I'm looking for suggestions on finding the graves of my fourth and third great grandfathers, Daniel Gilman died in 1790 and Nicholas in 1804 in Maytown. They switched back and forth between the Reformed and Lutheran Churches in Maytown. Their graves are not in the Maytown Lutheran Church Cemetery. I have checked both churches records for their funerals with no results. Most of the Reformed records are missing. I've not been able to find any other local cemeteries. Thanks very much, Bob Krebs Bowling Green, OH

Bob, Early cemeteries in Maytown area: Donegal Presbyterian Church; church founded in 1721; church records date from 1786; I'm not sure when burial records were started. Maytown Reformed Cemetery, started c1769; burial records begin 1840. St. John's Lutheran Cemetery, started 1765; burial records from 1771-1781, 1812-1821, 1847-1887, etc. Kraybill Mennonite Cemetery, started c1812. Christ Lutheran Cemetery in Elizabethtown, started 1772; burial records from 1779-1782, 1812-1921. Mount Tunnel Cemetery in Elizabethtown; gravestones from other cemeteries, including Donegal/Mount Joy/Blasser's Reformed Church in Elizabethtown, were moved here; earliest records apparently c1815. There are other cemeteries in surrounding Mount Joy and West Donegal townships. I have done a lot of research in the Maytown and Donegal area, and I have many ancestors who died there. Most of my early ancestors (up to around 1830-50), were buried on the family farm. This includes those with substantial land and personal property. This was very common in Lancaster County. Stones may have been erected, but most are now gone. The book "Churches and Cemeteries of Lancaster County" points out the many cemeteries shown in maps from the mid-1800s that cannot be located today. I have one case where headstones were erected for my Maytown Lutheran ancestors 50 years after they died - and placed in a Brethren cemetery in Mount Joy. Wills and deeds prove they were buried on their farm, so I'm confident the Brethren cemetery does not contain their bodies. Many of the early church records do not include burial records, or they exist sporadically. Most of the compiled cemetery records were put together in the mid-1900s. Therefore you won't find records for those buried without headstones or for those with destroyed or unreadable headstones. Early burial records are frequently sporadic because the pastors took their records with them when they left. Only some of those records survive. Rev. Henry Shaffner, for example, served the Maytown Reformed Church from 1808 to 1835, taking his records with him. His records, in German, can be found at the Lancaster Co Historical Society and on microfilm from the FHL. I have found several family deaths in his records, but usually there is no corresponding headstone in the cemetery. There's no way to know whether they were buried at home, buried without a headstone, or the stone is now gone. (These are particularly great records. Shaffner frequently named the parents of the deceased.) Sometimes you can get burial clues in wills ("I am to be buried in the family graveyard"). I have one will in which a son set aside money to build an iron fence around the family plot. This plot, mentioned in three different wills (from 1850 to 1870) cannot be found today. Estate records may also give you some sense of how the deceased was buried. Accounts filed by the administrator should include payments for burial items: coffin, headstone, burying cloth, etc. Frequently you will find a coffin listed but no headstone. Good luck. You are researching within a challenging time period. Pam . --- Original Message ----- From: "Bob Krebs" <rnkrebs@wcnet.org> To: <palancas@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, July 25, 2011 9:32 AM Subject: [PALANCAS] Maytown burials > > I'm looking for suggestions on finding the graves of my fourth and third > great grandfathers, Daniel Gilman died in 1790 and Nicholas in 1804 in > Maytown. They switched back and forth between the Reformed and > Lutheran Churches in Maytown. Their graves are not in the Maytown > Lutheran Church Cemetery. I have checked both churches records for > their funerals with no results. Most of the Reformed records are > missing. I've not been able to find any other local cemeteries. > > > Thanks very much, > > > Bob Krebs > Bowling Green, OH > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > PALANCAS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >

Hi, I am thrilled to see Maytown mentioned on the Lancaster list. I have quite a few ancestors who lived in Maytown and are buried there, some as recent as the mid-1900's and many earlier (my grandparents and great-grandparents). But I have some who do go back to the 1800's also. One cemetery that I believe has not been mentioned to you yet is the Maytown Union Cemetery which is where my g parents and gg parents are buried, along with some of my g mother's siblings who died young. Maytown Union Cem. is directly behind and adjacent to the St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Cemetery (which is probably what you referred to as Maytown Lutheran Cemetery). It is back the road along side of the Lutheran Church and I believe the name of the cemetery is on a brick pillar back there. My grandparents and g grandparents attended the Reformed (United Church of Christ) Church but for some unknown reason are not buried there, but down the road in the Maytown Union Cemetery. I do have other ancestors buried in the Reformed Cemetery also. I have been to all 2 of those cemeteries and taken pictures. I have had correspondence from both Rev. Lascalette at the Lutheran Church and he has been very helpful in the past in checking his church records for me. However, at the Reformed Church the records are not held somewhere else, and at the moment I don't remember where. I have had hopes for the past year of making a trip to the Lancaster area and looking at the records myself, but just haven't gotten there yet. Hope this has helped you at least a little. Sue Lupinacci, researching Dibeler/Deibler, Jacobs, Lentz, and others On Mon, Jul 25, 2011 at 9:32 AM, Bob Krebs <rnkrebs@wcnet.org> wrote: > > I'm looking for suggestions on finding the graves of my fourth and third > great grandfathers, Daniel Gilman died in 1790 and Nicholas in 1804 in > Maytown. They switched back and forth between the Reformed and > Lutheran Churches in Maytown. Their graves are not in the Maytown > Lutheran Church Cemetery. I have checked both churches records for > their funerals with no results. Most of the Reformed records are > missing. I've not been able to find any other local cemeteries. > > > Thanks very much, > > > Bob Krebs > Bowling Green, OH > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > PALANCAS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >