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.)

The locals usually know the way.

A few weeks ago I was documenting the Buckeystown Methodist Church, which is behind a bed and breakfast. The owners were quite happy to show me around the B&B that they were renovating and they were quite happy that someone was documenting their cemetery. I also asked him if he knew of any other cemeteries in the area, but since he was newer to the area he didn't. He did however know the person I should ask, Nancy Bodmer, who owns Bodmer's Store. She has written a couple of books on the history of Buckeystown. However, because I took a bit too much time photographing and talking I was late for the Historical Society.

This past weekend I needed to get a couple of better photos of the Church cemetery so I stopped back by. After getting my information I decided to stop off and see if I could find out some more information about the family cemeteries that at one point were in the area. At first Nancy could only remember the Methodist church site that I had already been too, but after looking through one of her books she found a second one, the Davis Family Cemetery. I don't believe she had ever been there, but she knew the land owners and directed me in the right direction.

Because I had spent almost 30 minutes talking to Nancy, I was almost late to make it to the Historical Society on time. Because there were only supposed to be six stones in the cemetery I figured I could get the information and not be too late. When I got to the property, the owner John, asked me to come back later and was told 4 would be a good time. When I came back I was offered a ride in a cart to make it to the cemetery as it was across the fields and through a few fences.

Along the way I learned that John's father had owned the land prior to him and that now he and his wife spent half the year in Arizona and half here and that they had just gotten back. He also told me that the previous year he had had the stone fence redone. After getting to the cemetery I was disheartened to see only five stones when I thought there were supposed to be six, however, after looking at my photos I found that one stone contained two names. I was glad that John was able to take me as I never would have found the place myself.

Davis Family Cemetery

After finishing the Davis cemetery I didn't have a clear plan. So I ended up going to Jefferson to see about taking some photos of my Kessler relatives, but the church was having some sort of activity so I decided against taking photos at the time.

I've found over the last year or so of trying to find cemeteries one really does just have to keep asking around until you come across the right person. Usually that one person knows enough to find one or two places, sometimes more. 

Google Earth files of the Titus Atlas

I have created beta versions of the files I created of the Titus Atlas in Google Earth. This link will give you a number of different files, each with different features. Download them all or just the ones you're interested in. There are seven different files, each showing different information. All files are in a .kml format which you need Google Earth to view.

Almost everything in the atlas has been electronically converted. I have a file for the roads, but it is very large and still needs work. I did not do any of the waterways or railroads as they did not seem to be done very well originally.

Here are the different files and what they contain:

Businesses: This file contains all of the different types of businesses included in the atlas. There are some that have an owner name with them, unfortunately you can not search for the owner's name. I've also included kilns and quarries in this file.

Cemetery: This file contains all of the cemeteries found in the atlas. It will not include cemeteries that are with churches if it was not labeled that way. There are actually a few small family cemeteries here.

Churches: This file contains all of the churches, I have tried to spell out the type of church it is when I could. I haven't researched all of the abbreviations so some have been left abbreviated.

Features: This file is my catch all file, things I didn't know what to do with because there was only a couple of them, or I had no idea what they really were. The Washington Monument, toll houses, farms and assorted halls are all in this file.

Mills: This file contains all of the mills shown. Some of the mills have owners associated with them, however, like the businesses, the owners name's can't be searched. 

Names: Just like the Google map, this contains all of the names in the atlas. This file is not separated in to different sections like the Google map. There are also some notes, mostly to myself to check spellings and to say when there was a name with no actual mark for where their property was. A few also have 'residence' listed for when they had multiple properties in the area, those are all listed in the atlas and not by me.

Schools: A listing of all the schools in the atlas. Some schools have names and are listed that way.

These files are in beta, which means I'm still somewhat working on them. I want to find better symbols and better ways to label items. Each point will have at least the feature name and district it was in. The Names file is very large, almost 6megs, and looks very crowded. I am unable at this time to turn the labels off as doing so prevents the file from being searched.

Please let me know of any problems you find. I will fix any spelling mistakes, but I will leave any names how they are found on the map. I will however include a note suggesting the correct spelling.

Titus Atlas is fully digitized

I have finished creating an electronic version of the 1873 Titus Atlas. There are four separate sections to the map, a north, south, east, west and towns. The towns section is all of the smaller towns that had their own map. Also included in there is the separate districts in Frederick City. There are some 6300 names listed.

To search for a surname, type the name you're looking for in the box:

Google Maps search box. Note yours will probably look slightly differently.

