Houston County Researchers: When trying to ascertain the identity of who may be buried in an unmarked grave at any cemetery, the obituary notices may provide a lot of hints. And I don't mean only the obituary notice of the decedent. You may have to peruse the obituary notices of the decedent's spouse, children or grandchildren to glean the entire picture. You may see something such as: "She was buried beside her grandparents who preceded her in death many years ago", or "He was laid to rest beside his first wife who died 12 years prior". Most of the published abstracts of obituary notices are just *that* "abstracts, or summaries". In the Evergreen Cemetery book, every word that was etched in any way or means, even if it was a slight inscription on a hand-made concrete slab, was recorded. But, the real key is the placement of the gravesites. If you see where a particular man was buried, and find no evidence that his wife remarried, you can be somewhat assured that she is buried next to him, especially if there is an unmarked cement slab. There are various circumstances as to why an individual's grave is not marked. Just because it isn't marked, or appears to me unmarked, is really of no consequence. Many of the folks who died during various times in history, didn't have markers because of price considerations of tombstones. And... many of the markers that appear to mark graves from the early 1900s, were actually placed there in the mid 1900s. Also, some of the markers may have been damaged from falling tree limbs or inattentive lawn maintenance workers. I've seen several instances where there was actually a tombstone, but didn't appear to be. The only evidence was a partial corner of it protruding from the ground. Upon closer inspection and excavation, the entire stone was found... in several pieces, however. Generally speaking, in Houston Co., GA, the majority of the graves were not marked with stone markers prior to 1830-1840. The oldest extant marker at Evergreen Cemetery is from 1841. The majority of tombstones that have death dates prior to 1880, are of families that were considered and *were* well-to-do. This is no reflection for a lack of memorial consideration though, as most early graves (1800 to 1875) had wooden crosses placed on them. These crosses were replaced as they eroded, or until the memory or family may have faded from the area. I learned an interesting thing about a month ago. While taking a leisurely stroll thru Evergreen Cemetery, (prior to the tropical weather that we are now observing in Central GA), I noticed a cement slab that looked like part of it had broken off, and had been removed. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that what I thought was only a cement slab, was actually an example of an 1850-1900 elaborate tomb. The cement slab was only the top, and *visibile* portion. Because a portion of the cement slab top of the tomb had fallen in, I could see inside, somewhat. This tomb had elaborate brick walls, and was very well constructed. For being almost 150 years old, I would say that it had weathered the ages quite well. The only reason that a portion of the top had fallen in, was because of a huge tree root that had undermined the soundness of the foundation of the tomb. In other words, what may be perceived as a mere inexpensive cement slab, may be in actuality, an elaborate tomb.... and one that could have *had* a tombstone of some sort placed upon it for many decades. If only the surrounding markers could tell us the story :-) The above statements merely reflect various things that I have observed while surveying the various cemeteries in Houston Co., GA. If any of you have noticed other practices and procedures of burials and grave markings, please share them with us. Take care & happy hunting! William A. Mills Perry, GA [email protected] ==========>>> On Sun, 25 Jun 2000 12:19:21 -0400 "vbc" <[email protected]> writes: Hi, According to the index there is a D. H. Houser on page 43. I don't have the book now, so can't give any more info. Virginia -----Original Message----- Pat, Have you looked (or had someone lookup) David and Helen in Addie Howell's Cemetery and Obituary book of Houston County. I have found obit abstracts in her book which reported individuals buried in Evergreen even though they can't be found now. Apparently they are among the unmarked slabs. Otherwise, since David's first wife and one of his sons are buried in Evergreen, I would think it likely that they are there probably in one of the unmarked graves Mr Mills has referred to. Johnny ________________________________________________________________ YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET! Juno now offers FREE Internet Access! Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.