Hi All, I have not had time for any site maintenance this week but hope to do some catch up this weekend. During the week I have been doing my usual traveling here and there on business (40,000 miles of it in the last year) and stopped at quite a few cemeteries along the way in search of the plaques and flagholders that are my latest object of scrutiny and photography. Once you start looking at these things, it is amazing the diversity that exists. In addition to the military ones, I have found them for Organ Donors, Letter Carriers, State Police, Lots and lots of fire department, fraternal organizations of all kinds, Railroad workers, ministers, scoutmasters, grange members and on and on. I have collected photos of upwards of 250 different plaque/flagholder markers just in this week and have them all organized in a computerized slide show. I include color variations as differences, so may have similar plaques in a variety of colors. As I present more of the Bradford County Veterans burials pages, I'll be showing you the diversity of the military markers in my photo collection. I was privileged to meet site guest Marilyn DEWEY Adams this week on her visit north from Florida. In fact, she accompanied me on a WET tour of Woodlawn on Thursday in my quest for new markers. It is always a treat to meet people with whom I have corresponded for years and Marilyn is every bit as optimistic and high spirited in person as in her notes. Also, I have a few of the markers that I do not know what they are about so I am asking the mail list subscribers (you) to tell me what you know about them. The first is an organization called K.O.T.M. or the Maccabees. I assume this means Knights of the Maccabees. I found three old and very rusty markers, all different from each other, locally. The burials they accompanied were 1904, 1919 and 1934. The dictionary definition of Maccabees made this sound like possibly a Jewish thing, but that does not fit with the demographics of the community where I found them - Virgil NY. Another is Degree of Pocohontos with a shield and bird. The bird makes me think this might be a Rebecca insignia. Any ideas? Another mystery is an eagle above a shield. I have found three of these in various places in NYS, all slightly different. Two of them say Camp 93. The other is very rusty and says just Camp No. (and no number given) Another is a very rusty marker that says Women's Relief Corps 1883 and in the center W.A.C. Can anyone identify this organization for me and give me some history on it. Another real mystery that I can make no sense of is a large rusty flagholder plaque. The outline may be a large C or just a curve. There are two large stylized initials inside that may be A R. At the top it says Bacon Port 53 and below it says Utica NY. I do not have a clue what this is about. I found it in Newark Valley. I will eventually be putting up some pages on my latest "collection" with explanations of what they are. For those of us who spend so much time in cemeteries, it is time we start understanding the "language" and these markers are certainly part of the language available to us. Joyce M. Tice <A HREF="http://www.rootsweb.com/~srgp/jmtindex.htm">Tri-Counti es Genealogy & History Sites of Joyce M. Tice</A>