More shared documents

Not only have I been busy finding cemeteries, but I've also been creating spreadsheets of the cemeteries I photograph and of cemeteries I would like to find. This makes it easier for me to find which stones are missing and what typos Holdcraft may have made. Having a list also helps me figure out hard to read stones since it's usually possible to read at least some of the carvings.

Before Holdcraft wrote Names in Stone, he published multiple, smaller books on the cemeteries he visited. Volume 5, which can be found on this webpage, lists many of the family cemeteries. This is one of the easier ways for me to create individual sheets for cemeteries, far easier then trying to go through each page of Names in Stone looking for individual names to fill out each cemetery.

Here is a link to all of the spreadsheets I have made in the past few months. Some are in PDF form while others are in spreadsheet form, though they can be viewed in Google Docs without downloading them. I'm slowly trying to get all of them to look the same so I can have one standard. They should be similar, but there are some minor differences, such as not putting ages and such in the last block.

Dates are all done, month/day/year. Stones I was not able to find are italicized, while stones Holdcraft didn't find are in bold. If I have found the cemetery then I've usually given coordinates and an address. 

A new list of missing cemeteries

Wow time flies when you're having fun. I've been quite lucky the last couple of months in locating some of the smaller family cemeteries in the county. This past weekend I found the Brown Family Cemetery #1, which is just over the Washington County line. The land owner was quite nice and lead me directly to the cemetery. Since I was in the area, and Holdcraft had documented it, I also photographed the Mount Zion United Methodist Church cemetery.

Following those two cemetery finds I went looking for other cemeteries in the Sabillasville area. I now know where the Harbaugh family cemetery is, but the property owners were not home and I wasn't able to document it. Hopefully the next time I stop by they will be home.

I've also discovered a few cemeteries where the stones have been moved. The Kline family, [9A], was moved to Saint Marks cemetery in Wolfsville, while the Maugans family cemetery, [12A], was moved to the nearby Salem cemetery in Wolfsville. When Holdcraft wrote his book he knew a few cemeteries were being moved and said where they had been moved to. The Kemp family cemetery, [202], stones were moved to Mount Olivet, though either one of the stones wasn't moved or the Mount Olivet database does have it listed as I wasn't able to find it.

Part of the reason I've been doing this project it to see what stones are still around, which ones have been lost, and at times find new stones. Below is a new list of cemeteries I have not yet located. Some I've been given coordinates for but I haven't yet been to. Others I know most likely no longer exist, while others may have been moved to a new cemetery. If you happen to know of any of these cemeteries please let me know.

