New WWI cemetery to be announced

Details about a new cemetery for 400 Australian and British World War I soldiers found in a mass grave in France are set to be unveiled later this week.

The soldiers found in eight large pit graves on the outskirts of Fromelles in May will be individually reburied with full military honours.

A new cemetery would be built nearby so the 170 Australians and 300 British troops who were originally buried by German soldiers after the Battle of Fromelles in July 1916 could be reinterred
Military Death Records on Ancestors At Rest.

The Canadian Military Heritage Project

Lost Cemetery

People lose car keys all the time, and eyeglasses. Some even lose wallets. But on the West Side of Stanislaus County, a cemetery was lost, and a group of intrepid people is determined to find it.

The cemetery in question dates to 1870, and is small, perhaps 25 graves. It was near here and local historians believe it became part of the Crows Landing Naval Air Station during World War II, about 65 years ago.

Read More

Woman pleads guilty to stealing cemetery vases

Des Moines County Sheriff's detectives on June 24 received a report of the thievery of 50 bronze vases from Memorial Park Cemetery in rural Des Moines County.

Brenda Sue Mutchler, the woman accused of acting in concert with a Burlington man in stealing thousands of dollars worth of bronze vases from grave sites pleaded guilty.

How low can you get.

Added More Coffin Plates

Hi All
I have added more coffin plates today. Lydia M Tyler, Abraham Wheelock, Ella M Osier, Felix Drombrowski and Mary Wolcott.

If you want to have a look just click on Coffin Plates

Community celebrates Willow Grove cemetery's historical designation

Beneath the headstones that dot the Willow Grove Community Cemetery lie some of Central Texas’ most recognizable names.

McLennan. Brown. Hamilton.

But the vast majority who have been interred over the last century carry names that aren’t as well-known.

Some stones have no name at all.

Read More

Who will you find on Footnote Pages?

Footnote announced the addition of Footnote Pages at the TechCrunch50 Conference in San Francisco, California.

"We've been encouraging people to upload their personal shoeboxes of mementos to Footnote.com," explains Footnote CEO, Russ Wilding. "Now with Footnote Pages, friends and family come together to share those stories and memories about the people they care about and are able to create a more colorful and rich picture of the past."

To kick-off this project, Footnote today released over 80 million Footnote Pages created from data contained in the Social Security Death Index. The Footnote Pages also include timelines, maps, and other features. This greatly increases the chances of finding a page already started for someone you know.

Use a Free Trial on Footnote to search for ancestors

Funeral Cards

Funeral cards were to be distributed to family members, friends, and the surrounding community to alert family and friends re the date and time of a funeral.

Recipients of a funeral card were expected to attend the funeral or risk offending family members. Funeral cards were often saved, tossed in a drawer, tucked in the pages of a bible or photo album.

Ancestors At Rest has a large collection of funeral cards online. You can search these genealogy treasures for free. Each card contains the name of the deceased, birth and death dates and a poem. Sometimes more information is included.

The funeral card of David Cowan is a nice example. The inscription reads "David L. Cowen who died on April 25, 1891 at the age of 77 years, 1 month and 14 days." The card is black, bordered in gold, with a verse and logo. Sometimes funeral cards include a photo of the deceased.

If you are lucky you may find a photograph of the deceased tucked into a family bible or photo album, along with the funeral card. Such is the case with the Funeral Card & Photo of Lydia A. Blesh

Coffin Plates aka Casket Plaques

What are Coffin Plates? How are they useful in genealogy research? These questions and more are answered at Ancestors At Rest

The history of Coffin Plates or casket plates is a long but not very well documented one. Coffin plates are decorative adornments attached to a coffin that contain genealogical information like the name and death date of the deceased. In Victorian Times (and earlier) the coffin plate was removed and presented to the family as a memento of the dearly departed.

With almost 500 coffin plates now online, AncestorsAtRest.com is the largest repository of these wonderful genealogical treasures. Each coffin plate has the name of the deceased plus date of death, and usually date of birth. Images of the plates are provided. You can search these coffin plates for free - who knows, you might find an ancestor or two!

More Berks County Pennsylvania Genealogy Data

Hi folks

I have added more Berks County Pennsylvania data to Ancestors At Rest today. It is another ledger book from the 1860s that belonged to Haag, Kline & Co in Bernville, Berks County. This ledger is a great genealogical find as it is full of hundreds of local names.

Some of the Berks County names you will find in the Haag, Kline ledger are Adams, Becker, Burkhard, Bright, Bressler, Baus, Bickel, Boyer, Bassler, Brossman, Bentz, Bean, Bear, Berger, Conrad, Cummings, Derr, Daniel, Ernst, Fisher, Fox, Groff, Haag, Hix, Kalbach, Kauffman, Miller, Reed, Shutz, Shade, Snyder, Taylor, Weaver to name just a few.

The ledger is in my genealogy lookups section but I have put the entire ledger on line for you to look at so you dont need me to do it for you.

Haag, Kline & Co Ledger

This is one of 2 Haag, Kline & Co ledgers that I have online the other is not yet all on line but it will be soon.

Good Luck
Brian