Old Marcellus Village Cemetery

As part of my RAOGK volunteering, I went to the Old Marcellus Village Cemetery in Marcellus, Onondaga, New York. An inactive cemetery located right in the middle of the village. This is my new favorite cemetery for a multitude of reasons, most shown here.

First, it has the following notice outside the cemetery gate:

THE MARCELLUS VILLAGE CEMETERY

Here rest the forefathers who gave so much character to the community that they founded. We cannot forget those old families, who built fine homes, lived wholesome lives and contributed in a large measure to the life of the community.

Here rests many a soldier of the American Revolution, of the War of 1812, of the Civil War, their warfare over. Here they all sleep among their kindred, waiting "till the day breaks and the shadows flee away."

There is no one to speak for or guard the remains of those interred in the heart of our village. There is no one to preserve the memories of and the legacy from our past. There is no one but us.

Please treat this area with respect.

It seems to work at least a bit, this is an old cemetery, but in relatively decent shape.

Many stones that are no longer in decent shape, due to weather or

breakage, have these little replacement stones with

name, death date and war veteran information: Imagine if all cemeteries could do this! Kudos to whomever has undertaken this task!

Lastly, come two of my favorite ever tombstones, the first was located next to a small tree at one point. The tree h

as now grown around it.

Inscription reads: "In Memory of the widow Thankful Bachelor, who died June 3, 1805 in the 81 year of hes Age." What a fantastic married name! I wonder what she thought of this name

Postcard - London Pubs

In 2001, I had a friend who was studying in London for a semester. When I went to visit over Thanksgiving break we went on a pub crawl and I bought this postcard for my scrapbook. It is glued to the paper, hence no back available. I recall having a lot of fun on "Thanksgiving" night...

“It will remind you what a great person you are”

Please read this wonderful article on writing an autobiography/journal. A man with short-term memory lost works to remember by reading his autobiography. The link was posted by Kathy Gunter Sullivan on the Rootsweb TGF list.

Sons of England Benevolent (or Benefit) Society

The obituary of my 3rd great grandfather, Charles Whitehead, invited members of the Sons of England Benevolent Society to his funeral.

From what I can find online, this appears to be a society that helps lower class protestants from England in Canada get health insurance and burial plots in hopes of gaining support for the monarchy. As Charles was Church of England, I assume he was a member and helped others with these things. There are some microfilms available that have membership rolls, that would be interesting to find. I am also trying to find a book or website that explains this society in some depth, but so far have come up short. More information as soon as I can find it:-)

Pies

"Cherry" she would call and I would stand up from the porch step and run to the right, not touching the driveway, around the first tree, staying in front of the small the small flower garden, but out of the road, and around the second tree as she chased me. With her hand outstretched I just reached the porch. Safe... for now...

The thing I remember most about summers as a child was playing outside with the neighborhood kids. I grew up on a dead end street, with a girl my age named Tammy, her older sister Kelly, my younger sister Chris and a bunch of other people of similar ages.

During the day we would congregate on Kelly and Tammy's front lawn and play "pies."

For anyone who hasn't played this, there is the person who is "it." They have to come up with a category, such as pies, and all the other players think of a pie. The person who is it then starts naming pies, pumpkin, cherry, apple, strawberry rhubarb, and when they call yours you have have get up and run around the desired area without being tagged. If you get tagged, you're the new "it." Basically, it's a more interesting form of tag.

We would play it over and over, coming up with weirder and more interesting categories and answers. With the wide age range, at least 8 years, it was a game that stayed fun for everyone, as you could always come up with something (and if you couldn't, there was always help available). I remember always thinking that when I wrote my autobiography someday I would name it "Pies" for that will always bring back the memories of summer during my childhood. Memories of street hockey, kickball, swimming in the pool, wandering through the woods at the end of the street, hide-and-go-seek, chalk drawings on the driveway and staying up late.

While writing this post, I thought to check if this really was a game and it turns out, it's listed on gameskidsplay.net. It makes me smile to think of children outside as I write this, hoping the sun doesn't go down for just one more opportunity to make it back to the porch step.

Wordless Wednesday - Ralph, Carrie (Gress) and Ethelyn Williams

Ralph, Carolyn M. (Gress) Williams and their daughter Ethelyn. Carrie was born approximately 1871, so I would guess this picture was taken around 1900. I like the glasses on Carrie (hopefully footnoteMaven will, too:-)) and her dress.

Carrie is my great-great grandfather's younger sister. This photograph is in possession of my Aunt Lois and was scanned during my recent trip to Florida.

Genealogy Wise

Yes, I have a page... I am not sure how often I will be able to follow it (I can't even keep up with my Facebook groups, but I figure it is one more way to get my surnames out there.