The Mad Genealogist

The Rev. Jesse Jackson lambasted the four alleged “graveyard robbers” charged with digging up graves and dismembering bodies buried at a suburban Chicago cemetery in a moneymaking scheme.

The four cemetery workers are accused of taking cash payments from unsuspecting clients for plots of land, falsifying deeds, excavating existing graves and dumping the bones and remains in the back of the cemetery, authorities said at a news conference.

They would then allegedly bury the new corpses in the already-used graves at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Ill. Police called conditions at the historic cemetery “startling and revolting.”

“The human degradation is immeasurable,” Jackson told reporters. “There should be no bail for these graveyard thieves. They deserve a special place in hell.”

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said workers at Burr Oak allegedly tampered with about 300 graves, digging them up, dumping the bodies and reselling the plots to unsuspecting members of the public.

The three men and one woman were charged Thursday with one count each of dismembering a human body. Dart said the woman was the cemetery’s office manager and was at the center of the operation.

“This was not done in a delicate way,” he told reporters. “They would excavate the grave and the entire site and then dump the remains wherever they found a place to do it in the back of the cemetery.”

He says in other cases the graves were “pounded down” and another person was buried on top. Burr Oak is the final resting place of many famous African-Americans, including lynching victim Emmett Till, blues singers Willie Dixon, Dinah Washington and Otis Spann, as well as Harlem Globetrotter Inman Jackson.

Hundreds of confused and angry family members are looking for answers after the arrests. Authorities in the southern Chicago suburb of Alsip were directing crowds at Burr Oak Cemetery Thursday and taking reports from families. Among the family members is 54-year-old Ralph Gunn, whose father and nephew were buried at Burr Oak but whose bodies are missing. Gunn says their headstones are gone. And he says he can’t fathom why anyone would want to dig up bodies.  Authorities say most of the problems are from a secluded area of the cemetery that contains older plots.

Click here for more on this story from MyFOXChicago.com

You here the story sometimes how developers and County work crews plow over and cover up old cemeteries in the way. Stuff like that makes me mad but it doesnt really hit home. But today I received this email from a distant cousin (a decedent of Charles Wood):

I drove down Boone Road the other day, taking an alternate route home, and noticed that a few trees were being cut near the Wood Family cemetery.   The cemetery is back behind a house and not really visible from the road.

I drove by again this morning and the whole area looks like it has been cut.   I can’t tell if the cemetery has been disturbed or not.   It did not look good to me!

Does anyone know anything about this, or know how I could get in touch with someone regarding the family cemetery?   I have only visited the cemetery once, with a fellow researcher (cousin) from Florida.   He had said that eventually he would like to put a fence around the cemetery to protect it.   I hope it is not too late!!!!!!!!

Charles Wood, bca 1790, was my GGG grandfather.   He and several other family members are buried in the Wood Family Cemetery on Boone Rd. (near the Mt. Carmel community).

The information I have shows:
Charles Wood bought Land Lot #93 in the 4th dist., June 28, 1840 (near Chattahoochee River).   Cemetery on top of hill on this property – known as the “Old Wood Place” – shows two stones “James” and “Charlie” – indicating many graves of early Wood settlers – family of Harriet Wood Hutchins. (Negro slave graves on left of brick wall).

NOTE:   This information was provided to me by Jackie Lambert, CCGS, and I believe was originally compiled by Elsie Ragland Walden-Taylor.   The document is titled:   HUTCHENS Family History 1832-1961 – 129 Years (Formerly spelled “Hutchins”)   Data By:   Elsie Ragland Walden-Taylor.   The document outlines the Hutchens/Hutchins family history, and then contains ‘Notes on Wood History”.   Harriet Susan Wood, daughter of Charles and Mary Wood, married Archy Solomon Hutchins.

Now the question I am asking to the general public is this…. What can be done to protect my ancestors cemetery? What are the current Cemetery laws for the state of Georgia?

HELP ME!

This burns me up that some idiot would do something like this. I hope this guy resist arrest so the police can subdue him… WELL!

Here is a link to the Lancaster County Courthouse (Built 1828), Lancaster, South Carolina (http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/Population/Photos/ShowCH.asp?FIPS=45057). I have ancestors from this county so this breaks my heart for such a beautiful building to be destroyed for nothing.

Thanks God most if not all records were saved that was stored there. Hats off the the Fire Department for saving these valuable records. Below is the story of the fire then a response to from the people there on the recovery of the records:

Authorities say arson caused fire at SC courthouse -The Associated Press

LANCASTER, S.C. – A fire gutted Lancaster County’s historic courthouse Monday, and officials said arson caused the blaze that ripped through the building designed by the creator of the Washington Monument.

No one was injured in the early morning fire, officials said.

Rudy Carter, chairman of the Lancaster County Council, said a broken window was discovered on the first floor of the 180-year-old, two-story courthouse when firefighters were called shortly before 5:30 a.m., leading to the suspicion of arson.

“The whole roof is gone. The interior area where the judges sit is gutted. It’s a total loss,” Carter said.

Police chief Hugh White told reporters the blaze was clearly arson.

“It’s a historic place,” he said. “I just hate it. I really do.”

The State Law Enforcement Division sent an arson team and arson investigation dog, said Jennifer Timmons, an agency spokeswoman. Agents from the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also were summoned, said Steve Willis, the county administrator.

Carter said the roof of the courthouse had collapsed and there was heavy fire damage to the second floor. He said a team would have to be brought in to assess the damage to the building, which is listed as a National Historic Landmark.

