Cemetery

Cemeteries are places of mourning and also elation over genealogy discoveries. Too often when searching my ancestors’ graves, I find cemeteries that have been abandoned. My great grandfather, Charles Shoemaker Moore was a Civil War veteran and is buried in Old Camden, NJ cemetery. It is in a run down and dangerous part of town. Only a few headstones remain and sadly not one for my ancestor. I know the general area where he is buried. My husband said if we came there again it would be on the coldest day in the winter because most of the criminals would not be out. My grandparents, Margaretta and Charles Moore and three of their children are buried in another Camden cemetery – New Camden Cemetery. This is almost as bad. But just across the street is still another abandoned cemetery. Evergreen Cemetery is disgraceful. Broken headstones abound. The former owners used pieces of headstones to make curbs alone the roads which did nothing to prevent the roads from migrating over graves. I can’t locate my father’s siblings grave as I think one of these roads is now over that grave. My baby cousins’ grave also can’t be located since head stones in that are gone. He is buried on top of a Civil War soldier who was unrelated.  Apparently, you could sell the space over a family member for burial. Nearby there was a headstone that told the story of a couple who were visiting from Germany and were hit by a train. Sometimes the city or county will bring in prisoners to cut the grass in these cemeteries a couple times a year.

Many of my maternal ancestors are buried in and around Batavia, NY. Those cemeteries are lovely. They have been maintained. One even has a booklet of newspaper obituaries for the people buried in that cemetery. One of the collateral ancestors have three small headstones with a heartbreaking story in that booklet. Parents took their small child to be buried there and when they returned home their second small child had died. A few days after that child was buried a third child died and was buried.

Cemeteries give us a connection to our ancestors. My maternial great grandparents were both cremated and their ashes spread in Tampa Bay. They feel so disconnected. I want to be able to see where they lay and see a headstone.

Sometimes cemeteries give us a connection to non-relatives. Around my parents’ graves are friends and familiar people. Flora Jamieson my seventh-grade teacher and later fellow faculty member and friend; her sister and brother-in-law; Charlie Ritz who was one my father’s fellow police officers are all buried there.

Cemeteries are so much a part of our lives. They give us connections and a sense of who we are.

#52 Ancestors 2018, #52 Ancestors, #Cemeteries

Stormy Weather

Some of my most memorable weather events are tied to RVing. The first night we spent in our first motorhome was in Wisconsin. Around 9pm a big storm came up with threats of tornadoes. The RV shook with lightning striking nearby. The Sean and Travis were young. One slept through it and ones was terrified. All I could think of was “Who usually dies in a tornado? People in trailers”. Not much sleeping that night.

The second storm happened in Kansas. A huge storm came up. Water was leaking into to the RV everywhere. We put pots under leaks and the cooler under a large leak under the air conditioner. The next morning, I opened the door to dump the cooler outside and the sight that faced me was we were in knee-deep water. Around us those who had been tent camping were returning from their escape to motels. They were pairing up to wring sleeping bags out. I unplugged the electric cord to the RV standing in knee high water. After getting everything together we pulled out of the camp ground and stopped at a convenience store just up the road. I went in to buy some buns and donuts. I asked the clerk if they had bad storms like that very often. The woman looked at me like I was crazy and said “Honey, this is Kansas.” Shades of “The Wizard of Oz”.

Arlene Baker

#52 Ancestors, #Storms, #Camping

52 Ancestors: A Woman of Strength - Hazel Bristol Wiedrich

52 Ancestors: A Woman of Strength – Hazel Bristol Wiedrich

My grandmother was the strongest woman I ever knew. Hazel Bristol Wiedrich faced adversity her entire life. Her father was a man who came from a family who thought of themselves as cut above the rest. Her mother, Mattie was the proverbial woman from the other side of the tracks. When she was three her father died of cancerous tumors that necessitated amputating his arm at the elbow. Her father’s sister wanted to raise Hazel, but her mother declined. This was a little bit confusing since Mattie was somewhat mean spirited to her and inserted herself in all of Hazel’s friendships. Her mother did wash and had boarders and would eventually marry one of them, John Isaac. As a small child Hazel injured her shin which never would heal. She would under go more than a dozen operations before a surgery where her incision would be left open for a “fresh air treatment”. This caused the bone to disintegrate to the point that amputation was necessary. The doctors could not convince her mother that what her daughter had was different than her husband. The leg only needed to be amputated below the knee, but Mattie insisted on the amputation at the top of the thigh. This was before WWI and medicine was not as it is today. Many people didn’t survive amputation and so they complied. They also required her beautiful auburn waist length hair be shorn. Some believed long hair sapped your strength and so off went her hair. She survived the amputation but in photos taken at that time her appearance shows the toll it took. Her mother told her she needed to have a trade since no man would ever marry her. She learned haberdashery. Then one day my grandfather, Edward Wiedrich delivered ice to their home and a romance began. She married at the age of 25 and her mother continued to insert herself by going on the honeymoon with the couple. The next year found Hazel pregnant with her first child. Mattie went to the police station to insist her son-in-law be arrested for getting her daughter pregnant. Her daughter’s brother-in-law was a police officer present at this event and said all in the station had a good laugh. Eventually Hazel had four daughters. Money was always tight. They lost a home and later a farm. When they moved to New Jersey things were no better. They lived in a truck. My poor one-legged grandmother had to climb up into her home where there was no running water or electric. They lived like this for 5 years. But like always she not only made do but never complained and saw only the brighter side of life. This was during WWII when life was difficult for everyone and my grandfather only made it worse. He left for a year to be a merchant sailor. He sent no money home for the family and when he returned brought no money back. Fortunately, the oldest daughter worked as did my 12-yr-old mother to help support them during those difficult years. Then my grandfather decided that life was better in Florida and moved my grandmother and two of the daughters to Tampa. There they still had the truck to live in until they moved into a small cabin in DeSoto Park. A few years later they finally had a house. All the while Hazel always looked on the bright side, never complaining. She also lived with several physical problems. She had cataracts, became deaf in one ear and hard of hearing in the other, and developed diabetes all in her twenties. She used crutches until her later years when she was forced to go in a wheel chair. She was the strongest woman I know and the most outstanding person who saw the positive side of life whatever the circumstances.

#Hazel Wiedrich, #52 Ancestors Strength, #51 Ancestors 2018