Grrrrr! Old cemetery poses grave dilemma for buyers of Vt. farm

Here is the question. Who has more rights? A live landowner or a dead former landowner?

I have seen many stories of genealogist finding old family cemeteries only to have the landowner refuse permission to visit or later willfully destroy the cemetery, Farmers have plowed old family graves over, new construction for roads and homes have quietly paved over these sites. This quite literally “pisses me off” to no end when I see or hear these stories. Anyways back to the story at hand….

After I reading the article below I have come to this opinion. Progress cannot be stopped. Populations grow and expand. I understand the need to move cemeteries when the need for the common good is there, such as a major road. In this case ALL remains need to be removed and placed in a nearby cemetery and labeled as moved graves. Any other circumstance I think should just learn to deal with the fact an old graveyard is nearby. In this case the landowner needs to learn to live with the graveyard or move on and buy something else. What are your thoughts?
The AP story By LISA RATHKE is below:

HARTLAND, Vt. (AP) — The 130-acre property was exactly what Michel Guite and his family wanted: an old Vermont farm with mountain views, rolling hills and meadows.

There was, however, one wrinkle: The property included a small family cemetery — with the grave of a War of 1812 veteran — surrounded by a fence on a scenic knoll.

His proposal to move the graveyard so he can build a house and barn has set off protests. The town has passed a resolution aimed at blocking the move, a descendant of one occupant of the graveyard is trying to fight him in probate court and opponents including military veterans have asked the town to take over the cemetery and keep it where it is.

“We’re looking for some precedence setting, because we’ve never heard of such a heinous thing,” said Tom Giffin, president of the Vermont Old Cemetery Association.

Cemeteries have been dug up for public good before, to make way for roads and buildings, but “there’s never been the case in the state of Vermont for somebody to move a cemetery to put a house up,” Giffin said.

Opponents say it’s about honoring the dead, and respecting the graveyard as a historical site.

For Guite, it’s about property rights.

“I’ve got nothing against any of those people,” he said. “I’m only going to buy this if a judge says `This is now your land, it’s your private property, you’re allowed to do whatever you want with it. We hope you look after it well, God bless you for it, and nobody has any right to go on your property than they have to go on every other Vermont farm’s property.’”

Guite, 62, of Springfield, Vt., and Greenwich, Conn., signed an option to buy the land in December — contingent on being able to move the graves.

Among other things, he doesn’t want the graves around his three young children. “I feel that it’s improper to have a reminder of the sadness of life so near where children are playing,” he said in February.

Guite wants to move three graves that he said are registered with the town, those of War of 1812 veteran Noah Aldrich II, who died Jan. 15, 1848 at age 61; and Aldrich’s two grandchildren, who died within a day of each other in 1850 during a flu epidemic.

He proposed moving their graves and headstones to another spot — perhaps on his land, perhaps in the town cemetery.

But historians say there are more than three graves, including that of Aldrich’s wife, Lydia. And a previous owner of the land, Jerome King of Hanover, N.H., buried his parents’ cremated remains there before selling the farm in the 1980s, and he has said he also opposes moving the graveyard. Descendants of the Kings visit several times a year.

“I’m against it on principal,” said Jim Bulmer, a member of the Bridgewater American Legion who attended a Probate Court hearing on the issue with about 10 other veterans. “You’ve got a veteran in there from the war of 1812, who has come to his final resting place and let the poor guy rest in peace. He served his country. Why do we need to move cemeteries to accommodate an individual who has a particular agenda?”

Moving bodies is not unusual, as in cases of moving family members closer to each other, said Jimmy Johnston, a lobbyist for the Vermont Funeral Directors’ Association, and owner of the Barber and Lanier Funeral home in Montpelier.

However, Johnston said, “Moving graves of someone who is not a family member, unless it’s eminent domain, I’ve never heard of one being moved to build a house.”

Guite said he followed the law, advertising the move in the newspaper with no objection from immediate relatives.

But in a recent probate court hearing, a judge reached across several generations and designated Marcia Neal of Grand Junction, Colo. — the great, great, great granddaughter of Noah and Lydia Aldrich — as representative for the family.

