Hometown:Cemeteries

After our stop at the Calvary Cemetery in Sheboygan, we drove around Kiwanis Park to the entrance of the Lutheran Cemetery, the resting place of the Herzogs and Reimers.

Many of the Germans from Russia who chose to live in Sheboygan were from the villages of Reinwald, Schaefer, and Schwed.  Most of them are buried here.

We parked and quickly located my great-grandparents headstone.  As I look at the stone, memories flooded back to me of all of the research I still want to do on the lives of Philip and Anna Maria Reimer.  The Reinwald Censuses of 1850 and 1857 opened many avenues for further exploration of their lives.

My grandparents, Fred and Sophie Herzog,  are near. Cousins from this side of my family still reside in and around Sheboygan.  They maintain and clean the areas around these plots as evidenced by the hosta plant behind my grandparent's stone.  I like how it has filled in the space and I hope the hosta Ashley and I planted will do the same at John's grave.

Fred Herzog remains my mystery to solve. I believe his family moved to Rosenfeld am Nachoi as I have found a number of Herzogs in the 1862 Census.  This census could be the link to pulling the family tree chart  back to the original Settler's list.  Yet, there are so many Fred's and misspellings and date contradictions, I need to cloister myself and submerge into the documents again before I can confirm my findings.

This visit I located my Mom's brother's grave.  The last time I was here with my cousin Charlotte, we could not find the stone. When I talked with Charlotte, she told me that her daughter found  the stone, but it had sunk so far into the ground, most visitors would not have seen it.  It has been raised again and it now visible.  A beautiful green plant grows behind the stone.  Fred died at 29 years old after a car accident on 8th Street during a snow storm.

Before we visited the Lutheran cemetery, we drove past my grandmother's house on St. Clair Ave and circled the block to check if my cousin Charlotte was home. She was sitting in the yard and we had a wonderful unexpected visit.

Tip # 23...Visit your family cemetery

No, I didn't plan for this tip to come so quickly after my Halloween suggestion. It just happened.

As a little girl, I was fortunate to accompany my parents whenever they went to cemeteries. There was never a debate about whether it was "OK" for me to visit. It was part of life. I have always experienced a sense of awe during my time there. I realize not everyone shares my perspective; however cemeteries provide documented history and life lessons for all family members. Cemeteries provide an incredible amount of information and offer a respectful link to your family.

If it has been a long time since your last visit, verify family plot locations with the groundskeeper. Be sure to bring a camera to photograph headstones not only for the valuable information, but also to maintain a record of the location. Some people also will bring paper and pencil to rub the image of the stone.

Many organizations are also recording cemetery information and making it available online. One of my good friends, Scott Lewandoske, is researching the Lutheran Cemetery in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. He photographs and records all of the information on the headstone and then locates the corresponding death notice in The Sheboygan Press. It is a slow process, but extremely valuable for the family historian.

If you have relocated and live too far away from your family's cemetery, consider a trip there in the near future. Or, visit some of these Web sites. You may uncover plenty of information before you actually need to travel.

http://www.gravestonearchives.net/
http://arizonagravestones.org/
http://www.genealogy.com/64_gravestones.html
http://www.findagrave.com/

Now, perhaps I am a bit odd, but there are three memorable cemeteries I visited which I can never forget.

• The Ferndale Cemetery in Ferndale, California is on quite a steep hill. The movie, "The Majestic" was filmed there. The cemetery rules posted at the front gate merit attention. http://www.victorianferndale.org/chamber/
• In Greenbush, Wisconsin, there is a cemetery at the top of the hill. By accident, my family drove up the hill and found ourselves in the spookiest cemetery we'd ever seen. And, it was in the middle of the afternoon. My father had to put the car in reverse and back down the hill in order to leave.
• And, last but not least, the McGavock Cemetery at Carnton Plantation in Franklin, Tennessee. For more details, read Richard Hicks The Widow of the South or visit the web site at http://www.widowofthesouth.com/