Don't Go Over the River, But Do Go Through the Woods

     "If you get to the river you've missed it."  Those were part of the directions sent to me by my cousin, Mitch, as we arranged to meet and track down the grave of my 4th Great-Grandfather, Willis Craft, in Elbert County, Georgia.  I had learned of this grave very early on my genealogy research, almost 10 years ago.  A few years back, I'd found a map with the location of the grave: out in the middle of the woods with no roads labeled.  I honestly never thought I'd be able to find it.

     Earlier this month, my cousin posted a photo of a Craft cemetery to Facebook.  I asked about it and, though it was out in the middle of the woods in Elbert County, Georgia, it was a different cemetery.  However, he was able to ask around and he found a lady who knew where the grave was.  He went out to find it, then took me out to see it today.

     I drove two hours, along with my mom, to reach a rural intersection just a short distance from the Savannah River.  I met Mitch and Diane and followed them down a series of gravel roads, which was part of a subdivision that had been partially developed but currently looks stalled. When we reached a cul de sac we got out and walked a few hundred yards into the woods.  On the top of the rise set a single grave that I'd been hoping to find for almost a decade.

     I had seen a black and white photo of the grave before, in which it was laying down.  This stone had been repositioned and was now upright.  Because of this, the death date is now buried.  Despite this, I would think that the upright position is better for the stone in the long run. And I do have the old photo, which shows the date.

     Willis is buried alone, while his wife and a few of his children (who died within a decade of Willis) are buried not too far away at the Rock Branch Baptist Church.  We speculated about why that was, but could only think it was sentimental.  Did he want to be buried on his own land with a view of the river?

     Standing at the grave, you could see water through the trees on two sides.  We trekked a bit further and found that we were in a bit of an inlet off of the Savannah River.  And boy was it beautiful!  It must have been amazing to live on this land in the 1800s, right along the river.  Hungry?  Go fish!  Mitch told me that the story is that the families used to farm on the islands in the river.  I certainly wouldn't complain to live on this land.

     Mitch also took me over to see the cemetery that he's posted pictures of on Facebook.  It was the burial place of Anderson and Lucy Craft, as well as a few others.  I took pictures of those graves and have updated everything on FindAGrave, including GPS coordiantes.

     Overall, it was a great day.  Who wouldn't drive two hours to meet up with a cousin you've never met before out in the middle of nowhere to go tromping through the woods to find a cemetery?  I'd love to have the chance to do it again soon.

Windows to the Past

     Today, my mom and I drove to South Carolina (Greenwood, Edgefield and Aiken Counties) to visit cemeteries.  We don't just learn dates and burial locations when we do this, we also get a snapshot of their world as we travel through their community.

     This is especially true in the church cemeteries, where we can see the churches that they worshiped at. I snapped this photo of my mom, peaking into the window of Bethel Methodist Church in Callison, South Carolina.  Gazing into the church in which generations of my ancestors worshiped is somewhat surreal and rather powerful.

Sometimes You Just Have To Do It Yourself

     I had requested photos of the graves of my 5x Great-Grandparents, Thomas and Rachel Albea, some time ago on FindAGrave.com. I very quickly received a photo of what was left of Rachel's stone. It consisted of the top portion of her stone, which contained only her name, encased in cement. There was no response regarding Thomas' grave. After more than a year, I deleted the initial request and re-posted it, which sent out new emails to volunteers.  I was very excited to receive an email announcing that the stone had been photographed, only to be disappointed when the photo was of another Thomas Albea (a hundred years too young!). It seemed that my Thomas Albea did not have a headstone. But I wanted to find out for sure.

     So what's a genealogist to do? Plan a vacation around visiting the cemetery of course.

