Hello Sandra and all, First, what a great experience that you had at the Cemetery. I hope some day to have the same experience and WHAT enthusiasm you must have to move forward with your research. Secondly, as the county coordinator for Copiah, I wanted to respond a bit more: I'm assuming that you found the online cemetery listing at the Copiah site and you are correct to say that it is incomplete. I'm going to add some text to all of our cemetery listings that state that the listings should be considered incomplete --even if done yesterday. Why? because many markers are gone or unreadable and many cemeteries have no recorded history of burials (at least in the early days of a cemetery). Genealogy data unless proven by 'official' documents (death certificates, burials from funeral records, etc.) should always be considered incomplete. These web cemetery listings should just provide a place to search and document your family. We should always prove to ourselves and to an 'uninterested' person of the facts. I apologize to you for leading you down the wrong path but it was not my, nor the cemetery recorder's, intent to mislead. I just assumed that family researchers would look at web data as a secondary source and still prove the facts using official documents or actual visits. I hope that you help us by adding your research of the cemetery information to the Copiah site so we can improve our web data. To all of us on this list, we should all realize that genealogy data must be validated as much as possible. We should prove over and over again our family tree. I know my family line has changed twice over the last several years. Bob aka Rob "Sandra Tipton" <dooziet@home.com> 07/28/01 12:03 PM Please respond to "Sandra Tipton" To: MSCOPIAH-L@rootsweb.com cc: Subject: Old Crystal Springs Cemetery I have to take a second to vent just a little bit of frustration. I just returned from vacation where my plans included going to Crystal Springs and other parts of Copiah County to do some research. While I was gone, I sent a message to this list asking for directions (which were promptly sent). Part of that message indicated there had been some vandalism committed at the cemetery and (basically) not to get my hopes up. Well, since I was almost 2 hours away from Crystal Springs, I thought I would check for an online transcription just to make sure the markers were still in existence for my ancestors. I really didn't want to waste the trip. I did find an online transcription. In this transcription, there are a total of 38 stones listed. Mine were not among those listed so we decided not to go. The day we were leaving I asked my husband if we could just stop by the cemetery and look around (just to make sure). We did......I was in utter shock. Yes, there was evidence of some vandalism and the overall age of the cemetery. There were many broken, weathered and missing stones --- however, there were hundreds of stones present and legible. This leads me to believe that the online transcription must represent the contributor's family and nothing else. Why, then, does the link to it not indicate that information? I don't have a problem with a researcher contributing information pertaining solely to his/her family, but this should not be linked as THE transcription of the cemetery. I can't believe I almost didn't go! Not only did I find James Armstrong Sturgis and Sarah Elizabeth Wolfe Sturgis, but I also found Matt Lockwood Sturgis (grandson of above) and Charles E. Wolfe (brother of Sarah). I was so overwhelmed by it all that I had to choke back the tears. Sandra Sturgis Tipton Contact Information EMail: dooziet@home.com ICQ #: 3000482 Home Phone: 615-451-1517 ==== MSCOPIAH Mailing List ==== The listkeeper is Annette Womack. ACWomack@aol.com ============================== Shop Ancestry - Everything you need to Discover, Preserve & Celebrate your heritage! http://shop.myfamily.com/ancestrycatalog