There is an old joke, a guy says I will have to stop by and visit your father, and the punch line is "you better take a shovel, he has been dead for a year." Well I decided to go visit my Great-grandparents on my paternal side, and they have been dead 59 and 61 years, and I needed a shovel. The markers are sinking into the ground and overgrown with grass. But I did find them. I had never been there, my father was not one for visiting cemeteries, and the neighborhood on the Northeast side of Detroit is a bit rough.
Sorting through my parents papers I found copies of the funeral notices, from that identified the cemetery. I called ahead, and was told that someone would email me a map. The map didn't arrive, I imagine they get a lot of calls like that. So I showed up. The person was quite nice, finding the location, marking a map and saying you may find them hard to locate.
If not for my great-uncle Robert who was buried 1993, I might not have found my great-grandparents. The map showed me they were next to Robert. The grass was thin over the markers, a little digging and I was able to uncover enough to verify that I was in the right place. Rest in peace Benjamin and Margaret.
Have you dug up any relatives in your travels?
I have great grandparents buried in Chicago that I would love to go and find. I'm glad you were able to find Benjamin and Margaret. It's a shame the cemetery doesn't do better maintenance, but at least you've uncovered their markers for the time being.
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ReplyDeleteJerry and I regularly go cemetery prowling. It can be fascinating, especially with his family history. The graves go back centuries. In my family, we have to be satisfied with the 20th century, but it still can be interesting and very moving. I actually have a short story about just that with the same title as your blog post!
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