     With my mom, I drove 268 miles to the Bethel United Methodist Church Cemetery in Harmony, Iredell, North Carolina.  There I found this picturesque church and cemetery:

     The cemetery wasn't large, but of course the stone for Rachel Albea was in the last corner of the cemetery that I looked in.  The photo that I had previously received on FindAGrave.com made it much easier to find the correct grave.  I was then able to take my own photo of Rachel's grave:

     I then looked around for Thomas' grave, which apparently two volunteers had already been unable to find. Don't know why... it was the stone to the left of Rachel.  It was hard to read, but it was the most likely choice. It took a minute to decipher, but there he was. And it had a strange yellow moss on it which, when gently brushed away, made the stone easy to read (maybe not as much in this photo, but in the closeup photo it's great).

     Sometimes you just have to do it yourself. And to commemorate the effort: a photo of me and my ancestor's grave.

Times Change - Thank Goodness

     My sister and I went out driving near her house today, stopping at random cemeteries to take photos of headstones. The Windsor Universalist Church had a small cemetery and this outhouse beyond that. I am so thankful for today's technology.

Life in a Cemetery

Bascomb Cemetery, Woodstock, Georgia

Visiting Elmwood Cemetery / RestingSpot Review

     Mom and I left the South Carolina Archive around 3:30 pm and headed a few miles over to Elmwood Cemetery. We'd tried to get there the day before, but the office closes at 4:30 pm and we hadn't made it. My Great-Great Grandparents, John and Ida Hyler / Huyler are buried in Elmwood Cemetery. A volunteer had taken photos of the graves years ago, but I wanted to visit the actual location while we were in the area.

     Elmwood is a large cemetery, so we had called up the day before to ask for the locations of the graves. When we went into the office, we discovered that the staff had pulled up a listing of the burial and marked the location on a map. Then, the lady actually drove out to the location while we followed in our car. Talk about customer service!



     While we were there, we used my mom's Android to add the graves to two cemetery websites: BillionGraves and RestingSpot.  As usual, I had trouble getting and maintaining a GPS signal with the BillionGraves app and the new "linking photos" feature didn't work as it was supposed to. 
     This was the first time I used the RestingSpot app.  I'd previously signed up for a RestingSpot account and downloaded it to my mom's phone. I hadn't tried out the app or really knew how it worked. Well, here's how it works:

1. Log in and click "Add RestingSpot"
2. Create the listing by filling in names and dates and save the information
3. Take a photo of the grave or add one from your camera

     That's pretty much it. The process does take a few minutes, mostly since you add the names and dates at each grave.  However, I was not held up by waiting for a GPS signal like I am with the BillionGraves app. But I can't see walking a large cemetery and having to constantly type in names. A small church cemetery though? That would be very feasible. Also a nice feature on resting spot is the listing on the website. Once you've added the grave you can go to the website and add more information about the person. Photos, biographies, your relationship to the person, etc. There's also a map of the grave and you can even get directions to the GPS location. 

     I only had a chance to play with the app for a few minutes, but I liked it. It was user intuitive and has a great website. However, as I mentioned, having to input the vital information at each grave does take time. Also, saving that information can take a while too. I'm not sure how long, but it was at least 30 seconds. Maybe there's already a way around this? If not, it would be nice to be able to log the information into the phone and have it upload later to save time. 

     Next up: Lexington County Museum

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  Also in this series:

1. Tweeting My Trip
2. Visiting the OEDGS at the Tompkins Library
3. Visiting the South Carolina Department of Archives and History
4. [This Post]
5. Visiting the Lexington County Museum
6. Visiting the Franklin Memorial Library (Emanuel County, GA)

BillionGraves.com: 2nd Try

If you haven't already, read my previous post, "A Disappointing Day with BillionGraves."

     I received a tweet from BillionGraves.com yesterday, letting me know that their Android app had been updated to include the "add a cemetery" function. I wasn't planning on trying it out today, but my other plans fell through, so I was able to use my mom's phone (I don't have an android or iphone) to test the app again. Unfortunately, my results weren't much better than last time.

