In my recent state of utter boredom, I decided to go back to a genealogy file that I hadn’t spent time on in years. (Yes, I know that finishing up one family line and one project at a time would be the ideal, but then again, I’m human, and as I said, I get BORED!)
Three of my ancestral lines connect to Woonsocket, Rhode Island, so I have a lot of information in a file labeled, “Woonsocket”. I started by going through images of city directory pages I had photographed or downloaded over the years. Since I always think I’ve spent a lot of time organizing, I thought it would be quick work. Just a quick double check and a few stray things to file. I was so wrong! I don’t know how it happens but in addition to the images that somehow never got filed, I had all kinds of duplicates. I swear I don’t know where they come from. After ruthlessly eliminating many images I was feeling pretty proud of myself. Then I found it. A record I didn’t know I had.
Let me explain, we were pretty positive my ancestor James Oliver was buried in St. Charles Cemetery, in nearby Blackstone, Massachusetts, but no one had ever seen the grave. A cousin told me that years ago she had gone to the cemetery office for information and thus armed had searched the grounds but she couldn’t find the grave. She had even gone through a pile of stones that had been removed. Again, no luck. The last time I saw Annie she was wondering if she was wrong to think James was buried in St. Charles’ cemetery.
Imagine then my surprise to find a page I had labeled, “Tombstone Inscriptions from Cemeteries in the Blackstone Valley” that I had created in 2011. The information seems to come from a book by the same name which I probably used at the American French Genealogical Society in Woonsocket. (Finding this revealed another error on my part in not recording the source. I will need to add looking this up again to my “To Do” list for my next trip down.) But back to the story…
On this list I found the following information.
Tombstone Inscriptions From Cemeteries in the Blackstone Vally, MA Vol. 3
Oliver, James Note: Co C1 RI Cav
St. Charles Cemetery, Farm St., Blackstone, MA Section 2 (pg.1887)
I was stunned. Now, I not only had confirmation as to which cemetery James was in, but even where in the cemetery. My next step was to look for more information on the cemetery. My search brought me to a listing for St. Charles’ cemetery on the website, www.FindaGrave.com and lo and behold Ralph Henderson had posted a photograph of James’ grave as recently as 2012. (Interestingly I found the graves of more relatives searching by the cemetery name than by the names of the individuals.)
So, my advice is, keep organizing. You never know what you will find.
