Another point to consider is disease and epidemics that were rampant in the 19th century. Many times folks died of something so contagious they were buried immediately somewhere on the farm. In my Macoupin research I consistently came across the story of an ancestor that died of cholera in 1865 and that (along with his wife and an unknown servant girl who also died of it) because of the contagiousness of it, they were all quickly buried on a corner of the family farm on a little bluff overlooking a stream. The location is still known to descendents today and the only marker is a stone noting it and a fence around the little area. At the time there was probably a wooden cross or some type of marker, but nothing "permanent". This also ties into Debbi's other point about not being buried where one would expect. In the St Pauls cemetery up by Nokomis is a little girl Martha Siek, age 8 months or so, that died in the early 1880s of cholera. Turns out she is the niece of some folks that lived there at the time, but her father Theodore Siek was a travelling Lutheran preacher of the time that is listed in Ohio in the 1880 census. Were they just visiting when she became sick? Don't know and doubt if anyone now really does or could find out why they were there. But my point is, if there were any descendents researching this family today, would they know to snoop around the towns where their in-laws lived for details or graves? Probably not. Darren Debbi Geer wrote: > Even if they were buried on their own farm, there are > other possibles to consider - no gravestone; grave > marked by a cross or stone (rock); gravestone was > damaged and removed because of beyond repair; > vandalism; or weathered beyond legibility and removed > by owner at some point in time. > > Even if the person was buried in a recognized > cemetery, there may not have been a gravestone. Some > cemeteries have records of the lot owners, but if the > burial was in an area labeled as citizens ground or > paupers ground, then unless individual burials were > recorded and still available, the location may never > be known. > > Also another thing to consider is that sometimes a > person in that time was taken back to the place they > had previously lived for burial even if it was in > another county or state. I've found a few where death > was in central IL and burial in central KY. Don't > know if they moved back, but the spouse was buried in > another location. > > > Debbi Geer > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around > http://mail.yahoo.com > > > ==== ILMACOUP Mailing List ==== > ***** Great Source of Information ****** > Illinois Regional Archives Depositories (IRAD)Holdings For Macoupin County, IL: http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilmacoup/m_irad.htm > >