My friends - I have been discussing with you recently the fact that I have obtained the grave marker sales records from the Beasley Monument Company of Paducah(formerly of Wayne Co.,TN until 1905 when they moved to Paducah). There are, as I have mentioned before, at least 5000 individual records(perhaps more) in this collection. We are transcribing the names of the individuals that were placed on the grave markers, along with the location(normally the county and state) and have now completed the transcription of over 1100. As this is done, I am trying to get these into segmented index form, and the segments will eventually be combined into a comprehensive index which will go into my webstore at www.shopgbs.com, where digital copies of the actual records will be available. Part 3 of this partial index is now available, which contains about another 300 names. If you would like a copy of this latest segment, please contact me *off list*, and I will provide it. I am building an address book of those who have asked for the previous parts of the segments, with the view to setting up a special mailing just to those addresses who wish to have these segments. However, there is always the chance that others who have been away from home, or missed the introduction to this series could be out there, so I am, for now, going to ask you to send me a note if you wish this latest segment. The interest in this collection has been unprecedented. I have probably received 150-200 requests for each segment of the index. I am also receiving inquiries about what the records look like, how much information do they provide, etc. I have decided to set up a special website(on which I am working now), to which I will supply a link shortly to the lists, so that you can see what may be contained in these records.It varies widely, from a single page contract showing who purchased the marker, the location, the type of stone, measurements and technical details, and, most importantly, the inscription to be carved on the stone, all the way to as many as 6-10 pages of items, such as correspondence between the purchasers and the Beasley Company, precise drawings of the monument, and, in addition, correspondence sometimes dealing with disagreements over costs, payments, delivery, etc., between the Beasley Company and some customers, including, on some rare occasions, rather frank remarks written by people at Beasley describing the customers personalities. These records begin in the early 1890's and run to about 1935, but, interestingly, the later ones show more wear than do the earlier ones, primarily because they often used a blue ink pen for the cover sheet, which, with the poor ink quality of that era, has faded badly over the years. They also extensively used paper clips, which, some of them having been in place for 100 years, have practically "melded" into the paper,and removing them always also removes an area of paper, leaving an elongated "U" shape. Fortunately, almost none of these paper clips were ever placed in any area that contains data which we, as genealogists need. Thusfar, out of about 1100 packets transcribed, we have had to only set aside five as so illegible that we cannot use them. By about 1905, Beasley began to use a "Blue Sheet", which was a typewritten confirmation of an order(which was usually handwritten with a bold #1 pencil[thankfully] in the field by a Beasley agent), and which asked the customer to verify the names and dates to be engraved, and if that was not returned, Beasley sent a "Yellow Sheet", more insistently requesting verification of the inscriptions. As a result, we have redundancy, in that we have the original Contract for the sale of the stone, with the name(s) and date(s), as well as the Blue Sheet, and sometimes the Yellow Sheet, as a double check, and which aids me in digitization greatly. You will be able to see this as soon as I can get the site up for you to view. It may have several pages, so you can see the many various combinations of documents(including the wonderful Woodmen of the World documents) that may be in a packet. Of course, there are some packet pages which have tears and folds, and other imperfections which naturally occur with 100 years of wear and storage. Some even have burn marks at the folds only(how this happened I have not yet been able to determine), but, so far, we have been able to find the inscriptions legible on all of those. So luck is with us. I must admit to finding this project to be one of the most enjoyable - and I think valuable - ones that I have undertaken in years. I have run across several packets pertaining to my own families in the JP region of both KY and TN, and Beasley reached all the way to AL, MS and IL, as well. I will continue to keep the lists in KY and TN advised of progress. A Genealogical Books Super Store Newsletter will be issued toward the end of the month with an announcement about the collection, as I have mentioned earlier. -B ====================================================================================================