The Winter Project

When it is too cold to work IN the cemetery, I work ON the cemetery.  I sit with my I pad on my lap and scan Gloucester vital records, page by page, looking for burials that are not recorded in Find a Grave.   I have not finished, but have some observations to report.

Clark’s Yard was the place to bury babies.  Parents must have been able to purchase a readily available burial plot at an affordable price.  Sometimes I find the parents in Clark, but frequently I don’t.  I wonder if there are certain sections that were set aside and if so, where?  I also wonder why these little angels were not already in Find a Grave.  If the entries were based on DPS records, then babies must not be in there.  If entries were based on photos, then we would have very few people. 

I enjoy the challenge of figuring out a bit of each person’s history.  Sometimes I have to do some serious research just to figure out some impossible-to-read names. Checking siblings’ records often gives me help in decoding some difficult cursive. I then search to get the parents’ names (including the mother’s maiden name) and the date of birth of the deceased.

Right now there are 555 folks, although there are a few duplicates. 600 doesn’t seem to be an unreasonable estimate.  We definitely need some ground penetrating radar.

About Admin

Creator, founder, and chief geek of www.clarkscemetery.org
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