You Gotta Love Genealogy

I mentioned Genealogy in my last post so lets talk a little about some of the things that go along with the hours and hours of research.

I have a Love/Hate relationship with cemeteries, I hate visiting one when it is to say goodbye to a loved one but I love going when on a quest for information that I need to fill in the blanks on my family tree, Genealogy has taken me to more cemeteries than I can count and the excited feeling I get when I find the final resting place of an ancestor is one that I truly love, and going back to visit that loved one whose funeral you attended goes back to the hate side because you know that sad feeling in your chest where your heart is pounding and you just know you are not going to cry until that tear drips down.

On one vacation trip to South Carolina when Elisa (Tim’s Wife) rode along with us I dragged Cindy and the kids through more cemeteries than the law allowed, just picture this mid July in South Carolina going through cemeteries looking at tombstones, yes we were sweating a little because the humidity was really high, did the kids enjoy it and did I find what I was looking for? Well not at first but it turned into a rather enjoyable trip, Cindy and I actually got a lot of help from the kids, I had an argument going with my Dad and quite a few people in the family about my Great Grandfathers actual name and the maiden name of my Great Grandmother, no one actually could tell me where they were buried as he had died in 1926 and she in 1949, to make a long story short the four of us followed information I had found and walked all over Mountain Grove Baptist Church Cemetery and just about the time we had all come down with heat exhaustion and the kids were so bored with looking for dead ancestors, there they were the tombstones of my Great Grandparents and they confirmed the birth and death dates I had along with their proper names and her maiden name was also on her tombstone. “This Is Cool” Tim stated and this was all of a sudden no longer boring, just up the road we went to find another ancestor which we did not find at the time but will on our next trip because I now have a picture and know the location of this one thanks to a cousin who loves this as much as I do.

I mentioned Oolenoy Baptist Church in my last post also, this churches cemetery dates back to about 1790 and the majority of the people buried here are related to me in one way or another, everyone got a eerie feeling here because the age and look of many of these graves date way back before any of us were born, I actually got a peaceful feeling here and made several trips back before we went home. A lot of the graves are what they call a slot and tab tomb system which is basically stones placed around the grave with a slate of stone laid on top giving the look of the grave being above ground, Click Here to look at some pictures from this cemetery, now if I had to choose I would like to be laid to rest here among family members who I had searched for during my research, there are more here I know and I will be contacting the church for information real soon, I just may get the information I am looking for or either asked to never call again, but I doubt the latter.

In the end when my research is all done and I have left this world wherever I end up laid to rest, I hope one day some other nut like me stumbles across my final stop and states “Hey This Is Cool, I found Jimmy” You Gotta Love Genealogy.