“I’ve begun to feel a real personal connection to these people,” Neal said.

Although her first inclination would be not to move the graves, she wants to find a solution.

“It has become so involved and sort of complicated. I’d hate to stand in the way of anybody’s right to buy and sell property. I would really like to be able to help reach a solution to the problem. I’m not sure what they would be.”

I’m Back!

Well if you haven’t noticed, I have been out of the loop for a few weeks. First my web hosting company gave me a hard time so I had to find a new one. THEN i had to upload my 60+ sites I run and transfer corresponding MySql databases and make sure they work. I jacked this one up several time before I got it right and now am able to post once again.

Also There has been a breakthrough on the parents of Henry Nichols. Who won? Well no one did. I was contacted by a Nichols and was informed that we matched 36 out of 37 DNA Markers. That is a pretty close relations generation wise. So officially the contest is over. I will post more later on the details, I have to finish uploading the final few sites now.

67 Bodies secretly Exhumed from NM Grave

Grrrrrrr!!! What makes me a Mad Genealogist. This Kind of thing makes me mad. Although my ancestors fought and died for the Confederacy, I have a great respect for all fallen soldiers no matter the side they fought for or their race. they have all earned my respect.

By MELANIE DABOVICH, Associated Press writer

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Working in secret, federal archaeologists have dug up the remains of dozens of soldiers and children near a Civil War-era fort after an informant tipped them off about widespread grave-looting.

The exhumations, conducted from August to October, removed 67 skeletons from the parched desert soil around Fort Craig — 39 men, two women and 26 infants and children, according to two federal archaeologists who helped with the dig.

They also found scores of empty graves and determined 20 had been looted.
The government kept its exhumation of the unmarked cemetery near the historic New Mexico fort out of the public’s eye for months to prevent more thefts.

The investigation began with a tip about an amateur historian who had displayed the mummified remains of a black soldier, draped in a Civil War-era uniform, in his house.
Investigators say the historian, Dee Brecheisen, may have been a prolific looter who spotted historical sites from his plane. Brecheisen died in 2004 and although it was not clear whether the looting continued after his death, authorities exhumed the unprotected site to prevent future thefts.

“As an archaeologist, you want to leave a site in place for preservation … but we couldn’t do that because it could be looted again,” Jeffery Hanson, of the Bureau of Reclamation, told The Associated Press.

The remains are being studied by Bureau of Reclamation scientists, who are piecing together information on their identities. They will eventually be reburied at other national cemeteries.
Most of the men are believed to have been soldiers — Fort Craig protected settlers in the West from American Indian raids and played a role in the Civil War. Union troops stationed there fought the Confederacy as it moved into New Mexico from Texas in 1862.
The children buried there may have been local residents treated by doctors at the former frontier outpost, officials said.

Federal officials learned of the looting in November 2004, when Don Alberts, a retired historian for Kirtland Air Force Base, tipped them off about a macabre possession he’d seen at Brecheisen’s home about 30 years earlier.

Alberts described seeing the mummified remains of a black soldier with patches of brown flesh clinging to facial bones and curly hair on top of its skull. Alberts said the body had come from Fort Craig.
“The first thing we did was laughed because who would believe such a story,” Hanson said. “But then we quickly decided we better go down and check it out.”

Weeks later, Hanson and fellow archaeologist Mark Hungerford surveyed the cemetery site and found numerous holes — evidence of unauthorized digging.

While records show the cemetery had been disinterred twice by the Army in the late 1800s, it wasn’t known how many bodies remained. Hanson said ground-penetrating radar revealed the Army left behind about one-third of the bodies.

A lack of funding and various federal procedures delayed the excavation until last summer.
Brecheisen’s son told authorities where the mummified remains from his father’s home were, and a person who hasn’t been publicly identified handed over a more-than-century-old skull packaged in a brown paper bag. Alberts said that skull, which still had hair attached, was the one he’d seen years earlier.

