Chasing Our Roots

Today's post is about genealogy. One of the reasons for our trip was to explore some of our genealogical past. Our first efforts towards this goal were washed out in PA, so we wanted to take advantage of a day of good weather to visit a cemetery nearby. Of course, since our other main objective is to eat our way across the country, we stopped at one of our favorite old 50's diners, the Little Gem, for breakfast.

Diane's history begins in this area with the grave-site of her great, great grandfather and his son. It turns out that the son, her great grandfather is the only one in her line that we have so far identified as having served in the Civil War. More on that later. We drove up to the Mexico Primitive Cemetery to find that the graves were clearly marked and in pretty good condition for their age. Some of the stones were made of marble, which is vulnerable to washing away with the effects of acid rain, but they were still legible.

Although I had most of the information about these generations, it's always interesting to visit the graves and see what they have and who else might be buried there as well. This visit turned up a couple of surprises. I had hoped to come up with dates for Diane's great aunt who's stone Curley is investigating in the above photo. But just the name, no dates to be found.

Military veterans usually have some sort of commemorative marker. Diane's great grandfather enlisted in Company B of the 10th Regiment of the New York Heavy Artillery in 1862 and was mustered out of service at the end of the war in 1865 at Petersburg, VA. I knew that from research on Ancestry.com but I wanted to see if he had a marker. Sure enough, there it was.

Now for a surprise. On the monument above her great grandfather's name is a name I didn't have. The birth date was three years before her GGF's and the inscription states that he died in 1864 at the age of 27. But, there's no grave with his name on the headstone. So I can guess that this was an older brother. Did he enlist at the same time and serve in the war? Was he killed or died in the war and buried somewhere else? Only further research can shed any light on this but that's the fun of exploring the family roots.

And yet another surprise. On another side of the monument are engraved the names of two completely new people with names I've never come across. Their headstones are there in the plot. Who are they? Are they related? Does this just represent the sale of left over burial plots? More digging to do. Maybe not literally!

We wound up the day with some friends at a popular local Syracuse restaurant called Spaghetti Warehouse. They have a whole intact antique trolley car inside as one of the dining areas. Good food. I had the lasagna, which is one of their claims to fame and it really was very good. Then we retired to the comfort of the coach to listen to the sound of rain on the roof to lull us to sleep.