52 Ancestors Week 20: At the Cemetery

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 20:

The theme for Week 20 is “At the Cemetery.” I was already fascinated with cemeteries when I became a genealogist. There’s something special about seeing a tangible remembrance of an ancestor. Which ancestor is buried in a favorite cemetery or has an interesting tombstone? Whose grave would you like to visit? 

Any second now a Michael Jackson video is going to start.
Or a Tim Burton movie.

    My cousin Bob put it best. "Gotta love cemeteries. Everyone's dying to get in".  I'm pretty sure I've said that in the blog before and that dad joke never gets old. I've written about many cemeteries in this blog over the years. Well, mostly Saint Patrick's Cemetery in Haverhill. There's a very good reason for that. It's the de facto Italian cemetery in the city and because of that several of my ancestors and their relatives were buried there. I've even written about the Cimitero Comunale in San Pietro a Maida where my 2nd great-grandparents Marco Ferraiolo, Caterina Coppola, Antonio Tedesco and Domenica Gullo were laid to rest.

     If I ever go to Gesualdo, I would love to see the final resting places for my Italian 2nd great-grandparents on my dad's maternal side while they still existed. Long story short. Italian cemeteries recycle plots after so many years. So, chances are if you want to go to an Italian cemetery the memorial may or may not be there.

    Everyone on my mother's side of the tree is scattered in cemeteries around the Merrimack Valley and beyond. Most of them are in Haverhill or Amesbury cemeteries and there's one stone I'd like to try and find. I would like to find the final resting place of Antoine Legault, my second great-grandfather. We know he was buried in Saint James Cemetery in Haverhill we just don't know where. It's a big place and I have a sinking feeling that he might be in an unmarked grave. It's not an unfair assessment. Saint James is probably the biggest cemetery in the city and his stone would be very old since he passed away in 1901.

    That being said, I still would like to find his stone and visit a few people's markers on my mom's side of the tree.

Gertrude and the Senters!

    The first grave I'd love to visit and pay my respects to is the final resting place of Gertrude Stevens, my 2nd great-grandmother. Gertrude doesn't really have a stone. It's a memorial marker set in the ground at Pine Grove Cemetery in Farmington, New Hampshire.

    I was very thankful to the person on Find a Grave who found that stone. From what I can tell on Google Earth the cemetery is a good size cemetery and finding her marker by myself would have been a challenge. Thankfully, someone found it, took a picture and put down the exact coordinates for where to find it. Ahh, isn't modern technology wonderful? 

    Unfortunately, it looks like her marker is in the back of the cemetery. Getting there might be a bit of a trek. I think it'd be worth the trip. I would just need to find a day that I can get there..

        

    I know Gertrude's stone isn't all that remarkable. I still would like to visit it given all the craziness she went through in her life. Her and Wilfred Felker's divorce was not an amicable split and she ended up moving to Farmington  to be with her second husband. She had to deal with so much and I kind of want to tell her that everything turned out well in the end. Her son Austin grew up and wasn't a jerk like his father.

    Despite being an hour away from her son, I'm pretty sure they kept in regular contact. My mother grew up knowing the Senters and a few of them were even at my parents' wedding. So, yeah. I think he was close with his half-siblings.

    Back on topic. As you can see the stone isn't as crazy as other stones I've seen. Perhaps one day I'll talk about my 4th great-grandmother Maxime Lepine's cube shaped stone in Newburyport's Saint Mary's Cemetery. That stone has a story and as soon as I find out more about it, I'll share it's tale. For now, I am content with my desire to visit Getrude's stone.

    I wanted to visit it when I heard that people vandalized her cemetery and overturned some stones.  (Some people are so getting haunted if they haven't already) When I heard more about her story, I wanted to visit it even more. Now it's just a matter of finding the time to get up to Farmington and find her grave. I have the location and the means. The trick, naturally, is finding the time to go!

    I like cemeteries fine and I know some people are creeped out by them. It makes sense. You never know when one of them will be haunted by vengeful spirits or something. It's safe to say that some cemeteries probably aren't haunted like Saint Patrick's. If there was, you'd hear an Italian ghost asking you why you don't call any more and then feel your cheeks getting pinched by an ethereal hand.

    As  for Gertrude, I think I would like to visit her stone the most aside from the Italian stones in San Pietro. Those would be number two on my list of cemeteries to visit. I just feel like going up there and pay my respects. I just hope I don't get lost in there. From the air it looks like Farmington cemetery is a maze! Good luck to all who enter there. Just remember that you ain't afraid of no ghosts!

See ya next time!