Authorities also found some Civil War and American Indian artifacts in Brecheisen’s home, but the display rooms that showcased Brecheisen’s collections had already been emptied out and auctioned off by his family after his death, Hanson said. Investigators believe Brecheisen did most of his looting alone, but they also know he dug with close friends and family at the Fort Craig site. Some who accompanied him led authorities to the grave sites, Hanson said. Brecheisen was a decorated Vietnam veteran and flew for the Air National Guard during a 26-year military career. His family described him as “one of the state’s foremost preservationists of historical facts and sites” in his obituary. Those close to Brecheisen said his looting may have been motivated by anger toward the Bureau of Land Management, but no further details were available. Alberts described him as a collector; it wasn’t clear whether Brecheisen sold any of the items.

Investigators believe he also dug up grave sites in Fort Thorn and Fort Conrad in southern New Mexico as well as prehistoric American Indian burial sites in the Four Corners region. Hungerford said they also believe he may have taken the Fort Craig burial plot map, which is missing from the National Archives. The criminal case against Brecheisen was closed upon his death and there are no plans to investigate his family members, assistant U.S. Attorney Mary McCulloch said. Alberts said he asked Brecheisen to come clean. “I had urged him to simply return the remains, about 10, 15 years before he got ill. I offered to act as an honest broker to the deal and see that they were returned, but I didn’t get a response,” Alberts said. “I didn’t want to get a friend in trouble.” He added: “But you look back and think you would have done everything differently if you would have known everything was going to disappear.”

Free Access to Alexander Street’s Civil War Collections

I am a history nut. I Especially love military history. So when I saw this posting on a rootsweb maillist I had to see if it was any good. Here is what the site says:

As we approach the bicentennials of both Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis,  Alexander Street Press is offering free access to some of our  most popular collections. Through April 30, 2008 you can explore three  of our Civil War databases with no restrictions. As a bonus, we are  also offering free access to two streaming music databases, which contain  songs from the Civil War era. No registration is required.

I was presently surprised by what I found. It somewhat reminded me of the Civil Wars Soldiers and Sailors System that I use quite a bit. The difference is that The database is a little easier to navigate and read & has a few more the CWSSS does not have. I have enjoyed viewing many of the other features like the songs, letters and diaries. According to the site these databases are only open free till April 30th. The address is
http://alexanderstreet.com/resources/civilwar.access.htm

I could not find a pricing area to see how much this would cost normally though.  So enjoy it while you can. I know I will.

1890 Census Really Destroyed? April’s Fools Gotcha!

In a blog post by the Ancestry insider titled “1890 Census Recovered!” revealed that 25% was actual destroyed with 37% damaged and 38% undamaged. Then our great efficient Mislabeled the remaining files. There is even a search box at the bottom of the post to search for your ancestors in the 1890 Census.

When I read this I got real excited. I was just beginning to count the number of ancestors I could piece together when I realized the date. April 1st. It just crushed my little heart when I realized it was just a joke but I commend the Ancestry Insider for putting together such a great piece.

What makes this so believable is that I can see this actually happening. An MAYBE the 1890 census is just sitting in some mislabeled area of the archives or government building somewhere. Things that make you go “hmmmm”. Anyways, I know you got me good Insider and I bet you got everyone else as well. Great Job!

Footnote.com creates Virtual Vietnam Memorial Wall

Footnote has done it again!. Family and friends of servicemen and women who died or vanished in the Vietnam War no longer have to travel to Washington to pay their respects at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. An interactive version debuted online this week, a project of Footnote.com in conjunction with the National Archives.The virtual version of the famous memorial — which is a pair of 246-foot black granite walls inscribed with the names of more than 58,000 American military casualties — is searchable.

Every name etched onto the real-world wall is viewable online and linked to the veteran’s service record. Online visitors can add photos and describe their memories of the servicemen and women who died in the war.

