Hey gang, Just a short reminder to the vets and newbies at this site of my free research for the asking here at Andersonville. Please email me directly with request so we dont tie up the county site. Kevin Andersonville Historic Site Historian / NPS Volunteer www.angelfire.com/ga2/Andersonvilleprison/index.html

April 12, 2006 The DNA Age Seeking Ancestry in DNA Ties Uncovered by Tests By AMY HARMON Alan Moldawer's adopted twins, Matt and Andrew, had always thought of themselves as white. But when it came time for them to apply to college last year, Mr. Moldawer thought it might be worth investigating the origins of their slightly tan-tinted skin, with a new DNA kit that he had heard could determine an individual's genetic ancestry. The results, designating the boys 9 percent Native American and 11 percent northern African, arrived too late for the admissions process. But Mr. Moldawer, a business executive in Silver Spring, Md., says they could be useful in obtaining financial aid. "Naturally when you're applying to college you're looking at how your genetic status might help you," said Mr. Moldawer, who knows that the twins' birth parents are white, but has little information about their extended family. "I have three kids going now, and you can bet that any advantage we can take we will." Genetic tests, once obscure tools for scientists, have begun to influence everyday lives in many ways. The tests are reshaping people's sense of themselves — where they came from, why they behave as they do, what disease might be coming their way. It may be only natural then that ethnic ancestry tests, one of the first commercial products to emerge from the genetic revolution, are spurring a thorough exploration of the question, What is in it for me? Many scientists criticize the ethnic ancestry tests as promising more than they can deliver. The legacy of an ancestor several generations back may be too diluted to show up. And the tests have a margin of error, so results showing a small amount of ancestry from one continent may not actually mean someone has any. Given the tests' speculative nature, it seems unlikely that colleges, governments and other institutions will embrace them. But that has not stopped many test-takers from adopting new DNA-based ethnicities — and a sense of entitlement to the privileges typically reserved for them. Prospective employees with white skin are using the tests to apply as minority candidates, while some with black skin are citing their European ancestry in claiming inheritance rights. One Christian is using the test to claim Jewish genetic ancestry and to demand Israeli citizenship, and Americans of every shade are staking a DNA claim to Indian scholarships, health services and casino money. "This is not just somebody's desire to go find out whether their grandfather is Polish," said Troy Duster, a sociologist at New York University who has studied the social impact of the tests. "It's about access to money and power." Driving the pursuit of genetic bounty are start-up testing companies with names like DNA Tribes and Ethnoancestry. For $99 to $250, they promise to satisfy the human hunger to learn about one's origins — and sometimes much more. On its Web site, a leader in this cottage industry, DNA Print Genomics, once urged people to use it "whether your goal is to validate your eligibility for race-based college admissions or government entitlements." Tony Frudakis, the research director at DNAPrint, said the three-year-old company had coined the term American Indian Princess Syndrome to describe the insistent pursuit of Indian roots among many newly minted genetic genealogists. If the tests fail to turn up any, Mr. Frudakis added, "this type of customer is frequently quite angry." DNAPrint calls the ethnic ancestry tests "recreational genomics" to distinguish them from the more serious medical and forensic applications of genetics. But as they ignite a debate over a variety of genetic birthrights, their impact may be further-reaching than anyone anticipated. Some social critics fear that the tests could undermine programs meant to compensate those legitimately disadvantaged because of their race. Others say they highlight an underlying problem with labeling people by race in an increasingly multiracial society. "If someone appears to be white and then finds out they are not, they haven't experienced the kinds of things that affirmative action is supposed to remedy," said Lester Monts, senior vice provost for student affairs at the University of Michigan, which won the right to use race as a factor in admissions in a 2003 Supreme Court decision. Still, Michigan, like most other universities, relies on how students choose to describe themselves on admissions applications when assigning racial preferences. Ashley Klett's younger sister marked the "Asian" box on her college applications this year, after the elder Ms. Klett, 20, took a DNA test that said she was 2 percent East Asian and 98 percent European. Whether it mattered they do not know, but she did get into the college of her choice. "And they gave her a scholarship," Ashley said. Pearl Duncan has grander ambitions: she wants a castle. A descendant of Jamaican slaves, Ms. Duncan had already identified the Scottish slave owner who was her mother's great-great-grandfather through archival records. But the DNA test confirming her 10 percent British Isles ancestry gave her the nerve to contact the Scottish cousins who had built an oil company with his fortune. "It's one thing to feel satisfied to know something about your heritage, it's another to claim it," said Ms. Duncan, a writer in Manhattan. "There's a kind of checkmateness to the DNA." The family's 11 castles, Ms. Duncan noted, were obtained with the proceeds of her African ancestors' labor. Perhaps they could spare one for her great-great-great-grandfather's black heirs? In case the paper records she had gathered were not persuasive, she invited male family members to take a DNA test that can identify a genetic signature passed from father to son. So far, no one has taken her up on the offer. Her appeal, Ms. Duncan said, is mostly playful. Less so is her insistence that the Scots stop referring to their common ancestors as simply "Virginia and West India merchants." "By acknowledging me, the Scots are beginning to acknowledge that these guys were slaveholders," she said. Other slave descendants, known as the Freedmen, see DNA as bolstering their demand to be reinstated as members of the Indian tribes that once owned their ancestors. Under a treaty with the United States, the "Five Civilized Tribes" — Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, Seminoles and Cherokees — freed their African slaves and in most cases made them citizens in the mid-1800's. More recently, the tribes have sought to exclude the slaves' descendants, depriving them of health benefits and other services. At a meeting in South Coffeyville, Okla., last month, members of the Freedmen argued that DNA results revealing their Indian ancestry underscore the racism of the tribe's position that their ancestors were never true Indians. "Here's this DNA test that says yes, these people can establish some degree of Indian blood," said Marilyn Vann, a Cherokee Freedwoman who is suing for tribal citizenship in federal court. "It's important to combat those who want to oppress people of African descent in their own tribe." As the assets of some tribes have swelled in the wake of the 1988 federal law allowing them to build casinos, there has been no shortage of petitioners stepping forward to assert their right to citizenship and a share of the wealth. Now, many of them are wielding genetic ancestry tests to bolster their claim. "It used to be 'someone said my grandmother was an Indian,' " says Joyce Walker, the enrollment clerk who regularly turns away DNA petitioners for the Mashantucket Pequot tribe, which operates the lucrative Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut. "Now it's 'my DNA says my grandmother was an Indian.' " Recognizing the validity of DNA ancestry tests, some Indians say, would undermine tribal sovereignty. They say membership requires meeting the criteria in a tribe's constitution, which often requires documenting blood ties to a specific tribal member. DNA tests cannot pinpoint to which tribe an individual's ancestor belonged. But if tribes are perceived as blocking legitimate DNA applicants to limit payouts of casino money, experts say, it could damage their standing to enforce the treaties conferring the financial benefits so many covet. "Ancestry DNA tests are playing a part in the evolution of what the American public thinks matters," said Kim Tallbear, an American Indian studies professor at Arizona State University. "And tribes are dependent on the American public's good will, so they may have to bend." Under no such pressure, Israeli authorities have so far denied John Haedrich what he calls his genetic birthright to citizenship without converting to Judaism. Under Israel's "law of return," only Jews may immigrate to Israel without special dispensation. Mr. Haedrich, a nursing home director who was raised a Christian, found through a DNA ancestry test that he bears a genetic signature commonly found among Jews. He says his European ancestors may have hidden their faith for fear of persecution. Rabbis, too, have disavowed the claim: "DNA, schmeeNA," Mr. Haedrich, 44, said the rabbi at a local synagogue in Los Angeles told him when he called to discuss it. Undeterred, Mr. Haedrich has hired a lawyer to sue the Israeli government. As in America, he argues, DNA is widely accepted as evidence in forensics and paternity cases, so why not immigration? "Because I was raised a gentile does not change the fact that I am," Mr. Haedrich wrote in a full-page advertisement in The Jerusalem Post, "a Jew by birth." Shonda Brinson, an African-American college student, is still trying to figure out how best to apply her DNA results on employment forms. In some cases, she has chosen to write in her actual statistics — 89 percent sub-Saharan African, 6 percent European and 5 percent East Asian. But she figures her best bet may be just checking all relevant boxes. "That way, of the three categories they won't be able to determine which percentage is bigger," Ms. Brinson said. Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/FCC.2ACE/2072.1 Message Board Post: Additional information he had two sons Ebenezer and Samuel both born between 1810-1820. Think he is on the 1820 census in Wellsburg in Brooke Co Virginia/West Virginia. Wife went by Betsey.

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: DAVIS / MILLER Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/FCC.2ACE/2073 Message Board Post: Looking for any information on Joseph H. MILLER, b.July 20, 1880 (Wheeling), d. April 18, 1939 (Wellsburg), m. Barbara DAVIS. Son of Joseph MILLER & Katherine De Muta(?). Lived on 22nd St in Wellsburg.

Dear Lori: Regarding the trial, etc. of the murder: Where all have you looked? Since you have some dates, can you call the library in Follansbee & ask for (a paid) lookup in old newspapers? If you have tried that & were refused, I have the name of a Wheeling, WV genealogist who may be able to find newspaper articles in the nearby newspapers. A murder would be in all of the town's news. -Donna

Me again--remember? The great-granddaughter of the murderer, Jack Timothy? Just wanted to mention that I have a lot of info on other people who lived in Follansbee in August 1910. A long time ago I was subscribed to this list and posted that I had people who testified at the Grand Jury of my G-grandfather (he's the one who murdered the Chinese laundryman). No one ever took me up on it so I thought I'd try again since it's been several years. I recently learned that the eyewitness testimony in my possession is actually from the Coroner's Inquest/Hearing that was held the day after the murder on Aug. 17, 1910 and not the Grand Jury. According to a Steubenville paper, however, there was also testimony at the Grand Jury but I wrote the Brooke Co. court & it's no where to be found. Which was a bummer because supposedly Tom Rogers (the mayor and my infamous Ggrandfather's uncle) and George Hahne (my Ggrandfather's brother) gave testimony at the Grand Jury...and there is no testimony from them in the Coroner's Inquest Testimony. ANYWAY, if you have ancestors or people you're interested in (such as Prosecutor Ramsey who went on to be a Congressman, etc.) from that time period in Follansbee, let me know & I'll be happy to see if they're in my records. Plus, it might benefit me too if you're ancestor was a witness. (I'm still trying to locate the exact spot of the murder and think I've narrowed it down to somewhere near 637 Main St. in current day Follansbee). Lori J. Martin TIMOTHY; ROGERS; HAHNE --------------------------------- Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. PC-to-Phone calls for ridiculously low rates.

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/FCC.2ACE/1746.1 Message Board Post: Sherry, I can answer your question about Marmaduke Dent Lazzell in the 1850 census. The pages are out of order! He really belongs with his own family (2 pages back) William W & Sarah Lazzell, you'll find if you look at the residence and family numbers, he's really with them, but the pages are out of order. Hope this helps! -Laura L.

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/FCC.2ACE/2072 Message Board Post: I am looking for information on the John Robison family. I believe he married Eleanor Smith in Washington Co Pa prior to 1812. He got land in Richland Co Ohio in 1814 and finished paying for it in 1818. Had daughters Elizabeth who married John Tallentire and Martha who married a Robert McFArland.

Need a little advice. I am from Northern Ohio and not familiar with the area, and am told three burials I am interested in are in Allegheny Cemetery. Is this another name for Oak Grove/Grove Cemetery on Allegheny Street? That's question number one. Number two is, who would you recommend to contact for burial information such as section/lot information? I am interested in George Washington Adams 1874-1932, his wife Lottie Stock Adams 1877-1949 and their daughter, Clara Adams Lyons O'Malley 1898-1931. Thank you, Jennifer Also posted on the GenForum Brooke Co. site. My apologies if redundant. -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.385 / Virus Database: 268.4.0/305 - Release Date: 4/8/2006

A Purple Heart comes home By LISA HOFFMAN The grimy blue case rested among other dusty knickknacks in a Southern California secondhand shop. At first glance, Gene Dobos thought it must contain a watch. A thrift-shop browser and watch collector by hobby, Dobos looked closer and saw the words "PURPLE HEART" embossed in gold on the case's leatherette cover. Inside, on the stained yellow velvet lining, lay a worn, heart-shaped medal adorned with a purple ribbon. Etched on its reverse was the name "Frank N. Smith" and "For Military Merit." At home in San Bernardino that night, Dobos couldn't get Smith or the medal _ which is awarded only to those wounded or killed in war _ out of his mind. The next morning, he returned and bought it for $40. "It was a very dingy and rundown thrift shop and (I) felt bad the medal was there," said Dobos, 37, and a salesman by trade. And so began an effort conducted almost entirely on the Internet that grew to include a small army of strangers spanning four states _ California, Mississippi, Ohio and Texas _ all determined to return the decoration to its rightful owner and honor the unknown soldier for his sacrifice. When the search started in December 2004, no one knew who Smith was, if he was dead or alive, whether he purposely discarded the medal or lost it, say, in a move, or even in which of America's conflicts he had suffered his wound. But by the time the mission ended, this disparate network of volunteers had found some of Smith's family as well as his fate, though the path the medal took to that seedy store shelf remains a mystery. Along the way, the search became such an emotional grail to some that it spawned an original song, a CD of which is now being sold to raise scholarship funds for youths who volunteer to visit bedridden veterans. Plans are under way for a simple ceremony in the spring to bring the medal home. "We are all grateful that we were able to contribute in returning the medal to its proper owner," Dobos said in an e-mail. The thrift shop had no clue where the medal came from, so Dobos began his search on the Internet, asking around in chat rooms for advice on how to track down a soldier. Dobos and his online hunters eventually determined that the person in question was Army Pfc. Frank Norman Smith, who died in Vietnam nearly 40 years ago. Smith, 20, was a light-vehicle driver in a convoy that was ambushed Dec. 17, 1968, in the Tay Ninh province of South Vietnam, according to casualty records. The enemy was gearing up for an offensive and U.S. forces were moving in to defend the city of Tay Ninh. Just two weeks shy of coming home to Seneca County, Ohio, for good after a year in combat, Smith was killed by small-arms fire. He was one of 147 U.S. service members to die in Vietnam that day. Armed with that information, Dobos turned next to the Military Order of the Purple Heart, a nonprofit organization of medal recipients that calls itself the "keepers of the medal." In the hope that the group could find Smith's grave and return the medal to his family, Dobos mailed the decoration to Ray Funderburk, public-relations chief for the group and a Vietnam vet with two Purple Hearts himself. Funderburk was deeply moved when he received it. "It looks as if the medal has been handled many times and replaced back on the metal clip holding it in place," said Funderburk, of Southaven, Miss. "I envisioned his mom and dad taking the medal out and holding it in their hands, thinking of their son." He beat the online bushes for information on Smith and found a friendly Ohio genealogist who agreed to help. "I will not see his medal degraded further," Funderburk wrote in an e-mail to genealogist Kristina Krumm of Columbus, Ohio. Krumm recruited fellow researchers and, in time, pinpointed Smith's grave in a cemetery not far from his childhood home. On a parallel track, Smith's parents were found to have died, but his siblings were located via the e-mail addresses they had used to send memorial messages about their brother to an online registry of fallen Vietnam War troops. They had no idea their brother's medal had gone missing and were overwhelmed by the kindness of the corps of strangers determined to return it. "We believe this is nothing short of a miracle from God," Fran Stock, one of Frank's older sisters, wrote in an e-mail. "It's just amazing," agreed Jonna Smith, Frank's other sister, in a telephone interview. To the sisters, Frank was their best friend while growing up in the country in northern Ohio, not far from Toledo. A dark-haired, good-looking kid who stood 6-feet-4 and weighed 245 pounds, their brother was a practical joker who loved life, Jonna Smith said. Frank went by "Pete" to differentiate him from his father, also named Frank. Along with his name, the son shared the patriotism of his father, who served in the Navy, the Army, and then the Ohio National Guard. The dad's service inspired Frank to enlist in the Army, even as the Vietnam War raged at its worst. He married a week before high-school graduation and left a week later for boot camp. His wife, Karen, had their daughter, Jackie, while he was at war. She brought the 4-week-old to Hawaii where Frank had some R&R leave from combat. "He got to see (his child) that once," Jonna Smith said. After Frank's death, his widow and daughter moved west and probably took his Purple Heart with them, Jonna said. The family in Ohio lost touch with the two about 20 years ago. "We haven't heard anything," she said. The discovery of her brother's medal has brought Jonna a mix of emotions _ awe that strangers would go to such trouble for her family, along with the grief she still carries from her brother's loss. "I've always had a hard time accepting my brother's death," she said. For Funderburk, of the Purple Heart group, finally finding Smith's resting place so touched him that he penned a poem he titled "Purple Heart Soldier." Paul Dvorak, Funderburk's son-in-law, composed music to go with the lyrics, then tapped his network of fellow Texas A&M University alums to find musician volunteers to record it in San Antonio. Part of the proceeds of the sale of the $9.95 compact disc, which can be found at www.txrrecords.com, will go toward a scholarship program that links young people with bedridden veterans in Veterans Affairs facilities. Now, Funderburk is having the medal encased in glass and making plans to bring it to Ohio this spring, where it will be permanently affixed to Smith's grave in Bethel Cemetery in Seneca County. A contingent of Purple Heart recipients from Ohio hopes to attend. "That will be a good time to say a final 'Thank you, Frank N. Smith, for giving up your precious life for us,' " Funderburk said. "We salute you and may you rest in peace." (Contact Lisa Hoffman at HoffmanL(at)shns.com) (Posted at: http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_8188.shtml )

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Pugh, Gordon Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/FCC.2ACE/479.1.1 Message Board Post: I am also interested in the info in the 1830 John BAKER estate info; am trying to separate all the Pugh families!! I am descended from Peter Pugh d. 1844 (bro of Moses, Hugh, David, John & 'also 2 girls'---none of this proven yet). I would like to add dates, locale etc for Moses & especially Hugh--anything to clarify these lines!! Will gladly share Thanx Molly.

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: BAILY, GEORGE Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/FCC.2ACE/2071 Message Board Post: Thomas BAILY was a farmer in Brooke County, WV in the early 1800s. Born in Eastern PA sometime in the 1700s, Thomas married three times and had children with each wife. To his first marriage (wife's name unknown) these children were born: Mary BAILY (who married Thomas ALLISON), Robert BAILY, Isaac BAILY (who became a government land surveyor in TX), and Ruth BAILY. To his second marriage (to Mary FARNSWORTH), these children were born: Evan BAILY (Dec 16 1805 - July 17 1878; who married Elizabeth MCHENRY), Jemima BAILY (who married Thomas NIXON) To his third marriage (wife's name unknown), these children were born: Thomas BAILY (who married America GRAIL) and Alexander BAILY (who married Elizabeth GEORGE, then later Eliza RAMBO). Are any of you researching this BAILY family? Nancy Sween http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~vlwest/baily/

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/FCC.2ACE/928.922.937.925 Message Board Post: LOOKING FOR JOHN W. MCHENRY AND JOHN F. MCHENRY BORN 1800'S IN KENTUCKY AND MISSOURI. I WOULD APPRECIATE ANY INFORMATION . JOHN W. WAS MARRIED TWO TIMES AND THE SECOND WIFE'S NAME WAS MATELDA THOMPSON.

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Horner, Croniser, Jackson, Sims Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/FCC.2ACE/2070 Message Board Post: Looking for anyone that might know of a Frank Cronizer/Croniser and his sister Jennie Cronizer/Croniser. Their father was Robert and mother was Emma Jane Horner Cronizer/Croniser. Frank was in the Army in WWII and moved to Michigan and died in 1971. I don't know anything about Jennie. They also had a brother Thomas that died young. Emma Horner's parents lived next door to them in Cross Creek Twp. from 1910 to 1930. They were Frank/Franklin Horner and Annie Cram. Hope someone can help me locate descendants of these people. Frank Horner was the brother of my great-grandfather. I found a picture of Frank and Jennie Cronizer/Croniser in my mother's picture album and I have been trying to figure out who they were and how they were related. Thanks

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/FCC.2ACE/2069.2.1 Message Board Post: Thank you for your help. Daniel's wife, Jane passed away 3 July 1818 Brooke Co., WV.

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/FCC.2ACE/2069.1.1 Message Board Post: Daniel Roberts, I believe married Jane Connell, so maybe it could be with the Connell family. Not much is known about my connection which the Roberts or Connell family before Daniel & Jane Roberts. They younger son, Joseph Roberts was the only child of their born in Brooke County, WV in 1804.

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/FCC.2ACE/2069.1 Message Board Post: Deaths were first recorded in Brooke county WV in 1853. I checked thru several cemetery records and did not find your family listed. Could they have been buried in a family plot?

More Family Cemeteries Dying Away in the South By Theo Emery The Washington Post Monday 27 March 2006 As rural land is developed, ancestral graves are relocated, bulldozed or encircled by construction. Lebanon, Tenn. - At the end of Bettis Road, across a padlocked gate and up a grassy hillside lane, generations of James Jordan's ancestors lie buried atop a wooded knoll - for now. A rusty fence encircles the cemetery, and tilted headstones point skyward amid the leaves. Walking among the locust trees, Jordan points out graves of long-dead kin, including the Chandler family matriarch who left instructions and money for preserving the cemetery. "It's a shame," said Jordan, 51. "She died thinking that she had preserved the cemetery." The hilltop, about 25 miles east of Nashville, won't be Jordan's ancestral resting place much longer. Green flags mark the Chandler cemetery, which includes graves of Revolutionary and Civil War veterans, slaves and generations of a sprawling Colonial family. They will soon be moved so that a factory or warehouse - the developer is not yet sure - can be built nearby. Throughout the South, family cemeteries pepper the landscape. But as cities from Atlanta to Memphis radiate rapidly outward, the growth is swallowing rural land that swaddles the graves. In Tennessee alone, dozens of long-hidden cemeteries appear each year - sometimes in mid-construction - creating headaches for builders and heartaches for families of the dead. Some cemeteries are moved at landowners' expense. Those that stay sometimes become forlorn islands of green amid parking lots and suburban developments. Others are paved over or bulldozed. The conflict between growth and graves in the region has long been cause for concern among preservationists, who worry that development endangers a cultural heritage buried in the soil and chiseled in its headstones. Ian W. Brown, an anthropology professor at the University of Alabama, described family cemeteries as "outdoor museums" that are threatened throughout the South. "A lot of the land has been sold, abandoned, come under forest, things like that," he said. "People are concerned with them in a general fashion, but unless it's your family, no one's tending them." In Tennessee, as in other Southern states, farm families in centuries past tended to bury their dead on their own land, allowing for quick interment and easy oversight of graves. In the Northeast, by contrast, families were more likely to use public burial grounds and church cemeteries. "The Southern pattern was that every farm or plantation would have their family cemetery," said Charles Reagan Wilson, director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi. Over the years, many families dispersed, undergrowth overtook the headstones and deeds changed hands. Some cemeteries - particularly those where black families buried their kin - used fieldstones as markers and are difficult to spot. State archaeologist Nick Fielder estimates that there are 20,000 family cemeteries in Tennessee, but there's no way to know for sure. There's no central inventory, and most documentation is done by historians and volunteers who scour records and trudge through meadows in search of graves. Fielder says about 100 family cemeteries fall in the path of development in Tennessee each year, about two times as many as a decade ago. Under state law, he said, there's nothing sacred about sites. Relatives of the deceased have no legal leverage over family plots they don't own, and landowners who can pay to move a cemetery need only a judge's approval. "You get to rest in peace - unless someone wants to do something where you rest," he said. >From the Chandler cemetery hillside, the future isn't far. Traffic rumbles past on Highway 109. Shoemaker Genesco Inc. has a distribution center up the road, and Dell assembles computers at a factory a few miles away. The relocation to a spot near the property line is moving forward despite the plans that Jordan's great-great-great grandmother left in her will for the cemetery. The family has no choice, because a deed that left the cemetery land to Chandler descendants was lost, as was family control over the plots. Tom White, a lawyer who represents the landowner, said the move will put the graves closer to the road and away from what probably will be a large building in the middle of the property. "I don't know how you could do it much more ideally than this," he said. In nearby Mount Juliet is an example of what can happen when development overtakes cemeteries. At Nashville Auto Auction, a chain-link fence encircles thousands of cars and trucks on a 265-acre lot. Behind another fence and surrounded by a sea of asphalt is a low hill with a tiny family cemetery on top, nearly buried under tree limbs and oak leaves. There are other examples. North of Nashville, a cemetery is tucked in a highway cloverleaf. There's a family cemetery on the grounds of the city zoo. One family cemetery south of Nashville is on the grounds of a hotel, next to a parking lot. Today, local history buffs often keep an eye on cemeteries. After a Whites Creek resident e-mailed about one, Fielder headed north on a recent afternoon. Just past the post office, he drove over a partly bulldozed field and stopped beside a mound set off with markers. On top were two tilted headstones and two more that were flat on the ground. The graves lay on a lot line of the 26-unit subdivision, which was mapped out on a billboard for passing motorists. Fielder took a long metal rod out of his truck and began plunging it into the ground. He muttered "yup, yup" as the rod sank easily into the earth, indicating that there probably were graves outside of the staked area. A pickup truck pulled off the road, and David Martin - the man who had e-mailed Fielder about the graves - got out. Martin, 47, said he drew attention to the cemetery because he was eager for it to be taken care of. "I think it's important that we honor these people. This is their final resting place, and just because someone wants to put a house or a bridge or a shopping center on top of it doesn't mean that you have the right to do that," Martin said. Richard Binkley, who's building the subdivision, said he feels responsible for the dead on the property, but is torn about what to do. He bought and sold another property that had graves on it, and said he thinks his own family's cemetery was damaged by a careless developer. "It's hard to buy a piece of property now that's on the outskirts of town that doesn't have a grave on it of some kind," he said. "It's come down to the point now where we're running out of space." -------

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Stevens, Snedeker, Wyckoff Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/FCC.2ACE/343.170.175.3 Message Board Post: I too am a descendant of Auguston Stevens. I have some info on the whole bunch - Stevens/Snedeker/Wyckoff - in the Brooke and Ohio County, WV area. I cannot yet prove it, but I suspect a connection to the family of William Stevens, who was born Wilhelm Christian Stephan in Germany in 1754. His son Jacob is possible as Auguston's father, but I cannot yet make the connection definite. Maybe he is, but maybe he isn't. Anyway, I know yours is an older post, so I have sent you an email.

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Roberts & Connell Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/FCC.2ACE/2069 Message Board Post: Looking for information about Daniel Roberts Sr. & wife, Jane Connell (believe its her madien name). Daniel died 25 Oct 1822 in Brooke County, WV and Jane died 3 July 1818 also in Brooke County, WV. They had 10 or 11 children: Jane married Billings; Rebecca; Samuel married Polly "Mary" Vandivoat; William married Jane Reed; John married Mary Roberts; Daniel Jr.; Ephraim married Mary Ann Cheffy; Abraham married Margaret Gossage; Connel married Priscilla Foreman; and Joseph Roberts (born in Brooke Co., WV). Where would Daniel & Jane be buried?