     First, I decided to try something I hadn't last time: go to a cemetery already listed in their database and upload a photo. I went to Shadowlawn Cemetery, only a few minutes from my house to try this out. It's hot out (93°), so we parked in the shade and approached the closest grave. Here's how that went:

"Signal Strength: Very Bad." Hmm... let me give it a second so it can find us. Waiting, waiting... Let me check, yeah, the other GPS driven apps know exactly where I am... Let me move away from the trees. Waiting, waiting... "Signal Strength: Very Good." Ok, great. It took a few minutes, but now I'm good to take some pictures. Click, click, click. Twelve Graves later: "Error!""Signal Strength: Very Bad." What?! I moved five feet! 

     I waited around a bit more, but never got my signal back. Oh well, whatever. I really wanted to create a cemetery anyway. So we drove down a little access road and past a pond into East Shadowlawn. Yes, according to the ladies in the cemetery office, these are two different cemeteries, though they almost touch. And this one wasn't in the BillionGraves database. My Uncle Wayne is buried in this one, so I headed over to his grave.

     First I created the cemetery. The function for this is a bit hidden: you go to the Cemeteries page and scroll all the way to the bottom, past numerous "nearby" cemeteries. It took me a minute to figure it out, but after only a minute "Success!" So, I head over to my uncles grave:

Oh, he's right on the edge near the trees, wonder if I can get a signal? "Signal Strength: Very Bad." Wave the phone around... hold still for two minutes... walk in a six foot range for three minutes... Go far away and stand in the open. "Signal Strength: Very Good / Shadowlawn Cemetery." No, we're at East Shadowlawn! Search for the cemetery I just created... it's not there. Recreate the cemetery - maybe I made a mistake? Nope, still not there. Grr!

     Ok, maybe it's confused by it's proximity to the other Shadowlawn? I didn't really have anything else to do - lets go to some more cemeteries. We stopped at the Gwinnett Memorial Gardens, also already in the BillionGraves database.

"Bad Signal,""Bad Signal"... "Very Good Signal". Ok, that wasn't so long of a wait this time and it knows which cemetery I'm at. Click! Next grave... "Bad Signal". Seriously?!? I took two steps left! Waiting, waiting... Waiting waiting.... Waited over 5 minutes, no signal.

     Now at this point, I didn't figure I was going to be able to create a cemetery, but I wanted to give it one more try. I went out to the cemetery that I'd been to when I first tried out the BillionGraves app: White Chapel Memorial Gardens in Duluth.

Create the cemetery. "Success!" Walk over to my grandparent's graves. "Bad Signal," Bad Signal"... "Very Good Signal / Garner Cemetery." Nope, that's not the right cemetery. According to the map in the BG app, that cemetery is about 15 miles away. I give up!

     After arriving home I checked the website to see if the two cemeteries I'd created would show up there. Nope. Also, there seems to be a time delay on profile updates. Although the photos I'd taken were on the website immediately under "my photos," it took over three hours for three hours for them to be credited on my dashboard as "images uploaded." Also, it took a while for the photos to show up on the cemetery page. There seems to be a multi-hour time lag for the website to update.

     At this point, I want to give up on this app. On the other hand, I want this app to work. It has a lot of potential, despite its issues: being able to create cemeteries and connect with GPS devices. Heck, maybe it's just this particular phone? However, the Samsung Epic G4 is on the list of good phones on BG's blog. Regardless, if it's a problem with the phone, please let me know! Otherwise there are some issues with the app that need to be fixed for this website to worthwhile for me.

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     I emailed BillionGraves with some feedback today and did receive a response. I'll write another post about that tonight.

A Disappointing Day with BillionGraves.com

     Last week BillionGraves.com announced the availability of their app for Android phones. My mom had just gotten a Samsung Galaxy Epic G4, so I quickly downloaded the app (my phone is an un-supported generic smart phone). We planned to go out to my paternal grandparents graves today and try out the app - but we shouldn't have bothered.

