Visit to the Family Cemetery

 Visited the Vandermark Family Cemetery in Debruce, New York, this past Sunday.  I was accompanied by Judie Smith who is a relative of a relative.  

I was very happy to see that the town has erected a gate and sign so there is no longer a dispute with the neighbor.  

Judie tells me it's a good idea to keep up a chatter because of bears in the area.

It was fortunate weather for the visit; not too hot.

We made the rounds of the cemetery.  I took pictures and notes but I had forgotten my cleaning kit so I wasn't able to clean the stones.  Judie scraped some moss off some of them.

There are some broken stones; some fallen stones, some long ago; stones gradually slipping off their bases; so, much work to be done.  a lot of stones are darkened, some have lichens and moss.  Shale stones are gradually losing their imprinting and are becoming difficult to read.

There are quite a few older graves that have caved in; more than half a dozen, and a few graves that feel they may be next.

This is where I want to be buried so Judie, who is on the board of several cemetery associations, is looking into what I need to do to insure that.  Because the cemetery is considered an abandoned family cemetery, the town has taken responsibility for it and keeps it mowed and allows burials there, whether or not there's a relationship.

NOTE:  I'm going to have to abandon the idea of forming a family cemetery association to protect this cemetery and to preserve it as an historic family cemetery.  It requires quite a few people to assist with its management: someone to keep records, someone to work with the town to maintain it, someone to visit from time to time to ensure it's protected (although I think the town is doing a good job).  So far, it's just me.  Most of my elders in the three original families have left this life and cannot assist, and younger relatives don't seem interested.

Right now, the best thing to do for the cemetery would be to x-ray the area inside the stone wall to determine how many unmarked graves there are, fix the broken stones, cut some over-hanging tree branches, determine a way to mark unmarked graves.

Taken in the cemetery:

Found on the headstone of Hannah Vandermark, wife of Josiah, a soldier of the War of 1812.  It's a newly emerged cicada resting on its old carcass.  Hannah's maiden name was Bush.

We also saw two different varieties of toad.  I hadn't seen a toad in ages.

Judie gave me a new perspective of the custom of leaving visiting stones on the headstones, a custom I like very much.  She pointed out that the stones can be a problem for the mowers, if the stones fall from the headstones.  That's why talking to people who have more experience with any particular thing is a good idea, because they have more, closer knowledge of that thing.  If you've never ridden a horse, it's a good idea to talk to someone who has; otherwise, good luck to you and to the horse.  I still like the idea of leaving a sign that someone has remembered and visited a gravesite.

Next - Aristocratic ancestors, et al

 Confirmed by WikiTree:  through the Beismer, Vandermark and Hogancamp families, one of which is so named; I am a 18th cousin, 4 times removed of Lafayette, French aristocrat who fought with the Continental army during our American Revolution.

Our families' Lafayette Vandermark is buried in the Vandermark Family Cemetery in Debruce, Sullivan County, NY.

It's one of the fun features of WikiTree, you can find how closely related you are to various historical people and celebrities; if that's what you're interested in.

What have I been working on?  A little bit of everything.  

• I adopted a lot of WikiTree profiles: orphaned Odell profiles (no manager) in NY; some profiles of variant spellings of Beismer and Wormuth, as part of the one-name studies; 
• I created a couple of profiles of Native American people I'd met or knew about.  
• I adopted profiles of Platners in NY.

I had not thought about the fact that by adopting orphan profiles at WikiTree, I've committed myself to ensure they are correct and as complete as I can make them.  So, now I have a mountain of work to do to accomplish that.  It keeps me busy.

• I started the PIP (Profile Improvement Project) Voyage which will, hopefully, help me improve my skills at WikiTree.  I've already learned some things.
• I'm continuing to research how to form a Family Cemetery Association for the Vandermark Family Cemetery in Debruce.  It's a little complicated and I definitely need some relatives of the three (3) original families to participate.  Anyone related to any of the original families: Beesimer, Vandermark, Hogancamp; are welcomed to participate.
• Best of all, I'm making day and overnight trips to visit New York cemeteries and historical and genealogical societies to take pictures, notes and do research.  There's still a mountain of information that isn't online.

July Family Dates: births, marriages and deaths: 

Included are adopted profiles, click on a name and arrive at their WikiTree profile.  This will always be a work in progress as profiles and information are added.  Your input is always welcomed.

