Thursday, 9 November 2000 Research Tip: Plot That Plot While some people start thinking about cemeteries when Halloween rolls around, genealogists tend to think about them far more often. Why? Because cemeteries can be excellent sources of information about our ancestors. Tombstones can reveal names, birth and death dates, spouses, and children. Some family monuments and mausoleums can provide data on several generations of the same family. And one graveyard can contain dozens of headstones commemorating your forebears. If you visit a cemetery to transcribe the tombstones, be sure you get all of the data from each headstone. That includes not just the words on the monument, but any pictures or designs as well. It also includes the location of the grave within the burial site. You don't have to be a professional cartographer, and you don't have to get everything exactly to scale, but you do need to sketch the outlines of the cemetery, and draw the relevant roads, buildings, and other landmarks that define its position. And you need to indicate where each pertinent grave was located within the cemetery. This one act can provide the historical setting for your transcription, allowing you and others to define exactly where the grave was located. Not just to guide others who wish to visit the grave later, but to allow location of the site even if the cemetery becomes "lost" due to development or disaster in the future. * * * * * IN SEARCH OF YOUR EUROPEAN ROOTS Your guide to the records and research tools for successful genealogy in European records Now available for just $15.25 http://www.everton.com/specials/b61 * * * * * Harvest Special: Get a full year of access to the unique resources of On-Line Search, plus a one year subscription to Everton's Genealogical Helper for just $49.50 (45% off the retail price!) http://everton.com/specials/harvest.htm Copyright 2000, Everton Publishers All rights reserved - ------------------------------------------------------------------ FAMILY HISTORY NEWSLINE is a free daily genealogy news service from Everton Publishers P.O. Box 368 Logan, UT 84323 Toll-free: 1-800-443-6325 http://www.everton.com To subscribe, send a message to [email protected] with the message: subscribe history