The courthouse’s architect, Robert Mills, also designed the Lancaster County Jail and is perhaps best known for the Washington Monument. According to the city Web site, the courthouse dated to 1828.

One witness, Patty Reynolds, the owner of the Red Rose Barber Shop, located on a block next to the courthouse, said the flames were knocked down and the fire was smoldering more than two hours after the initial alarm.

Carter said he wouldn’t even guess the dollar amount of the loss.

“We don’t even know where to begin right now,” he said. “We’re going to have to bring in structural engineers to make sure the walls are still sound. We’ll just have to go from there.”

The ground floor, where the clerk of court offices were located, did not have fire damage but did suffer heavy water damage, Carter said.

The building was only used for court – other county offices are located in the nearby county administration building, Carter said. A session of court had been scheduled for Monday. Carter said jurors were asked to report Tuesday to the county administration building.

Someone made contact with someone today about the courthouse fire and here is the response.

We are just now getting to move out records as ATF has released the fire
scene but it appears that court records, other than indictments actually in
the courtroom are OK.  We will be working with SC Archives & History to make
sure dampness, etc. in the records are taken care of.  There were no vaults
in the building so most records were in filing cabinets.  The FD did a great
job deploying salvage covers over the cabinets.  Records from Probate Court,
Voter Registration, Register of Deeds (land records) etc. were not kept in
that building – just Clerk of Court records.

Steve Willis

GRRRRR! Memorial Day is a United States Federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May. Formerly known as Decoration Day, it commemorates U.S. men and women who perished while in military service to their country. It is not in honor of all veterans. I am a vet myself and have the utmost respect for all vets who serve, but the day that honors them is Veterans Day not Memorial Day. This is the day we honor those who died. All media outlets are doing stories to honor the living vets but nothing on the ones who died which is why this day was originally created. Thats what makes me mad.

So today honor those who died. Thats what today is for.

History from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

First enacted to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War, it was expanded after World War I to include casualties of any war or military action.

Following the end of the Civil War, many communities set aside a day to mark the end of the war or as a memorial to those who had died. Some of the places creating an early memorial day include Charleston, South Carolina; Boalsburg, Pennsylvania; Richmond, Virginia; Carbondale, Illinois; Columbus, Mississippi; many communities in Vermont; and some two dozen other cities and towns. These observances eventually coalesced around Decoration Day, honoring the Union dead, and the several Confederate Memorial Days.

According to Professor David Blight of the Yale University History Department, the first memorial day was observed in 1865 by liberated slaves at the historic race track in Charleston. The site was a former Confederate prison camp as well as a mass grave for Union soldiers who had died while captive. The freed slaves reinterred the dead Union soldiers from the mass grave to individual graves, fenced in the graveyard & built an entry arch declaring it a Union graveyard – a very daring thing to do in the South shortly after North’s victory. On May 30, 1887? the freed slaves returned to the graveyard with flowers they’d picked from the countryside & decorated the individual gravesites, thereby creating the 1st Decoration Day. A parade with thousands of freed blacks and Union soldiers was followed by patriotic singing and a picnic.

The official birthplace of Memorial Day is Waterloo, New York. The village was credited with being the birthplace because it observed the day on May 5, 1866, and each year thereafter, and because it is likely that the friendship of General John Murray, a distinguished citizen of Waterloo, and General John A. Logan, who led the call for the day to be observed each year and helped spread the event nationwide, was a key factor in its growth.

General Logan had been impressed by the way the South honored their dead with a special day and decided the Union needed a similar day. Reportedly, Logan said that it was most fitting; that the ancients, especially the Greeks, had honored their dead, particularly their heroes, by chaplets of laurel and flowers, and that he intended to issue an order designating a day for decorating the grave of every soldier in the land, and if he could he would have made it a holiday.

Logan had been the principal speaker in a citywide memorial observation on April 29, 1866, at a cemetery in Carbondale, Illinois, an event that likely gave him the idea to make it a national holiday. On May 5, 1868, in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, a veterans’ organization, Logan issued a proclamation that “Decoration Day” be observed nationwide. It was observed for the first time on May 30 of the same year; the date was chosen because it was not the anniversary of a battle. The tombs of fallen Union soldiers were decorated in remembrance of this day.

Many of the states of the U.S. South refused to celebrate Decoration Day, due to lingering hostility towards the Union Army and also because there were very few veterans of the Union Army who lived in the South. A notable exception was Columbus, Mississippi, which on April 25, 1866 at its Decoration Day commemorated both the Union and Confederate casualties buried in its cemetery.

The alternative name of “Memorial Day” was first used in 1882, but did not become more common until after World War II, and was not declared the official name by Federal law until 1967 . On June 28, 1968, the United States Congress passed the Uniform Holidays Bill, which moved three holidays from their traditional dates to a specified Monday in order to create a convenient three-day weekend and for the first time recognized Columbus Day as a federal holiday. The holidays included Washington’s Birthday (which evolved into Presidents’ Day), Veterans Day, and Memorial Day. The change moved Memorial Day from its traditional May 30 date to the last Monday in May. The law took effect at the federal level in 1971 . After some initial confusion and unwillingness to comply at the state level, all fifty states adopted the measure within a few years, although Veterans Day was eventually changed back to its traditional date. Ironically, most corporate businesses no longer close on Columbus Day or Veterans Day, and an increasing number are staying open on President’s Day as well. Memorial Day, however, has endured as one holiday during which most businesses stay closed because it marks the beginning of the “summer vacation season,” as does neighboring Canada’s Victoria Day, which occurs just before, on the third Monday in May.

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.”

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.”