Who Do You Think You Are is back for a 3rd season on Friday

Who Do You Think You Are, sponsored by Ancestry.com is back for a 3rd season and will premier this Friday, February 3 at 8/7c on NBC. Martin Sheen will lead off the series and other celebrities lined up include Marissa Tomei, Blair Underwood, Helen Hunt, Jerome Bettis, Robb Lowe, and Paula Deen among others.

Be sure to tune-in and see what each of our celebrities learns about their family history!
Check out the WDYTYA site at http://www.nbc.com/who-do-you-think-you-are/

As well, watch for the Martin Sheen interview on Olive Tree Genealogy blog at http://olivetreegenealogy.blogspot.com

Lorine McGinnis Schulze of Olive Tree Genealogy was invited to participate in the Media Conference Call with Mr. Sheen and Lorine tells me her interview article will be online in a few days.

13 Stray Tombstones in Pennsylvania - Where Do They Belong?

State police at Schuylkill Haven are investigating the discovery of 13 tombstones found in East Norwegian Township, Schuylkill Co. Pennsylvania.

Of the 13, only six have been transcribed so far, which state:

Robert D. Phelger 1875-1951

Frank 1866-1910

Loretta A. Buries 1900-1945

Harry J. Johnson 1887-1924

Mary A. Rote 1888-1933 

William E. Gramley 1886-1948

Police have not yet transcribed the other 8 tombstones but are anxious to learn where the tombstones came from.

Anyone with information as to what cemetery the tombstones are from or who may have been in possession of the stones is asked to contact state police at Schuylkill Haven at 570-593-2000.

Source: Origin unknown of tombstones left on side of Saint Clair road

A Stray Tombstone in Pratt Kansas

A Construction Company was performing remodeling at a house in Pratt Kansas when they discovered a headstone on the west side of the house under a concrete slab.

The headstone reads: C.E. Miller 1887 – 1932.  No one knows why the tombstone is there. Authorities wonder if perhaps someone is buried there or was the stone taken from a local cemetery.

A check of nearby Greenlawn Cemetery revealed that a Corinda E. Miller was born and died in the same years listed on the found tombstone and is buried in Section 31 in Greenlawn.

Cemetery officials stated that the stones are similar. The speculation is that perhaps the stone found at the house was a temporary marker and once a permanent tombstone was erected, the temporary one was taken away.

A puzzling mystery!

I dont really like this Igrave and natural burial stuff.

For those of you who read yesterdays post about Igrave I have to say that while I find it interesting, as a genealogist I don't really like this Igrave and natural burial stuff.

For genealogists like myself big old fashioned tombstones are one of the most important sources of genealogical information available to us. In many cases a tombstone is all that remains to tell us about the people who have gone before. Paper and electronic records are just too easy to lose.

All the folks who are being buried in natural unmarked graves risk being lost forever. I myself (like the Kings of old) want the biggest monument I can get.

iGrave. The device that lets you find your relative's coffin

Everyone buried at The Preserve, a 1.5-acre natural burial site in Lafayette, Indiana, receives a RF transmitter disk in the center of their casket, or in the grave if there is no casket.

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Coffin Plate of William Hall and Mary Jane Hall

Thanks to Karen Linley for submiting the coffin plates of William Hall and Mary Jane Hall.

William Hall
Aged 83 Years 9 Months
Died Aug 19 1921

Mary Jane Hall
Died June 22 1922
Age 74 years

William Hall born 15 June 1843 in Yorkshire England died 13 Aug 1921 in Gordon twsp, Manitoulin Island, Ont Canada married Mary Jane Griffith 08 Jan 1872 in Bondhead, Simcoe Co, Ont Canada she was born 30 May 1848 in Tottenham, Simcoe Co, Ont Canada died 22 Jun 1922 in Gordon twsp, Manitoulin Island, Ont canada.

500 NAMES IN THE COFFIN PLATE INDEX

Texas crews excavate bones of purported ex-slaves

Crews of scientists with wooden spoons and small metal picks dig carefully around bones embedded in a dry lake bed, excavating what is believed to be the remains of freed slaves and their children buried in a long-forgotten cemetery.

More than two dozen graves were exposed this summer in a section of a reservoir that dried up in the severe Texas drought. Officials later organized a thorough excavation effort and were recently embroiled in a brief legal battle over where to rebury the bones.

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17th Century Letters Lost & Found

Thought I would re-post this as I think its kind of cool. A few days ago Lorine of the Olive Tree Genealogy Blog heard from a researcher working for Dutch National television who is doing research on history and genealogy for a program called ‘Brieven Boven Water’
This TV program is all about letters sent by Dutchmen overseas to the New World and other places in the 17th and 18th centuries. The letters never arrived, since the ships that transported the letters were hijacked by the English.

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Gravestone ensures Civil War nurse won’t be forgotten

Michelle Green’s mission is to place a new marker on the grave of Civil War nurse Mary Dunbar (1815-1887), whose service as a member of the Woman’s Relief Corps is not recognized by the federal government. The timeworn gravestone is now barely legible.

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