The good news is word spread fast and they have seen a tremendous response to the announcement. The bad news is that they are having trouble keeping up with the number of people who are coming to visit the site. at this writing I was geting some error pages because of the volume. But I spoke with someone there and they stated they we’re working to improve things, and hoped you’ll be patient with them. I expect they will add some bandwith today to fix this if they havent done so already. Below is their press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MARCH 26, 2008

Footnote.com and the National archives Launch an Interactive Vietnam War Memorial

Footnote.com’s innovative social website lets visitors pay tribute to Vietnam War heroes from their PC

Washington DC and Lindon, UT – March 26, 2008– Footnote.com and the National Archives and Records Administration held a press conference at the Archives in Washington DC to announce the release of an online interactive photo of the Vietnam War Memorial. In addition to releasing this unique version of the Wall, Footnote.com enables visitors to search the Wall for people they know and pay tribute by adding photos, comments and stories of those who lost their lives during the Vietnam conflict.
“The Wall is more than just 58,000 plus names,” explains Richard Schroepfer, a Vietnam War Veteran. “Many of these people were my friends. And now Footnote.com helps me create a remembrance of these fine gentlemen.”

To view a video of Richard Schroepfer and his experience with the Wall on Footnote.com, click here.

Footnote.com started the project by contracting the expertise of Peter Krogh, a National Geographic photographer, who was given the challenge to photograph the entire wall. Creating this online version of the Wall required almost 1,500 individual photos that were stitched together to create one single image. The process took over five months and resulted in an image that is nearly five gigapixels in size. Despite the immense size, just about anyone can view the image on Footnote.com via an Internet connection.

Footnote.com partnered with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to link the service records and casualty reports to each name on the Wall. “The records of the Vietnam War in the National Archives are essential resources for veterans to revisit their history and establish their rights,” explains Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein. “These extensive files are mined by scholars every day as they continue to interpret and understand this pivotal period in American history.” Footnote.com will also be digitizing National Archives photos from the Vietnam War.

Finding someone on the Wall is as simple as typing a name into a search box and letting Footnote.com quickly locate and zoom into the area of the Wall where the individual name can be viewed. Once the name is located, visitors can see the soldier’s service record and view comments, stories and photos that have been contributed by other visitors.

“Footnote.com is about discovering, discussing, and sharing the stories of our past,” says Russell Wilding, CEO of Footnote.com. “We know that there are many untold experiences represented on that Wall, and we hope that this interactive version of the memorial helps those affected by the war by sharing their stories.”

Footnote.com also provides a way for visitors to create a tribute page dedicated to the brave men and women who served in Vietnam, who may not be on the Wall. These pages become a way for veterans, family and friends to share experiences and feelings about this event that has had a great impact on so many. Footnote.com hopes that this interactive Wall becomes a means for healing and paying tribute to those whose sacrifice and service have been underappreciated for so long.

To view the Interactive Wall on Footnote.com, click here.

About Footnote, Inc.

Footnote.com is a subscription website that features searchable original documents, providing users with an unaltered view of the events, places and people that shaped the American nation and the world. At Footnote.com, all are invited to come share, discuss, and collaborate on their discoveries with friends, family, and colleagues. For more information, visit www.footnote.com.

About The National Archives

NARA alone is the archives of the Government of the United States, responsible for safeguarding records of all three branches of the Federal Government. The records held by the National Archives belong to the public – and it is the mission of the National Archives to ensure the public can discover, use, and learn from the records of their government.

Obama related to Pitt, Clinton to Jolie

Story from the Associated Press

BOSTON - This could make for one odd family reunion: Barack Obama is a distant cousin of actor Brad Pitt, and Hillary Rodham Clinton is related to Pitt’s girlfriend, Angelina Jolie.

Researchers at the New England Historic Genealogical Society found some remarkable family connections for the three presidential candidates — Democratic rivals Obama and Clinton, and Republican John McCain.

Clinton, who is of French-Canadian descent on her mother’s side, is also a distant cousin of singers Madonna, Celine Dion and Alanis Morissette. Obama, the son of a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya, can call six U.S. presidents, including George W. Bush, his cousins. McCain is a sixth cousin of first lady Laura Bush.

Genealogist Christopher Child said that while the candidates often focus on pointing out differences between them, their ancestry shows they are more alike than they think.

