Amy Johnson Crow’s Week 45’s theme is one of her favorites: "Tombstones." Cemeteries are near and dear to many of us. Whose tombstone stands out to you? Was it something on the tombstone, the effort to find it, or who was buried there that makes it special to you? Click here to check out all the themes for 2022.
It’s been a while since I have done these weekly posts. It wasn’t because I wasn’t inspired by the themes, because I was inspired. It was because I became busy with life. It’s hard to image life without Genealogy, however sadly it happens to the best of us.
Anyway, this week’s theme really spoke to me. In fact, it was a Tombstone that got me interested in Genealogy many moons ago. Many of my genealogy friends have heard this story, but I think it is well worth telling again.
When I was about 14 years old, I had been assigned a genealogy project in Junior High School by my social studies teacher. I asked my parents a few questions about their parents who had all died by this point in my life and asked them about their grandparents. I wrote up my report and even though it was very interesting, it was the end.
Then during the summer, my dad said he was going to take me to visit some relatives. I was excited because my relatives consisted of my father’s sister and my mom’s two sisters. My father had a brother, but we rarely saw him. My dad would swing by the Gas Station “Garage” that his brother owned, that he inherited from their father, to speak to his brother. Their visits were short and I either waited in the car or went to the garage to watch the female mechanic at work. I really wanted to be a female mechanic.
Anyway, my father picked up his sister and she guided my father, who was driving, through the countryside until we came upon a cemetery. The following stone was found.
This stone pulled at my heartstrings. Three children, all died by 1864 and I wondered about their parents. Did they have any other children still living or did they have to start over with their family. I knew that their parent’s were my ancestors, because my father and aunt told me so, but besides that fact, I didn’t know much. The genealogy bug bite me that summer. We went to another cemetery that day, a larger cemetery located in Doylestown, Columbia County, Wisconsin. The first cemetery was the original cemetery. Later they built a church in Doylestown and added a cemetery next to the church. It was at this church that I found the parent’s graves of the three small children along with some of their other children.
James Crinion (1832-1823) and Mary Ann McMahon (1839-1899) had a total of ten children. James and Mary were my 2nd great grandparents. Their first child, Eliza was born Jan 2, 1857 and died Feb 3, 1864. Their second child, Ann was born Apr 10, 1860 and died Oct 25, 1861, she was the first one to die. Their third child, Patrick was born Mar 6, 1862 and died Mar 25, 1864. I am guessing their tombstone was created after all three children died, since they are listed on the stone based on their placement in the family and not the order of their deaths. When I first saw the stone, it was lying on the ground and I could read the age of Patrick and thus this is how I calculated the birth date of Patrick. Notice the spelling of Crinion on the stone is Crenien. This is the only time I saw this spelling variation. The spelling of Crinion is in use today in Ireland.
Mary was pregnant with her fourth child, David, who was born May 15, 1864 at the time of Eliza’s and Patrick’s deaths. David was my great grandfather.
This wasn’t the end of the tragedy for James and Mary. In 1890, their daughter, Rose died during childbirth. James and Mary took care of their grandchild, also named Rose even after Mary passed in 1899. In 1896 their daughter Mary died at the age of 17. Their son James died in 1909 at the age of 28. Their daughter Jane died in 1872 at the age of 42. Jane's son, John Spooner died four days after his grandmother Mary.
Their son Charles died in 1933 at the age of 60, their son John who might have been intellectually challenged, died in 1946 in an Asylum at the age of 70. According to family lore, he was sent there after his mother died. My great grandfather was the last sibling to die, at the age of 84 in 1950. I can’t imagine being the oldest and having to watch each of your younger siblings being buried.
Of the ten children, only three had children, David had five, Rose had one and Jane had eleven. I have found about 125 descendants for James and Mary.
Over the years, I have revisited the Doylestown Cemetery since it appears about 90% of the people buried there are related to me in one way or another. Much of my early research consisted of visiting cemeteries and then looking for their obituaries in local newspapers to find out family relationships. From there, I would visit courthouses to find birth, marriage and/or death records.
I wonder what my life would be like, if I hadn’t visited that original cemetery, so many moons ago, and saw the tombstone that tugged at my heart strings. I feel as if it was my ancestors who gave me the genealogy bug, so that they would not be forgotten.
Just remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!
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