Southern plots

I've been to a number of cemeteries in Georgia - Bear's relations - and have noticed a pattern that I don't see elsewhere. The family burial plots are treated like little pieces of personal property.

The plots are mostly blocked off, edged mainly in brick, to separate themselves from the next plot. And it isn't just a few within the cemetery doing it - if one is, then most are done this way. Some are raised and then filled in with small stones or gravel, some are completely cemeted over. I don't know if this is encouraged so that groundskeeping is kept at a minimum, like not having to mow EVER, or if this is tradition.

But it's definitely different.

I can't speak for Northern cemeteries; the ones I usually go to are the large privately owned ones. I think I've only been to one actual church cemetery. Monuments tend to be a bit larger and bit more elaborate in Northern cemeteries. The one I tend to frequent the most, for instance, has a pyramid. Some guy who had an interest in Egyptology decided that instead of a regular mausoleum, he'd have a pyramid. Everytime I visit, I have to go by it - it's part of the directions I give myself ("It's two streets on the right after the pyramid.") Of course, my relations didn't have that kind of money. About a quarter of them don't have any headstones on their plots, and those that do tend to have just one large slab with all the names on it.

My problem with maiden

You may note that I will rarely refer to the surname I was born with as my 'maiden name'.

Since I don't believe that I was ever a maiden (just conjures up too many images of sitting around waiting for some man to claim me as his own so that I can start having a life), I just don't use it on a regular basis.

It's my birth surname - the name I was given at birth. It's mine, even more so now as I use it as my middle name for legal purposes. To me, it's just a better description of my personal information.

going off on tangents

There are days when it seems that if I can't find something new on someone - anyone - in any of my lines, then I'll go chase after something in a collateral line.

Such a day was yesterday. There is this cousin, several times removed, who married and had children. I have the obituary of the wife, but it did not contain her birth surname. The obit did, however, name two sisters as survivors - one with a last name of Kolat and one is a Hall. Every now and then, I try to look for an online obit or death date for the Kolat sister - it's not an ordinary name and should really stand out if and when an obit for her is posted anywhere. I do so hoping that her obituary might have her birth surname.

I know where they all grew up and lived, and I would check the online edition of the local paper to see if anything should appear. I had not been to the site in a while, as I notice that it now has the option of searching for articles dating back to 1990. So I give it try and do a search for the Kolat surname, and what should appear but a birthday announcement for the third sister, noting that the Kolat sister was still alive at that time. I also get some new info in that the original obituary got the third sister's name wrong - her last name is Hull, not Hall. It also gave the sister's birth name. YES.

So now I go scurrying off to find the three sisters on the census and to confirm their surname. Which I do, and find that the Kolat sister is actually their half-sister. Mom was a widow in 1910 and married again in 1912 and later begat the sister who would marry a Kolat. Bonus points are issued in that Mom's brother is living with her in 1910 - giving me HER birth surname.

And then, because the Mom was from Germany, I run off to the Ellis Island site to verify her immigration to the US. I find her - more good news.

And although I added nothing to my direct line, I felt that I had a good day.

Etiquette

So you're at a cemetery walking around, taking notes and pictures of headstones, and then you notice a whole line of cars heading right towards you. It's a funeral procession. What do you do?

I had that happen to me a bit ago when I was looking around an extremely large cemetery. It was a first time for me. It startled me in that I hadn't realized what was going on as the cars were driving behind me. I was reading some flat headstones and hadn't noticed the traffic until I stood up. Bear had gone to get the car that was parked just a little ways down one of the roads, and he was held up with the traffic. So I stopped what I was doing and walked a short ways away so that the line of cars wouldn't be looking at my abundant backside.

All the cars had these little window flags, like they had all come from a service and were given these flags so that traffic would know that they were all together. Some guy, probably from the cemetery office, was collecting the flags as the cars drove by, and my, he was in a good mood. He was greeting people, saying 'hi there' and asking how they were doing and such, and I'm thinking that is such an odd thing to be remarking to people who are AT A FUNERAL.

Finally, the line of cars came to an end, and Bear picked me up.