Name	Holdcraft	Address	Lat	Lon	Notes
Toms Family Cemetery	3B	west of Quirauk School Road 1/2 mile north of MD77
Brown Cemetery 3	4A	north of MD77 1/2 west of Foxville
Ridenour Family Cemetery	4B	south of MD77, 1/4 west of Stottlemeyer Road
Wolf Family Cemetery	7A	south of Smithsburg road at Garfield crossroads
Draper Family Cemetery	8
Leatherman Family Cemetery	20A	1.25 miles north of Ellerton
Harshman Family Cemetery	20B	east of Harp Hill Road, 3/4 mile from Grossnickle's Church
Harbaugh Family Cemetery	29	Sabillasville Rd
Friends Creek Church of God	34	Friends Creek Road	39.7156	-77.4044
old Mount Saint Mary's Catholic Cemetery	36		39.68041	-77.35786
Whitmore Family Cemetery [Dern Farm]	45	Dern Road	39.65569	-77.29042	possibly moved to Mountain View cemetery
Hoover Family Cemetery	46	off US 15 north of fish hatchery
Henge (Hankey) Family Cemetery	51	south of Moser Road
Valentine Family Cemetery	55	North of 77 west of bridge, near RR
Pittenger Family Cemetery	57	Hiney Road
Methodist Protestant Cemetery	58
Lichlider Family Cemetery	63A	west of Hessong Bridge Road south of Blacks Mill Road
Mountaindale Brethren Church	66	Bethel & Mountaindale Roads	39.51971	-77.43679
Saint John's Reformed Church	71		39.5353	-77.3136	GPs end up in house
Link-Creager Family Cemetery	75	south of Daysville Road	39.49271	-77.32452	GPs would be in stream
Shepherd-Webb Family Cemetery	110	Good Intent Road
German Baptist Church	111	Houck Road
Saylor Family Cemetery	113	Bunker Hill Road
Smith Family Cemetery	116	across road from Roop cemetery
Methodist Episcopal Church	119		39.53527	-77.23138
Grabill Family Cemetery 2	121	Molasses Road
Baker Family Cemetery	122	Molasses and Repp Roads
Saum Family Cemetery	124	McKinstrys Mill Road
Landis Family Cemetery	125	Sams Creek Road and New Windsor Road
Burgess Family Cemetery	128	Pine Tree Road
Lover's Rock Cemetery	130	Green Valley Road MD 75
Simpson Family Cemetery 2	132	Fountain School Road near New Windsor Road; 9608 B Fountain School Road
Dudderar Family Cemetery	134	south of New Windsor Road and McKinstrys Mill Road
Ensey Family Cemetery [Rachel Ensey Grave]	135	Albaigh Road
Baker Family Cemetery	136	Barnes Road	39.482119	-77.14826
Lugenbeel-Worman Family Cemetery [Frank Barnes Farm]	137	Oak Orchard and Covers Corners, off Barnes Road
Devilbiss Family Cemetery	138	north of Oak Orchard Road
[abandoned] Mount Hope Church of God	142	1236 Mountain Church Road	39.4346	-77.62698
Young Family Cemetery	144	near Marker Road
Ramsburg Family Cemetery	145	On Beachley Road near Marker Road
Flook Family Cemetery	145A	northeast of Biddle and Picnic Woods Roads
Pyke-Coblentz Family Cemetery	149	south of [Alt] US 40
Smith Family Cemetery	150	Cherry Lane
House-Phillips Family Cemtery	151	Old Middletown Road
Schoolhouse Cemetery	152	2 miles NE of Burkittsville, on Arnoldstown Road
Pleasant Valley Brethren Church	153	6213 Picnic Woods Road	39.4028	-77.6089	Not sure which cemetery this is.
Slifer Family Cemetery	155	1/2 of Burkittsville, on Ahalt Distilery Road
Hook-McGill Family Cemetery	156	west of Catholic Church Road
Shaff Family Cemetery	158B	1/4 mile west of Catoctin Creek, south of MD550
Lamar Family Cemetery	159A	Carroll Boyer Road
Cost Family Cemtery	159B	Haine Road
Boteler Family Cemetery	160A
Feaster Family Cemetery	161A	Roy Remsburg Road
Chunn/Ridgley Family Cemetery	161B
Hoffman Family Cemetery	162	On Elmer Derr Road near Hawker Road
Clagett-Duvall Family Cemetery	168
Stephen Ramsburg Family Cemetery	178				no stones remain
Cronise Family Cemetery	179
Lease Family Cemetery	185	North of Gas House Pike east of McKaig
Jones Family Cemetery	186	west of Old Annapolis Road
Nelson Family Cemetery	187	Central Church Road
Price Family Cemetery	188	Yeagerstown Road
Hall-Wood Family Cemetery	190				cemetery not found in NIS descriptions
[Grace] Trinity Reformed Church	193	US 40
Keller Family Cemetery	195
Crum Family Cemetery	196	south of Ray Smith Road
Zimmerman Family Cemetery	208	Ballenger Creek Meadows
[Harriet] Simmons Family Cemetery	213	off MD 355 north of Urbana
Rine Family Cemetery	215	near Cracked Claw	39.3275	-77.35083	stones missing
Kramer-Jacobs Family Cemetery	217A	at corner of County roads commission borrow pit
Johnson Family Cemetery	219A	Dixon Road
Rollins Family Cemetery	225	on Slate Quarry Road
McClain Family Cemetery	226A
Campbell Family Cemetery	231	west of Mapleville Road
Dorsey-Mercer Family Cemetery	232	off Woodville Road south of Unionville
Lugenbeel Family Cemetery 1	233	on Woodville Road south of Unionville
Lugenbeel Family Cemetery 2	234	on Liberty Road east of Unionville
Nusbaum Family Cemetery	234A	150 feet south of MD26, 0.3 east of intersection of Unionville by-pass
Old Hammond Property	235
Gosnell-Haines Family Cemetery	236	on Buffalo Road south of 26	39.4933	-77.1072	no FAG known/partly moved to Bethel United
Douty Family Cemetery	241	West Falls Road			Carroll County
Harn Family Cemetery	242	Peddicord Road
Poole Family Cemtery 2	245	east of Kimmel Road
James-Kimmel Family Cemetery	246	Old Annapolis Road	39.42087	-77.2211
Devilbiss-Clary Family Cemetery	247	Dollyhyde Road south of Unionville
Buckey Family Cemetery	249	Lime Plant Road			possibly moved to 112
Higgins Family Cemetery	249A	north of Lime Plant Road 1.5 miles east of New London
Dorsey Family Cemetery	253	Detrick Road	39.384718	-77.23992
Brashear Family Cemetery	257	near Old Bohn & Buffalo Roads
Fowler-Rine Family Cemetery	262	Bill Moxley Road
Fowler-Rine Family Cemetery	263	Route 80 and Bartholows Road

