. More times than not, there is just a stone marker and those can be > just the tip of the stone, the stone may have sunk into the ground, fallen > on its side so only a odd shaped stone sticks up, that kind of thing. Most > of these are rough read colored stones at Conewago and field stones which > seem to be cut in a long narrow shape with an indent half way > down the stone > at the Dorland cemetery. > Conewago RDCh. families later erected the more familiar gravestones on a > few family plots, but today there are many unmarked graves, the > field stones > long gone. There was a man, Gerry Byers, a german man who was employed by > the church in the 1700's who was the custodian of the cemetery, whether or > not he was responsible for the cutting of the field stones was never > mentioned but these were not just superficial stones, they were > long enough > and mostly narrow, as were the Dorland stones to be sunk deeply into the > ground. > The Dorland field stones were crushed by heavy farm equipment > which had been > parked there and/or pushed down under the ground by the weight of the > equipment. While the Conewago Cemetery was enclosed by a stone wall, the > Dorland cemetery was never that fortunate. There is a limited list of > burials for Conewago but in order to determine whether or > not your ancestor > was actually buried there, the baptismal, deacons records and > wills need to > be consulted. They are not going to actually state that so and so was > buried there, however. Since the church was located next door to the > cemetery, later closer to Route 30, and there was also a southern cemetery > for the use of the Low Dutch living in that area. If someone in this > community died between 1772 and say 1804 when the church was closed what > remained of the congregation scattered to other churches. Some of these > families were buried in the church cemetery. Burials did, as mentioned > take place after 1804, as not all families migrated to Kentucky or Ohio, > however, they were few. Burials in the early years seemed to be not in > family plots but when the person died, so you have the members of the > congregation mixed together. Initials and dates, if lucky, were > chiseled or > scratched into the stone but they were professionally done. That may have > been Mr. Byers job to do. He and his family also migrated down to Kentucky > in 1783 -1790. > At one time apparently there was a list of burials and a map showing their > location at Conewago which the caretaker in 1963 had in his possession. > Arther Weaner could never get him to show this map to him. He could point > out the location of who was buried where, but that document has > never been > made public, we know from the John Dorland Cremer book that 30 > to 40 burials > were in the Dorland cemetery with head and footstones. > The major concern is that throughout many counties and states because they > ancient Dutch burial grounds did not look like what people in the last > century felt cemeteries should look like, well then they were just a field > of rocks. This is probably been the largest cause of their > demise, farmers > plowed them under, developers built houses on them, that kind of thing. > Does any one else have a early Dutch family cemetery or know of a Dutch > Church cemetery in which the early burials were marked with field stones? > Judy Cassidy > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >DU[2]TCH-COLONIES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' >without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to DU[3]TCH-COLONIES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message References 1. mailto:gleek@ptd.net 2. mailto:TCH-COLONIES-request@rootsweb.com 3. mailto:TCH-COLONIES-request@rootsweb.com