“It shows that lots of different people can be related, people you wouldn’t necessarily expect,” Child said.

Obama has a prolific presidential lineage that features Democrats and Republicans. His distant cousins include President George W. Bush and his father, George H.W. Bush, Gerald Ford, Lyndon Johnson, Harry S. Truman and James Madison. Other Obama cousins include Vice President Dick Cheney, British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill and Civil War General Robert E. Lee.

“His kinships are across the political spectrum,” Child said.

Child has spent the last three years tracing the candidates’ genealogy, along with senior research scholar Gary Boyd Roberts, author of the 1989 book, “Ancestors of American Presidents.”

Clinton’s distant cousins include beatnik author Jack Kerouac and Camilla Parker-Bowles, wife of Prince Charles of England.

McCain’s ancestry was more difficult to trace because records on his relatives were not as complete as records for the families of Obama and Clinton, Child said.

Obama and President Bush are 10th cousins, once removed, linked by Samuel Hinkley of Cape Cod, who died in 1662.

Pitt and Obama are ninth cousins, linked by Edwin Hickman, who died in Virginia in 1769.

Clinton and Jolie are ninth cousins, twice removed, both related to Jean Cusson who died in St. Sulpice, Quebec, in 1718.

The New England Historic Genealogical Society, founded in 1845, is the oldest and largest nonprofit genealogical organization in the country.

TEC4 John Frankovitz, KIA WWII Found

As you know Frits Kruishaar of the Netherlands has been taking care of the Grave of TEC4 John Frankovitz. He is not related but a kind person who appreciates what our soldiers did for his country in WWII. He has even gone the extra mile by trying to learn more about the family of this fallen comrade. Well he finally located them:

Finaly we have found the relatives of John Frankovitz. We found the Steph-grandson of John’s oldest brother Joseph,Joseph passed away in 1991. The grandson was surprised but also pleased,he forwarded the email to his father and was sure that his father would answer. After three weeks I still haven’t got a answer,perhaps he needs some time to think about it, or it brought back to many memories. Well,if the family isn’t interested to have contact with me,I will respect that. If there is news about the contact with the family,I will let You know. Thank You very much for all You efforts in helping me. Sincerely, Frits Kruishaar.

If you wish to contact Frits Kruishaar then feel free to do so. I think a simple thank you would be in order.

Rootsweb / Ancestry CC Meltdown

I have been using the Rootsweb County pages almost since its inception. Mainly with mixed results. Some County Coordinators (henceforth abbreviated as CC) do a fabulous job putting relevant information on the web, while others take the CC position and do nothing then disappear. The rest do an average job keeping the pages updated.There is a core group of CC’s that have been there for years and are really dedicated to the rootsweb philosophy of keeping Rootsweb free to all. Some have many websites in order to keep some counties from being abandoned. I have hosted a site or two over the years and it takes a certain amount of dedicated time in order to keep things fresh and active. I salute these people who have now or in the past been a CC of the rootsweb sites.

While the CC’s maintain the pages its really the users that donate material and money to the rootsweb project that really makes people come back to rootsweb time and time again. Apparently the donations that kept rootsweb free to the public dried up and things changed in a hurry.

RootsWeb.com had been growing in popularity for many years since it began in 1993. It started as a RootsWeb Surname List. Then a search engine, obituary lists, message boards, an ancestry search-engine list, volunteer genealogy projects, calendars, and other things were added over the years.

While the popularity grew, so did the expenses and cost. In 1996, RootsWeb began accepting donations from researchers to help support the Web site but the donations did not grow as fast as the expenses, and the non-profit operation was facing a bleak financial picture. The Generations Network (formerly MyFamily.com), which owns Ancestry.com, acquired RootsWeb in June 2000. Many people thought this to be a win-win situation and others thought it to be the first step to adding all the free information on rootsweb to Ancestry’s pay sites. The marriage seems to have been working out great and hushing the naysayers.