     According to the email sent out by BillionGraves, the new Android app "has all the essentials." Their blog post boasted the same, as well as a list of phones the app would work on (mom's was included).

     Before going out to this cemetery, I checked the website to see if it was listed. It wasn't, but that's ok, because, according to the FAQs, I could add the cemetery from the app once I was there. Sounds great!

     Except it wasn't. We arrived at the cemetery with my mom's phone, ready to take some photos. I started by attempting to add the cemetery, but couldn't find the function. My mom and I spent at least 20 minutes trying to make the app work. I logged onto BillionGraves.com via my own phone, double checking the instructions for adding cemeteries. Well, there aren't actually any instructions, just a statement saying that it's possible to do so. At the same time, the FAQ also states that an Adroid app isn't available. Obviously, these haven't been updated in a while.

     I sent a tweet out about my problems and relatively quickly received this one in reply:

@ValerieC84 The functionality to add a new cemetery from an #Android device will be in the next update of the app. #genealogy

@ValerieC84 The Android can't add cemeteries yet, but you can take pics, then tell us where the cemetery is and we'll move them in manually.

     Um, what?! There had been no mention of this limitation in any of their online FAQs or announcements. Honestly at this point I was extremely angry.  I'd wasted a lot of time, as well as my mom's, trying to do something that it wasn't possible to do. Instead, they are recommending that I upload photos to the wrong cemetery, which they will adjust. How does that make sense?

     BillionGraves needs to immediately update their FAQs and possibly write a blog post announcing these restrictions. They should have included a notice in their app about the limitation as well. I'm just glad I only wasted an hour of my day and didn't decide to test out this new app on a road trip.

     UPDATE, 6/30/11 5PM: See a response from BillionGraves.com in the comments. They have now updated their FAQ to specify that cemeteries cannot be created via the Android app.

In the Cemetery

     I haven't been doing a whole lot of genealogy lately. Rather, I have been trying to help others with their genealogy by photographing headstones and uploading them to findagrave.com. I've been concentrating on two local cemeteries, Old Shadowlawn and East Shadowlawn, which are adjoining cemeteries near downtown Lawrenceville, GA.  My Uncle Wayne is buried in East Shadowlawn's veteran section.


     Yesterday morning I had just finished photographing one section and was getting in my car to move around to another when I was interrupted by a gaggle of geese. They had decided to leave the pond and walk across the road right in front of my car. Silly geese. I had to wait for them, but at least it gave me a few minutes to sit in the air conditioning before getting back out into the sun.

Cemetery Walking

     My sister, Sarah, and I went to the Appalachee Baptist Church cemetery near her house yesterday, where our Great-Great Uncle, Melvin Albea, is buried. Wearing capris and flip-flops, I was completely unprepared for the un-mowed grass that was full of bugs and prickly  things. I got one stuck in my heal and made Sarah pull it out because I couldn't even look at it. Shudder.... Luckily I didn't walk where she did, because she picked up about 20 of them.  Ouch!

The Lincoln County Trip

     Yesterday, my mom and I went out to Lincoln County, Georgia to walk some cemeteries where my Albea family ancestors are buried. This family was a brick-wall up until a month ago, when I finally had enough proof to make connections to older generations. Having made the connections, I wanted photographs of their graves. Luckily, I had access to cemetery transcripts, and didn't have to hunt around for their graves - I just had to make the two hour trip.



View Larger Map

     Most of my ancestors are buried in two church cemeteries: Bethany United Methodist and Pine Grove United Methodist, which are very close to each other. Both cemeteries are relatively small, and I hoped to fully photograph every stone in each. However, the temperatures were around 99 degrees, with a heat index over 100. Given that I didn't want to get heat stroke, I ended up photographing Bethany (abt 230 stones), but only got my ancestors and a few other graves at Pine Grove. I'll upload all of these to FindAGrave.com

     Before heading out on this trip, my mom had suggested visiting the local library. I'd researched this library, but was having trouble finding an address, phone number or contact information. On the drive through Lincolnton, however, we noticed a sign directing us toward a library. So, after visiting the cemeteries, we went to the library.

