On the Cemetary Trail

Published on March 10, 2005 By Gideon MacLeish In History

For those who don't know, I'm a history geek. I have been known to detour several miles for some esoteric out of the way museum (and once spent four hours driving around an Indian Reservation to find a museum that was there).

So, I was quickly stirred up today by noting a family name in a Texas cemetary a little over two hours from here. My family was one that was split by the Civil War, and even though my family regrettably went to the Yankee side of things, I have always been interested in researching our southern counterparts. I have found pieces of their trail in Eastern Tennessee, and now this, in Texas.

This particular family member was born in 1884 and died in 1960. With his birth less than two decades following the Civil War, he likely had secondhand information of this branch, and with his death just 45 years ago, it is possible he could have passed some of that information on to a living descendant or friend. At any rate, I am now a man with a mission. Gotta gets me to that cemetary.

Comments

Shovelheat

on Mar 10, 2005

When I was a child, sometime in the late sixties, I remember an elderly lady telling me about how her grandmother told her that when she was very little she could remember going with her mother to hide in a corn feild with their milk cow and how they watched the union soldiers come in and burn down their house and barn. She said her grandmother remembered being scared to death.

I'm glad and feel lucky that I had this small, slight peek into the Civil War. Good luck on your quest.

ParaTed2k

on Mar 10, 2005

{quote}I have been known to detour several miles for some esoteric out of the way museum (and once spent four hours driving around an Indian Reservation to find a museum that was there).

I know what you mean, I once drove over 50 miles out of my way to see the Little Big Horn National Park. The Lakota people run it well!! I highly recommend it to anyone into history.

I just wish I could have been there during the tourist season when they re-enact the battle.

Good luck on your geneological journey!

----------------------------------------------

History joke for you:

What was Little Big Horn?

It was where Custer got Sioux'd! ;~D

NJforever

on Mar 10, 2005

A peek into history through relatives is always fun. My grandfather happens to have a newspaper from the 1870's (mind you, he wasn't alive then, but he has it none the less). We wouldn't open it, for fear of destroying it, but the front had a pretty interesting article about Indian chiefs visiting the White House.

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