Finding Dead Relatives

I am a little late posting a blog entry this week.  We're vacationing in the hills of Pennsylvania this week and in my desire to unwind, I forgot to write this weekend.  No excuses, the beauty of my surroundings and the need to do absolutely nothing for the first 2 days took over.   Yesterday we ventured out to perform an our bi-annual task of love and remembrance - visiting the graves of relatives I have found.

It began many years ago.  When I was a little girl, Mom & Dad took me to the cemeteries around Memorial Day each year to plant flowers on some graves.  We visited Mom's parents at St Tikhon's and Dad's parents and half-sister in Canaan Corners.  After Dad died,  Mom took care of these and a few more.  Two of her sisters were buried at St Tikhon's before my Dad died and another sisters was buried there shortly after.  That brought the number of graves to care for to 8.  Although I always had an interest, after my Dad passed away, I began working on the family genealogy more earnestly.  I began asking my mother and other relatives more questions.  Mom and I took a few drives around the Pennsylvania countryside as she tried to remember where other graves were located.  We found my Dad's step-mother Aldrude Shager and added her to the list.  Her sister Nettie, who is also a great-aunt, is buried nearby.   Both are with their Shager husbands, so that brings the number to 12. Down the hill, my godfather John Zedar is buried across the road, making it 13.

A big breakthrough in my search for graves came when I first visited the Wayne County Historical Society library in Honesdale, PA.  Someone had compiled a list of headstones in county cemeteries and donated it to the library.  It wasn't an exhaustive list, but I found a few familiar names to investigate.  one was my grandpa Joe Paynter's mother, Ellen.  She is buried with her second husband, John Gummoe, in a little cemetery across from the Aldenville Baptist church.  The other discovery was Ellen's parents, William Oliver and Elizabeth Histead Oliver in Indian Orchard.  Next to them is their daughter Elizabeth with her husband.   Adding these 3 couples brings the number to 19.  

My Dad told me years ago that he had a grandfather buried in South Canaan Bible Protestant Cemetery, but he thought there was no headstone so I didn't look there right away.  I always thought it was Dad's mother's father, Ashfield Gray, but one day I found a small green marker with Ashfield's name, birth & death dates on someone else's grave in Canaan Corners.  Why that marker is where it is remains a mystery, but I honor great-grandfather Ashfield there.  However, that made me wonder who might be in South Canaan.  It didn't take much effort to find my great-great grandparents Jonas Seeley and Jane Swingle Seeley just to the right of the entrance road, about a third of the way into the cemetery.   The number was now 22.  

During the years of searching, my father, mother, 2 more of my mother's sisters and my father's nephew Leroy have died, bringing the number to 27.   Yesterday we drove around Susquehanna and Wayne counties, planting a few small flowers near each headstone.  We saved Canaan Corners for last.  A few years back I found another set of great-great grandparents there, but could never find the headstone again.   I made a cursory search each time i visited but was frustrated each year.  This year, we had more time to spare, so Ray & I began the search again for Ashfield's parents Abel & Phoebe Gray.   We were almost ready to give up when we both spotted the headstone at the same time.  What had confused me on previous attempts was that the old stone has been replaced with a new one.  The stone I found the first time was a large and typical gray  headstone.  Something must have happened to the original because it has been replaced with a new, smaller, pink headstone.  There is also another stone near the foot of this grave for Fannie Gray. Her birth date is 1860, so she could very well be another of Abel & Phoebe's children.  I don't have documentation for that yet, but I placed a flower near her stone too.  That makes 30.   

I also know where several of my grandpa Joe's brothers and sisters are buried in Clinton Corners, but I don't bring flowers there because they have local descendants to remember them.  I have documented that entire cemetery and donated my list to the Wayne County web site, but they have never uploaded it.  First chance I get, I will upload it to Find-A-Grave.

On a side note, yesterday's cemetery visits had a moment of excitement.   After planting flowers by the grave of Jonas & Jane Seeley in South Canaan, we got in the car and started to drive away.  The road in the cemetery leads around it, so we were heading towards the woods at the back to exit on the side road.  All of a sudden a huge black bear ran out of the woods and across the cemetery in front of us.  All I could do was say "bear" to get Ray's attention.  He was driving slowly on the dirt road and was able to stop easily, but I could not get my camera out in time.   This was a beautiful, majestic creature, at least 800 pounds.  I don't know whether the sound of the car scared him or he was running from something else, but he was wonderful to see.  We are glad we were already in the car thou.   I don't know what I would have done if I was still out there planting flowers.