Latest Trek

             

 After months of crazy weather and other distractions, I finally drove up to visit my cousin, Michele.

The plan was to make a couple of stops along the way to get a couple of family history research things done.

I had stumbled onto a Findagrave memorial that I hadn't seen before and a cemetery I had never heard of:  The Old Liberty Cemetery, also called Liberty Soldiers Cemetery, maybe.  The graves identified are  of some of my Odell ancestors, particularly Joseph Odell.  Joseph is the furthest back ancestor I've found in that branch.

I wasn't sure what the weather would be.  I wasn't sure if I would want to walk around in a wet cemetery so the cemetery stop was iffy.

The other quest for this trip was to see the actual death record for Joseph Wormuth.  I have a transcription of it but, as many of you know, the name of his mother, Harriet Barecolt, is problematic.  That surname can't be found -- anywhere.  I'm guessing that, since the majority of people, of that era, could neither read nor write, and their names were written by people who could, the name was written as it was heard.  

I could be wrong but, no, I do not believe it's a Native American name.  I believe it's most likely a German name like Burkholtz or Baraclough or Berkholdt or something very similar; there are way too many possibilities to spend time trying to figure that out.  

However, I had hoped that, because what I have is a transcription, if I could see the original, which would, undoubtedly, be hand-written, I might have a different idea of what the actual surname was.

There it is, clear as day.  There's nothing to figure out.  It's still not a surname that can be researched.  It had to be something else.  But, now we know that's how it was written in the actual record.  BTW, Joseph is recorded to have been born in PA.

I decided to stop at the Liberty cemetery on the way home, if I felt like it.  I did.  The old section of the cemetery had not been mowed in a while and the grass was still wet.  Headstones were over-turned everywhere.  It's a mess.  You can't really fault anybody; cemeteries are a lot of work and don't have very good budgets.  I didn't find the graves.  I was actually a little worried about ticks, etc. so I left and came home.  

I did discover a blog about the cemetery and sent an email.  The blog posts are old so I don't know yet if the group is still functioning.  I hope so.

I'm hoping to drive up again in a couple of weeks.  This is the season to do get in-person research done.  I will get in touch with whoever takes care of the cemetery in Liberty and see if they have a map so I don't have to spend too much time trying to find the graves.

I have heard from the Town Clerk in Callicoon, about the Wormuth cemetery.  I will be calling her on Monday to hear what she has to tell me.  Elyssa Olsen will show me where the cemetery is and we'll work out a time when she can do that.  I'll keep you all posted through these blogs.

In the meantime, it's also the season, for me, to have a bunch of medical checkups that are scheduled and coming up.

That's it for now.  Check my other blogs as well.  Leave a comment.  Thank you.

                          

The Vandermark family cemetery

I'm not sure if I posted about this before and I'm not going to look so here's the story of how my immediate family found out about the cemetery.

First, a little background.  The Vandemarks, Beismers and Hogancamps owned a substantial amount of land in Debruce, in what is now a water shed and near the state fish hatchery.  It appears that the state seized a lot of land in the area, under eminent domain, for the water shed and the fish hatchery.  The cemetery is in the water shed, although, parcels have been sold off around the cemetery and one owner blocks his driveway which is the best access to the cemetery; or did that last time I was there which was some time ago.

My niece, Amy Panioli, was on a conservation camp, or something like that and they were discussing the waste of land, as a resource and visited an abandoned cemetery.  Oddly, the Henry family cemetery is on the road below the Vandemark family cemetery and you have to hike up a small hill to get to the Vandemark Cemetery.  In any case, they were, apparently standing in the midst of the Vandermark cemetery while having this conversation about waste of land for cemeteries; not interested at this point in that discussion.  Amy turned around and, lo and behold, there were headstones with her great grandfather's surname on them.

She came home and told her mother, my sister, and our mother who called me and we all went to the cemetery.  My mother got emotional because her favorite uncle, her Uncle Howard Beismer, is buried there and she never knew where he was buried.

Since the cemetery is legally considered abandoned (nobody in the family is taking care of it), the town mows it at least twice a year and ANYBODY can be buried there.  I had tried for a few years to get a family cemetery association formed around the cemetery to prevent anymore non-family burials there.  I would like to be buried there, if I'm buried; I haven't decided yet.  I know Uncle Harold was interested in that.  It requires at least 6 board members.  The association is registered with the state and accepts full responsibility for the upkeep of the cemetery and has full authority over what happens in the cemetery.  There are upkeep rules from the state, so some expense.  I was never able to get the required 6 people together.  So, as it stands, the cemetery is legally abandoned and ANYBODY can be buried there.

I love the story.  It was an exciting couple of weeks around our discovery of the cemetery.

I hope to get up there sometime to clean up some stones.