As you can see there is a drop down of all of the people with the surname Main on the map. Remember, not everyone who owned property was listed in the atlas, also there could be a few other reasons that you can't find a name; I might have made a typo, the original surveyor made a mistake, or I was unable to fully read the name. Also remember that most of the times there is just an initial for the first name.

 You can also switch between a normal map view and a satellite view. Sometimes you can still see the original house in the general area. You might also be able to see the property lines if trees or fences were left.

Normal map view.

Satellite view.

I have no intentions of fixing anything in this map, it's far too large to be able to do that. I do however want to release Google Earth versions where I can, if possible, add first names and make corrections. Hopefully this version will work to help some people locate relatives.

Shared online documents

As my readers know I've been on a quest to find as many of the smaller Frederick County cemeteries as possible. My process before was to go to the cemetery, try and get the best photos I could, come home and put each cemetery in to its own folder and then rename each of the photos to the name(s) on the tombstone. I now have almost 100 cemetery folders, though many of them are not complete as they are the larger cemeteries and I was there to just confirm that the coordinates and name were correct.

After quite some time I began to realize that I needed more than just the photos so I started making spreadsheets as well. I took the names and information that I could make out from the stone and if need be crosschecked it with Names in Stone. Sometimes it's hard to find all of the names that Holdcraft found because it's in alphabetical order. If I didn't find a stone from NIS then I noted that, and if I found more stones I noted that as well.

There are some cemeteries that I'd like to find so I make a spreadsheet on those so when I do hopefully find them I know what to look for. I know that some cemeteries have been moved, the Kline family cemetery, 9A, in Wolfsville, at least two of the stones were moved to Saint Marks. Also in Wolfsville the entire Maugans family cemetery, 12A, was moved to Salem United. Three of the four stones from the Kemp family cemetery, 202, were moved to Mount Olivet.

I have created a new Google account, Catoctin.history, to store all of these documents so others can use. You can find the spreadsheets here. Please remember that these are still in a raw format. If there's no survey date then I haven't found the cemetery yet. My notes shouldn't be too hard to understand but they might be. I do not list Jr, Sr, III, or any other prefix or suffix, nor do I list husband/wife. I do try and say when two or more people are on the same stone. I also put each name as I have found it on the stone and did not try and change the name as Holdcraft sometimes did.

Each sheet is done by the Holdcraft number and then name he gave each cemetery. I have put leading 0s so that the numbers come out in order correctly. For example, the Kline family cemetery is named 009A Kline Family Cemetery. Cemeteries that Holdcraft did not catalog, and there are a few, have not been given a number and just named as best as I could.

Let me know of any problems you may find.

Lakin Family and African cemeteries

A couple of weeks ago I was at the Historical Society and a group of women came in looking for some information on the Lakin family. They were looking for where the family lived and I was able to help them a bit, using the Titus atlas helped out a bit as well. They also asked if I knew where the family cemetery was located at. Looking at my spreadsheet I found a location and gave it to them. They thanked me and went on their way to find the cemetery and land.

The next day I decided to go cemetery hunting, and since I hadn't been to the Lakin cemetery I decided to go there. Using the original coordinates I had put me in the wrong place. I knew I should have been close as I was on the correct road, but couldn't find it. Around where the cemetery was supposed to be located at was a house and people were having a cookout so I stopped and asked them. They said that the same women had stopped by the day before and gave them directions on how to get there.

When I got to the right place the man who lived there told me it was located behind the old house. Going down the correct driveway was fun as it was mostly grass, which on a motorcycle is interesting because of not being able to see holes and other obstacles. When I got behind the house all I saw was a fence and no cemetery right there. The man came out of his house, about 100 yards away, and yelled if I had found it, when I said no, he told me it was in the field. I walked a bit up the field and saw a fence way up on the hill. Since he had told me to "Just go on and ride your motorcicle up there," I did just that, right across a cleared field.

The trees down at the bottom is where the road ends.

Many of the stones were still in good shape, though there were a couple that unreadable. There were also a couple of stones that Holdcraft did not catalog.

Lakin Family Cemetery

After I also photographed a couple of African cemeteries, both of which had been mostly put on Find a Grave. The first was the Point of Rocks Colored Cemetery, the other was the Sunnyside United Methodist Church Cemetery. The Point of Rocks cemetery was kept in nice condition and most of the stones were readable.

When I arrived at the Sunnyside cemetery I was greeted by the pastor and he took me around the cemetery and gave me a bit of history. He was very appreciative that someone was taking photos of the cemeteries. He was also interested in the Point of Rocks cemetery as he had not heard of it.

Sunnyside United Methodist Church