Located at the corner of North Peachtree and Humphreys Streets in Lincolnton, the Lincoln County Library has a great genealogy collection. Mrs. Dianne Poteat is the head Genealogist, with Mr. Cullers being a benefactor. Both were in the genealogy room when we arrived, and were extremely eager to help us. Mrs. Poteat is working on a Lincoln County genealogy index, having started with the 1850 census. If your ancestors lived in Lincoln County, she's heard of them!

    Ok, well, she actually hadn't heard of some of ours. She had the same problem that I had in researching my Albea family branch: second wives, families living in divided households in census records, etc. Also, our Albea ancestors moved out of Lincoln County.

    To get us started, Mrs. Poteat handed us the "Albea file." Inside were descendent reports for my ancestor, Joseph Albea of Maryland to his son Thomas and his son Tilman. That's where the library's research lost mine. They were unaware of Tilman's son, William, who was my GG-Grandfather. So our line was missing... except for a single scrap of paper with a list of William, his wife, Nina Sprouse, and their children. Apparently someone had come in while Mrs. Poteat was out and left this note, but no contact information. My mom and I were able to identify everyone on that paper for her, and she'll be able to add this family to her database. Once I got home, emailed her more of my research for her records.

    For anyone researching in this area, the library is a great resource. The genealogy section is only five years old, but the Library and the folks there are passionate about it. There are tons of books, as well as a photograph collection and extremely knowledgable staff.

Planning a Cemetery Exploration

I'm going to be on vacation from this Wednesday until Monday (I work weekends, so this is a full 6 days off). I'm not really going anywhere, I just want to not be at work! I am going to try and use my vacation time to work on some genealogy.  


I actually started yesterday by visiting my Uncle's grave for the first time. He was buried in the Shadowlawn Cemetery just across town, so it wasn't exactly hard work.  On the other hand, there are a few cemeteries I'm planning to visit are about 2.5 hours away. I'm planning to visit two cemeteries in Lincoln County, GA where my Albea family ancestors are buried. Time permitting, I might drive up the GA/SC border to Elbert and Hart Counties, GA and visit cemeteries where my Craft family ancestors are buried. I've been to some of the Elbert County Cemeteries before, but haven't been to the others, so they would be priority.


I've visited a number of church cemeteries before and have learned a few things. Most importantly, given the small size of many of these cemeteries, my goal is to photograph every headstone. In good conditions, it takes less than five seconds to photograph a headstone (without pausing to read or otherwise record the stone). Assuming around 200 - 300 graves, it wouldn't take nearly an hour to photograph the entire cemetery, though delays should be expected for old, illegible or damaged stones.  


Ok, but why photograph the entire cemetery? Because in such a small, rural community, I usually find that stones that I didn't photograph turn out to be some sort of relatives. I learned this lesson the hard way with a cemetery a few years ago. I didn't photograph a number of graves with distant family surnames, only to later learn that these folks were actually more closely related. 


My pre-planning includes updating my new netbook with Google Earth and mapping out all of the cemeteries that I might possibly visit. I'll be able to use the program without internet access and will be able to navigate routs from place to place (and if my sister's reading this maybe I can borrow her GPS?). Other steps in my planning include researching the churches to make sure that I'm not going to interrupt any meetings or services; prepping my two cameras to make sure that my batteries are fully charged and are set to the take the correct size/type of photo; finding my extra memory cards, as well as a usb cable to load the photos on my computer if I really need to; buy yummy car trip snacks. I'm also wondering about the safest way to decipher hard to read headstones. I've heard that aluminum foil is currently considered the safest and gives great results. I'll have to look into this...

