I started my day with a phone call from the guy who I hired to fix the three-square kitchen roof at my son's house. He was out at Home Depot ready to purchase the materials. I went out to pay for them and he went to the house to begin the project.
I went to the Washington Cemetery office to gather some information for a friend of mine in northern Ohio who writes a blog about cemeteries and gravestones. She also does work with a related website, Find A Grave. She needed to find a few headstones, so I took photos of a few of them and sent them to her via email.
I also went to the St. Coleman of Cloyne Catholic Church office to research two graves that could not be found in St. Coleman's Cemetery. I learned that the two ladies in question were in fact listed in the old church death record book (one from 1939 and one from 1930), but their graves could never be found in the cemetery. The St. Coleman of Cloyne Church began in 1866 on the land where the cemetery is now. The church building was destroyed by the tornado of 1855. Some markers were missing and some of the small corner stones sank into the ground due to the weather, and were later covered over with growing grass. The ladies are listed on the roster of cemetery graves, but the specific locations are unknown.
I took some photos of the front of St. Colemans Cemetery that she wanted and off to the next one. I visited the Old Washington Cemetery behind Dairy Queen and took some photos there for her. So many of the old markers there were unreadable due to being weatherworn since the 1800s, but I did see a few that were visible. She will be able to use my photos on her blog. When I was at the Washington Cemetery office, I obtained a copy of the burial roster for the Old Washington Cemetery and sent it to her also.
The interesting news is that sometime next May, the Washington Cemetery burial records will all be online and accessible by the general public. They are working with a Michigan programmer and I saw the model record item proposed. It will show the deceased's name, location of the grave, and, if available, other information such as relatives, funeral home, and cause of death. The cemetery office is working hard to get all their information online at the City of Washington website. Their records go back to 1854.
After my three cemetery travels, I went to check on the roof job. It did not get finished today - they ran out of daylight. The guy will be back in the morning to finish the job. The good news is no more leaking kitchen and putting buckets around to catch the rain drops.
With several phone calls and three other errands squeezed into my day, it was full and busy indeed! I am looking forward to the weekend and a slight slowdown of activities - especially the Sunday NASCAR race.
1 comment:
Hi Gail!!! Thank you for your photographs and information from your visits to the Washington, Old Washington and Saint Colmans Cemetery! There is so much history in each of these cemeteries and thanks to people like yourself who visit them and photograph the gravestones, and study the history of their lives, their legacies will be preserved!
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