Busy summer and cemetery differences

It's been a rather busy summer, with vacations and not getting out as much as I would have liked. I did take photos of a couple of cemeteries, and redid one cemetery completely so the stones were more readable. What I haven't done is gone and looked for the family cemeteries as by now they will be over grown and harder to find.

One trip I made was to Ireland. I have a good friend that lives there which makes for a nice, easy place to go. As I had some time to myself, and I came across a few cemeteries I decided to take some photos and put them on Find a Grave. Little did I know that just finding the proper cemeteries on FAG would be so difficult, as in I still haven't been able to find the proper places yet.

I did however, notice some striking differences in cemeteries and tombstones between the US and Ireland. In Ireland, and from a lot of the rest of Europe that I've seen, the cemeteries have walls surrounding the plot. In some places they will cover the plot with stones while others leave the grass to grow. Both of the photos below are from the same cemetery on Achill Island in county Mayo.

The photo below I took when I was in Latvia in 2014. The stone lists only the surname, but is a family plot, something I also saw in Ireland. 

Latvian family plot

Some of the plots I saw in Ireland were quite complex. I am having a hard time figuring out the entire family line in this photo.


















While it will take me some time to figure out where these cemeteries are, at least there are some beautiful views to be had.

Achill Island

New filters and how they can help in bright light

I'm only an amateur photographer, I've taken a couple of classes and understand how to use my camera, but there are still tons of things to learn. Of course not all tombstones will be readable after 100+ years, but many can using the right  lighting and/or a flash. As I wrote about in A better way to photograph tombstones, using a flash really helps.

That said, because many cemeteries face east, on bright days it can be impossible to get good shots as the sun is either directly behind you or directly in front of you. Even with a flash the sun can make getting a good shot difficult. Because of my limited time I usually go in the mornings to shoot a lot of the cemeteries. A lot of the time I carry an umbrella with me to block the light either from behind or in front of me. Being by myself a lot makes this difficult, and I'm sure makes for an interesting sight to see.

I've tried a warming filter, which I liked as it blocked some of the sunlight, but didn't always work. I also tried a polarizing filter, which also sometimes worked, but not as well. I've since gotten a set of neutral density filters that I hope will help out. The filters block out some of the light, but not the colors as other filters do. This has helped out when it's a bright, clear sky.

This is Saint Mark's church in Wolfsville. I used an 8x filter and as you can see the sun is right there but I was able to get the photo.

The two photos below show the same stone, the one on the left was taken with a flash and no filter, the one on the right with a filter and flash. They are both readable, but the one that used the filter is a bit darker and in some cases helps make the stone more readable.

The next four photos are of the same stone with the flash, f-stop and shutter speed were not changed. The first photo, upper left, is with no filter. The photo below that is with a .3 ND filter, the upper right is with a .6 ND filter and the bottom right is with a .9 ND filter, and on the bottom is with a warming filter. Depending on the light the use of these filters can greatly enhance a stone's readability. (Sorry for the way the photos are arranged, the editor placed them this way.)