Buried Nearby

I just did a search on FindAGrave.com, looking for any new listings for Albea ancestors. I found something new - though it's apparently been there for three years!

My maternal Grandfather's Uncle, Melvin A. Albea died in Barrow County, GA in 1963, followed by his wife, Elsie (Lindsay) Albea in 1992. Barrow County is next door to where I live in Gwinnett, so the fact that I have little information on Melvin and Elsie's lives are due to laziness on my part. I should have already looked up their obituaries at the library and found their graves. Well, I've been lazy and hadn't gotten to it yet. But, with a quick search on FindAGrave, I found their graves, photo included. Yay!

Now, considering the local vicinity, I thought it might be a good idea to visit the cemetery and see if there were any other relatives buried there. So, a quick look at google maps and.... I realized that I've driven past this cemetery at least 50 times! It's five minutes from my sister's house! I really should stop being so lazy with the easy to research relatives...

View Larger Map

Tombstone Tuesday - Patrick Cleburne Confederate Memorial Cemetery

I've never been to this particular cemetery, but I read about it in a Clayton County tourism brochure. The Patrick Cleburne Confederate Memorial Cemetery is located at the intersection of Johnson and McDonough Streets in Jonesboro, Clayton County, GA. The neat thing about this cemetery: It's shaped like the Confederate Flag. It's a little hard to see, but take a look:

(cemetery image from google maps)

Tombstone Tuesday - Witt

David and Alice Witt are buried in the Bold Springs Baptist Church yard in Callison, Greenwood, SC. They are my 3x Great Grandparents.

Tombstone Tuesday

This little infant's identity is unknown to me. He/she is buried in the Albea family plot in Edgewood Cemetery, located in Greenwood, Greenwood, SC.

Buried in the same plot are Charles Vernon Albea (1903 - 1947) and his parents, William A. Albea (1872-1936) and Nina Sprouse Albea (1878-1962).

I've thought that the infant probably died after William (1936). Would the family have bought an entire plot for an infant's death? It seemed more likely that a baby in the family died and was buried in an extra plot. There are two empty plots remaining, so perhaps the child's parents thought be be buried her too.

William and Nina's sons were Johnny, Melvin, Charles, Henry and Coleman. Charles's infant is buried a city over, in Callison, so I doubt that his is his child.

Where do I go from here? I haven't been able to find an office for this cemetery, but there is a church nearby. I could try contacting them to see if they know anything.

I've searched the new SC Death Certificates on ancestry.com, but haven't been able to find an infant death that belongs to anyone in my Albea line.

A few weeks ago, we went to South Carolina. We hit up a few cemeteries on the Albea, Witt, Dorn, Quattlebaum lines. We visited Edgewood Cemetery, Bold Springs Baptist Church and Bethel United Methodist Church. I uploaded the photos to findagrave.com. Click the links to leave this site and go to findagrave.com. Edgewood Cemetery • Bold Springs Baptist Church • Bethel United Methodist Church

I'm planning a genealogy/vacation to South Carolina. I've got three cemeteries on my list in Greenwood and the surrounding area. I've found the location of two of them, but I still need an exact location on the third one.

1. Edgewood Cemetery - in downtown Greenwood, the burial place of William A. Albea and Nina Sprouse Albea.

2. Bethel Methodist Church Cemetery - burial location of many Dorn, Witt, and Quattlebaum ancestors. Also supposed to be the burial place of Charles Ray Albea - though he's not listed on the cemetery transcription.

3. Quattlebaum Family Cemetery - This is the one where I'm not sure of the exact location. It's supposed to be on HWY 67 on the Greenwood/McCormick County line.

I was having a hard time locating the Bethel Methodist Church until I found a link to a handy website on findagrave.com. It's got DOT maps to multiple states, including Georgia and South Carolina. There are listings for a lot of cemeteries and churches, including Bethel.