I am intrigued by loners, Cemetery Research

 Like is attracted to like and seeks to understand itself through observing similar others.

I have Aspergers, so I'm comfortably weird and okay with my weirdness. It's helpful to preface any long winding conversations with strangers by saying that, putting you on notice that I am anything but normal. 

I have currently undertaken the project, omg, I just called myself an "Undertaker". That's a first. Anyway, I decided to research a local cemetery as a volunteer project to help my community and preserve a little history. I love history. I love research and cemeteries are cool, mysterious and beguiling places. Little universes onto them selves, filled with underground stories and cryptic tales waiting to be unearthed, as it were.

It took me a couple of weeks to figure out what my goals would be for this research project. I eventually settled on 2 specific goals: to make a visual map depicting all gravemarkers and headstones that currently exist and the states of their being, i.e., are they broken, in pieces, laying on the ground, etc. Secondly, I wanted to search for all information concerning who is buried and in what location, what plot, as it were. Large swaths of unmarked graves are evident in this as well as in many older cemeteries.

The first goal involved figuring out how to make a grid, then a rough draft, then an actual handdrawn map, which is in progress. I had to walk the cemetery and observe each stone, making copious notes and taking multiple photos. At present, I have 1/4 of the oldest part of the 1,000 head cemetery in rough draft form. The next step is to put the map together.

The second part involved research online and at the local library to locate cemetery records via books, reference materials and genealogy data. I located two vital pieces of information, and probably the only records available: a Mid-Valley Geneaolgy Record of Gravestones and Inscriptions for Benton County Cemeteries (not the actual title because I forget but close enough). I do need to go back and check this title for the date and its true title. I ended up spending a couple of days and a few hours at the library making copies of all the IOOF Cem data they had. 

To that end, I am currently transcribing all the 50 plus pages of burial information into an alphabetical list on my computer so I can utilize it much more effectively. I am on pages in the forties so I am getting there. I am not a typist or transcriptionist by nature, so it has been many, many days of many, many hours of typing.

The second research data I located is the DAR Cemetery Records found online. The DAR is the Daughters of the American Revolution organization is a lineage based membership service organization, a non-profit, that "promotes education and patriotism..." dadad. All I know is that in the early 1900's they would visit cemeteries and record information on gravestones and such. I have to get these 20 pages printed out and then I will compare them to the Mid-Valley records and add any pertinent information. These records, I could not find a date, a year, in which they were recorded. That will involve some more research. They appear older than the Mid-Valley ones. So, those are my two main information sources. I'm working to alphabetize and combine them into one, easy-to-read and understand format, for years and years to come.

 As I am transcribing, I am also utilizing Find-a-Grave, FG, to compare information like birth and death dates. So, three main sources of info to work with.

Anyway, as I am transcribing,..... It can be extremely sad. I swear, the majority of burials are infants, small children and women who died in childbirth from 15-45 years of age. I do have times where I just need to take a break and not feel so sad and overwhelmed by the personal tragedies others had to endure. 

I am fascinated, a funny word but it fits, by people that died alone without kin or heir. I decided to subscribe to Ancestry because I became so intrigued by these individuals who left their home countries, travelled across the ocean, then across an entire foreign continent and settled in Oregon. What propelled them to make such a drastic move? Says the person who made a similar, across the country drastic move.

On the FG site, sometimes there are biographies, information about the deceased. I found one gentleman, William Simon Williams born 1845 Wales, died August 15, 1896 in Corvallis, Benton County, Oregon. His bio, from a source I have not been able to track down or trace yet, states: A machinist and engineer by profession. Shot himself on Main Street.

Ancestry showed me his will, or lack thereof, his probate court stuff because he had no will and no heirs nor kin. Now, as I reread that bio info, "shot himself", was it suicide? an accident? I want more details about his life. I don't know why exactly. I am just compelled to learn more. 

Today, as I transcribed, I found a Henry Manns with unknown birthdate and with an impressive headstone. I had to look him up. He was a shoemaker who immigrated from Germany and died without a will, kin or heir. And this man had some good money. A couple thousand dollars back in 1886. The administrator of his estate even wrote fifty letters to German nationals trying to find family. No luck.

Why did he move here? Did he leave his family? Or was he forced out? I want to know more.

Thus, I write this blog. It helps to keep track of my research and provides me a place to write insights and musings. 

I got sidetracked, in a pleasant way, when I stumbled upon Henry Manns name today.