But earlier this year though, the decision was made to move Rootsweb to the Ancestry.com servers with the stated goal of making it easier for users of the two genealogy sites to access both resources. Here is the announcement to the CC’s:

RootsWeb Announcement Thursday, March 13, 2008

As you know, The Generations Network has hosted and funded the RootsWeb online community since June 2000, thereby maintaining RootsWeb as the world’s oldest and largest free genealogy website. TGN remains committed to this mission and believes that RootsWeb is an absolutely invaluable and complementary resource to Ancestry.com, our flagship commercial family history site. We believe in both services and want to see both communities prosper and grow.

As part of this goal, we have decided to “transplant” RootsWeb onto the Ancestry.com domain beginning next week. This move will not change the RootsWeb experience or alter the ease of navigation to or within RootsWeb. RootsWeb will remain a free online experience. What will be different is that the Web address for all RootsWeb pages will change from www.rootsweb.com to www.rootsweb.ancestry.com. Again, the RootsWeb experience is not changing.

The decision to host RootsWeb on Ancestry.com is being made for one primary reason: we believe that the users of each of our two main websites can be better served if they have access to the best services available on both. Simply stated, we want to introduce more Ancestry.com users to RootsWeb and vice versa.

Today, despite the fact that Ancestry.com and RootsWeb.com are the two most frequently visited family history sites on the Web, only 25 percent of visitors to Ancestry.com visited RootsWeb in January 2008, while only 20 percent of visitors to RootsWeb visited Ancestry.com (according to Comscore Media Metrix). We think we will serve our users best by doing a better job of letting them know what is available on both Ancestry.com and RootsWeb. Hosting RootsWeb on Ancestry.com is the first step towards making this happen, but we will absolutely look for more and better ways down the road to advance this goal.

Hosting RootsWeb on Ancestry.com will also make it easier for us to make changes and improvements to the RootsWeb experience in the future.

All old RootsWeb URLs will continue to work, whether they are bookmarks or favorites, links to or from a hosted page or URLs manually typed in your Internet browser. We will have a redirect in place so that all old URLs will automatically end up on the appropriate new RootsWeb URL. You will never need to update your old favorites or links unless you want to. We have worked to make the transition as seamless as possible for our users, and this change should have a minimal impact on your experience with the site.

RootsWeb will remain a free online experience dedicated to providing you with a place where our community can find their roots together. If you have questions regarding this change please email them to feedback@rootsweb.com.

Thanks,
Tim Sullivan, CEO, The Generations Network, Inc.

This has brought the naysayers back out of the woodwork. Basically at the top of every rootsweb hosted page is basically and ad for ancestry.com. The question is if this is ok to do. After all TGN actually pays for the servers that host the free rootsweb sites so don’t have a right to place a little something up there for there trouble. On the surface I would say yes. But many CC’s do not see it that way and a great many of them have moved there sites off of the Ancestry servers to their own personal or donated servers so the county site will not show an ad by ancestry.com. about 90% of the maillist I am a member of have already sent their new urls to the list audience. Are most of the others doing the same? I bet they are.

So what happens when TGN realizes that half (which is just a guess, could be more and could be less) of the County pages have moved. Will they care? or will there be retribution against the “rebel” CC’s. I don’t know but I guess we will all find out soon enough.

Wright Nichols of Hinds County Mississippi

My Henry Nichols died in Hinds County MS in 1833. Well abt six months later a Wright Nichols died and a few months after that his wife died. I found this quite a coincidence that 2 Nichols in the same county both from north carolina and both died in 1833. Now Wright Nichols was both bet. 1760-1770 in probably Caswell County, NC. He is not listed on the 1830 Hinds Co census. There are 3 Nichols in Hinds in 1830. They are William a Solomon and my Henry. This William could be Wright Nichols but I am not sure.

Anyways Wright Nichols Married Sarah Burch 11 Jan 1791 in Caswell County, North Carolina. He is the son of Willis Nichols of Caswell & Person County NC. There is no 1790 Census for Caswell County and by 1800 Henry would have been in SC or GA. So my question is that is Wright related to Henry. Were they Brothers? Thats one theory I need to follow up on.

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