Thank you, Bill for all the wonderful information. I intend to file this for future reference. I have one question, if I may. Don't know if you'll have an answer, but I'll take that chance. What are the odds, in poor, rural areas in the last half of the 19th century, that persons were buried on family land...no gravestone, no record anywhere of a burial? I have on in particular I've been searching for in either Howell or Texas county. The cemetery books have been checked there is no listing anywhere for her. There are other members of her family that are equally elusive. I wonder if they were just buried "out back under the Maple tree" and then when the family moved on they are left behind and forgotten. This is the only scenario that makes any sense at this point. Thanks for any light you might be able to shed on this sort of situation. Elaine O'. Hollister, MO On 7/3/07, kimbuc4@juno.com <kimbuc4@juno.com> wrote: > List members, > > For the past several days there have been a number of messages concerning > the lack of information on burials and tombstones. > > I have mentioned this in the past but apparently there are many new > members. Some basic information about cemeteries, concerns tombstones.

Wednesday, July 04, 2007 Dear Elaine, The scenario that you present is very possible. In fact, it happens frequently. In many of the cases, part of the burials in a small family plot were documented by tombstones and that little family burial site is so well hidden that common knowledge of it has disappeared long ago. In many cases, the landowners are reluctant to disclose the fact that a cemetery exists on the property out of fear that it will ruin the value of the property or place them in a situation in which they will have to spend on the cemetery or to maintain it. When I started actively seeking to locate the small family cemeteries of Callaway County, Missouri a little over five years ago, the historical society had a catalog of 223 cemeteries in the county. That catalog was compiled by two men working together for approximately five years in the early 1980's. Since that time another individual and myself have been adding to that catalog of known cemeteries and the total for the county as of today is 301 cemeteries and we have a list of approximately forty more cemeteries that we have yet to check out. When we started, there were a number of those added that were commonly known; but still not in the catalog; but now we are getting down to the ones that are increasingly more difficult to find, and to find reference to. About half of our leads still come in by word of mouth; but many are being discovered from references in probate records or an obituary indicating that an unlocated individual was buried in the "family" cemetery. It just takes patience and diligence seeking and following up on every lead to bring these lost cemeteries to light. Don't think that we win every one of them; because we don't; but we are still bringing in a number of newly found cemeteries every year. As long as they haven't been physically destroyed, they are possible to find. Old land records are still the best place to start when seeking the "family" cemetery. Land patents and historic atlases are the greatest help in locating those cemeteries. Just simply knowing where the properties owned by the family are located, selecting the oldest male member of the family whose burial site is unknown, and then finding the oldest property that he had owned will generally produce the "family" cemetery. Historic atlases can give you the indication of approximately where the house existed at the time of the atlas, and you can bet that the cemetery will be about 250 ft. from the house near the crest of a little knoll in a grove of trees. They are frequently marked by a remnant of a fence which has no readily apparent reason for being there. If there are no tombstones, the burials will frequently be witnessed by a native stone headstone and possibly native stone footstone with the accompanying slight depression between that tends to fill up with leaves. Lost family cemeteries do exist and there are many that will escape us; but with some effort, there are many that can be found. In the course of documenting some of the previously known cemeteries, we have discovered that there are not just three or four burials in that little cemetery; but there are numerous burials that have gone undetected previously. Case in point, we have checked out two previously cataloged cemeteries, thought to be family cemeteries, each containing seven known burials documented by tombstones. Closer scrutiny of the burials and surrounding area revealed that there were a large number burials marked by native stone that previous listers had failed to find because there were no tombstones on those burials. When checking land records we discovered that both had been church cemeteries that had been abandoned. Even the County Poor Farm which may have had active burials up to its closing in the mid 1950's barely escaped destruction by a land developer approximately two years ago because knowledge of the cemetery was not documented by the county and obscured by subsequent landowners. There was only one tombstone on the Poor Farm Cemetery, yet there were probably at least two hundred burials in a piece of real estate that was approximately 220 ft. by 110 ft. Yes there are many lost family cemeteries, many of which we can still find and many of which will be lost to us forever. Every year that goes by without actively seeking and documenting these cemeteries is one more step toward disappearance by neglect or destruction. How many will you find this year? It's 2007. Do you know where your Great Grandparents are? Sincerely yours, Wayne Johnson ----- Original Message ----- From: "Elaine O'Neill" <elaineoneill1948@gmail.com> To: <mo-cemeteries@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2007 12:42 AM Subject: Re: [MO-CEMETERIES] MO-CEMETERIES Digest, Vol 2, Issue 111 > Thank you, Bill for all the wonderful information. I intend to file > this for future reference. > > I have one question, if I may. Don't know if you'll have an answer, > but I'll take that chance. > > What are the odds, in poor, rural areas in the last half of the 19th > century, that persons were buried on family land...no gravestone, no > record anywhere of a burial? I have on in particular I've been > searching for in either Howell or Texas county. The cemetery books > have been checked there is no listing anywhere for her. There are > other members of her family that are equally elusive. I wonder if > they were just buried "out back under the Maple tree" and then when > the family moved on they are left behind and forgotten. > This is the only scenario that makes any sense at this point. > > Thanks for any light you might be able to shed on this sort of situation. > > Elaine O'. > Hollister, MO > On 7/3/07, kimbuc4@juno.com <kimbuc4@juno.com> wrote: >> List members, >> >> For the past several days there have been a number of messages concerning >> the lack of information on burials and tombstones. >> >> I have mentioned this in the past but apparently there are many new >> members. Some basic information about cemeteries, concerns tombstones. > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > MO-CEMETERIES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message

To: Elaine in Hollister, Mo. There is my family cemetery on our property. It is located in a field, with no fence or anything such as a sign saying that it is a cemetery. It is just there, in the middle of the field. There are several family members burried there that do not have stones on them. There was no money at the time, and since it was a family cemetery, the other family members knew who was burried there and when they died. So that was all that mattered. The sad part is, that the information never gets recorded or handed down to future generations. So I think you are absolutely right about the reason for not having a stone on a grave. It's so true but yet so sad. Patty ----- Original Message ----- From: "Elaine O'Neill" <elaineoneill1948@gmail.com> To: <mo-cemeteries@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2007 12:42 AM Subject: Re: [MO-CEMETERIES] MO-CEMETERIES Digest, Vol 2, Issue 111 > Thank you, Bill for all the wonderful information. I intend to file > this for future reference. > > I have one question, if I may. Don't know if you'll have an answer, > but I'll take that chance. > > What are the odds, in poor, rural areas in the last half of the 19th > century, that persons were buried on family land...no gravestone, no > record anywhere of a burial? I have on in particular I've been > searching for in either Howell or Texas county. The cemetery books > have been checked there is no listing anywhere for her. There are > other members of her family that are equally elusive. I wonder if > they were just buried "out back under the Maple tree" and then when > the family moved on they are left behind and forgotten. > This is the only scenario that makes any sense at this point. > > Thanks for any light you might be able to shed on this sort of situation. > > Elaine O'. > Hollister, MO > On 7/3/07, kimbuc4@juno.com <kimbuc4@juno.com> wrote: > > List members, > > > > For the past several days there have been a number of messages concerning > > the lack of information on burials and tombstones. > > > > I have mentioned this in the past but apparently there are many new > > members. Some basic information about cemeteries, concerns tombstones. > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MO-CEMETERIES-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > >