This is the grave of my great-great uncle, my mother's dad's uncle or
rather his dad's brother. (Got that)
Now me, I don't quote lineage by "my cousin 1st removed", it's very confusing, I mean removed from what?
I count it like this, the siblings of my parents are my aunts and uncles, their children are my cousins, their children are my second cousins, and on down the line, because in the scheme of things, a relative is a relative and past a certain point you find yourself saying, "that's Uncle Gordon's daughter or that's Aunt Jessie's grandson". I suppose technical people want technical terms, but in my world it's the Uncle Gordon route.
Now, let me state some pointers early on, that I wish I had followed! Here are the basic supplies you will need. First and foremost is a one subject, ruled wire notebook to keep by your computer at all times. You can buy them at Walmart for 15 cents (did y'all know they've done away with the cent symbol on the keyboard!). Don't buy a three to five subject, rather a one, uno, 1 subject notebook. Here's why you need the notebook, as you're sitting there you want to write down some information and all you see is an envelope holding a bill, so you write on the back. Later on you pay the bill and throw away the envelope or someone else uses it and takes it to their room, even worse, it gets covered up with other papers and you can't find it when you want or need it. If you had a notebook to jot down the information and later on when it's needed, all you have to do is flip through and find it. It helps, if you can remember, to date the pages each time you write. Now as to why only a one subject notebook, when you write on all the pages until it's full, you can date the cover as beginning date and ending date and write a few descriptions as to what notes are inside. Should you need to find a note, it's easier to flip through a one subject notebook rather than a three or five. Plus the three to fives have a tendency to be used by other members of the household, one day you may sit down at your computer and find that your notes have been torn out of the three to five subject notebook and it's now missing.
Next, keep several pens and pencils nearby, preferably where no one else can find them, there's nothing more distracting than having to stop and search for something to write with.
You also need a satchel, beach bag or anything that's fairly good size and has strong straps that you can throw your camera, notebook, pens, pencils into, sling it across your shoulder and jump in the car to go visit grave sites and those older relatives that have old family pictures and stories and are willing to share same.
One thing I have found is that if you can invest in an inexpensive laptop and a three in one printer, copier and scanner, it will be money well spent. I have a $78.00 HP three in one, that's compact, lightweight enough that it's easy to carry with you on picture visits. If you can't get a laptop at this time, always carry your camera and blank envelopes or what I call pencil holders, you know those pink, blue, red or gray almost clear plastic cases you can buy at Walmart for a $1.00 each.
Here's why, some relatives don't like or won't allow you to take their pictures out of their sight, so this is where a scanner comes in handy; and those that will allow you to borrow, you need to treat them as gold and keep the ones you can keep separate from those you need to return and not mix the two. Also, it wouldn't hurt to keep a log of when you borrowed and when you returned. I have had hurt feelings because they thought you still had their pictures and they can't find them. When what really happened is you returned the pictures, and rather than taking them to the box in the closet, under the bed or in the attic, they just throw them in the basket on top of the refrigerator, thinking they'll file them away later and forget where they threw them.
Concerning cemeteries, have you ever just typed in the name of the cemetery you want in your browser, such
"Macedonia Cemetery, Jackson County, Alabama"?
Here's what you'll turn up:
Jackson County, Alabama Cemetery Records
Jackson County
Macedonia, Jackson County, Alabama, USA - Maps, Photos, Weather ...
Local business results for Macedonia Cemetery, nearJackson, Alabama
New Macedoni
If you click on the right one, below is just one page from the article listing all the people buried at
MACEDONIA CEMETERY , Jackson County, Alabama
Archivist: Richard White, al@usgenweb.com
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Compiled by Tracy Lynn Wilson (tlwilson@hiwaay.net)
(c) Copyright 1997, Tracy Lynn Wilson
For surname searches, use the "Find" function on your browswer.
NAME BIRTH DATE DEATH DATE MAIDEN NAME
HARPER, ARCHIE B. (4/8/1933) February 12, 1909 May 15, 1987
m. 4/8/1933
HARPER, VELMA July 11, 1918 January 26, 1996 Stover
HARPER, J. ALVIN March 16, 1914 February 05, 1972
HARPER, E. MASON May 11, 1916 April 13, 1975
Brother of henderson, Annie Allen, Stella Baldwin, Nolia Rolli, Eunice Brogdon, & Lou Johns 
Rootsweb sponsors the USGENWEB project. Their goal is to go to all cemeteries and compile as much information as possible. This is their link.
I hope this information will get you started or point you in the right direction of "What about your past?". It's a journey that takes you into another world, while helping you to understand the who and why about yourself. It's them there relatives that we can blame!
2 comments:
I may have told you before my sister has really been digging into our family. We have a service coming up this fall for a very distant relative that we just discovered in an area cemetery.
Long story ... too long....for here. But it's really something when you get info.
Fascinating, really. And I agree, the once-removed -twice-removed thing is totally confusing.
I guess in the end we are all brothers and sisters or rather cousins, many times removed?
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