02 Jul 1920 Laura Shaw married Edmund Shaw

03 Jul 1822 Frederick Biesemeier was born

03 Jul 1901 Alfred Biesemeier died

04 Jul 1931 Mildred Tarchine married John Tarchine

04 Jul 1953 Dorothy Schulz married Walt Schulz

04 Jul 1888 Mary Wormuth married David Neer

04 Jul 1822 Phebe Brown was born

06 Jul 1883 Leroy O'Dell was born - Not my Dad

07 Jul 1898 Erling Odell was born

07 Jul 1928 Irene Platner died

08 Jul 1813 Susan Sherwood was born

08 Jul 1885 George Bossley was born

08 Jul 1925 Dora Reimuth was born

10 Jul 1942 Emma Camp died

10 Jul 1830 Sophia Wilcox married Joel Randall

10 Jul 1903 Joseph Odell died

10 Jul 1771 Maria Frans was born

12 Jul 1905 Laura Shaw was born

12 Jul 1853 Hendrick Mattice died

13 Jul 1918 Laura Chase died

16 Jul 1899 Robert Odell married Anna Odell

17 Jul 2006 Mary Barnhart died

17 Jul 1942 Carolyn Reeves died

17 Jul 1847 Othniel Odell was born

17 Jul 2007 Bill O'Dell died

18 Jul 2006 Frank Platner died

19 Jul 1893 Lowell Barnhart was born

19 Jul 1820 Anna Abrams was born

21 Jul 1997 Francis Grant died

21 Jul 1910 Roy Beismer was born

22 Jul 1947 Roger Besemer was born

22 Jul 1996 Leon Shenandoah died

23 Jul 1777 Janneke Besemer was born

24 Jul 1806 Cornelius Beesimer was born

24 Jul 1858 Henry Mattice married Georgeanna Mattice

25 Jul 1865 John Hendrickson died

25 Jul 1902 Stella Baxter was born

29 Jul 2009 Ruth O'Dell died

29 Jul 1953 Belle Space died

30 Jul 1931 Iona Bowker died

31 Jul 1937 Anson Odell married Marcella Odell

31 Jul 1950 Roy Beismer died

That's it for now                                          

An Interesting Feature

 FamilySearch.org is the Mormon church's genealogy web site.  They have a lot of free records and information about their many genealogy libraries all over the country.  Family history is important to them.

This morning, I got an email from them with an interesting feature they've provided; they combed through members' family trees and found ancestors that were living when the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, calculated their ages and sent out emails to members showing that information.  It's quite interesting to see.

The Emancipation Proclamation was issued on January 1, 1863.  This is what they found from my brief family tree posted on their web site:  (The links on the names will take you to their WikiTree profiles)

My great grandmother, Eliza Vandermark, was 13 at the time.  

 

 Her mother, Mary Jane Hogancamp Vandermark, was about 34.

Eliza's father, Simeon Vandermark, was about 41, at the time.

My 2nd great grandfather, Henry Mattice, was about 24.

His wife, my 2nd great grandmother, Georgeanna Dudley, was about 30.

My 2nd great grandfather, Joseph Wormuth, was about 48.

His wife, my 2nd great grandmother, Eleanor Debeck Wormuth, was about 30, then.

My 2nd great grandfather, James Hulse, was about 74.

My 2nd great grandfather, Joseph Odell, was about 2 years old then.

My 2nd great grandfather, Henry Flowers, was 20, and fought in the Civil War.

His wife, my 2nd great grandmother, Martha Hayden Flowers, was 6.  Uh oh, something seems wrong there; but, no, they didn't marry until 1878 when she was 21 and there was roughly 15 years between them.

My 3rd great grandfather, Jacob Mattice, Henry Mattice's father, was about 52.

His wife, my 3rd great grandmother, Mark Parks, about about 53.

My great grandfather, my father's grandfather, Frank Mattice, was 4, at the time.

My great grandfather, my mother's grandfather, Silas Beismer, was about 24.  I'm pretty sure he did not serve during the war.

My great grandmother, my mother's grandmother, Fanny Hulse Wotmuth, was 8.

Her husband, my great grandfather, T. James Wormuth, was 16.

There are more, of course, but I don't put all of my tree everywhere online; mostly at WikiTree.  

I think it's fun to look at this and imagine back then.

I have several ancestors, that I've found so far, who fought in the Civil War for the Union.

Enjoy.