My Ancestors

Tombstone Tuesday – Lessons Learned from a Cemetery Visit

Published on by lauracubbagedraper

I stumbled upon this post from 5 years ago on my first blog … still good advice!

I was in Pittsburgh over Memorial Day weekend with my family and we decided to make a few cemetery visits. My oldest son had been on “cemetery hunts” with me before, but my husband and younger son were on their very first trip. We took a ride out to Prospect Cemetery in Brackenridge, Pennsylvania to look for a few collateral family members from my BURD family that I had found on Find A Grave.

We found the first two headstones fairly easily, but were having trouble finding the last couple of names. I guess I should also mention that even though it was the end of May, it was about 50 degrees, overcast and windy, and we had not packed for lengthy time outside (oops!). My sons and I ran back up to the entrance and found a map of the cemetery and confirmed that we were searching in the correct section. We went back, but could still not find anything.

My oldest son suggested that we go back to Find A Grave (thanks to smart phones!!) and search for the name of a neighboring stone that should be in the same section to make sure we have the right area … or that maybe there was a typo on the website. We confirmed a few names around where we should be, and still nothing. We took another step, and finally found two tiny stones in the grass — we could only see first names!! I wish I had taken a few more “before” pictures because the story continues!

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Find A Grave lists a Margaret, Helen and “Annie?” Burd as being in this section. Well, we had found two of the three, so we were happy. I snapped the above picture and then started clearing out the grass along the edges to get a better picture. My younger son noticed some letters above Helen’s name, so we kept pulling away the grass. Guess what we found?? The two stones were actually one broken stone (or two pieced together) with all three names on it!

BURD

When we originally found the two little stones, all we could see were the whiter areas on the picture above – just the names and dates. We also found that the center name was not “Annie”, but “R. J. Jr.” These are the children of Robert J. Burd and Minnie Roenick, descendants of my third great-grandfather, Alex Burd.

By the time I went back to Find A Grave in June, a new photo had been posted with the full tombstone. So what did we learn on our cemetery visit?? Besides bringing lists of names, double checking online data, finding cemetery maps, and dressing warmly??  We learned that we should bring a small shovel and some gloves … you may need to dig out a stone or two along the way!

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© 2018 LAURA CUBBAGE-DRAPER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Wednesday’s Child – Alma Mary Speck

Published on by lauracubbagedraper

Alma Mary Speck was the daughter of Frank Speck and Elisabeth Linneman Speck and would have been the younger sister of my grandmother, Agnes Speck. Alma was born in Monessen, Pennsylvania and died just one day later. The cause of death was “premature infant” and she was buried that same day at Grandview Cemetery in Monessen.

I never knew of Alma until the Pennsylvania death certificates from 1906-1964 were made available on Ancestry.com. As most of us did when these records were released, I searched for surnames of family that had lived in Pennsylvania to see if I could find death certificates for collateral relatives or ancestors whose date of death was unknown. Through these searches I have found several children that died young between census years, and had no other records of their short lives.

I asked my father about Alma and he was not aware that Frank and Elizabeth had another child. We visited Grandview Cemetery in 2007 and found the tombstone for Alma’s father, Frank Speck, but did not see anything for Alma. She man have been buried in another location or did not have a headstone.

Frank & Elizabeth Speck, 1915

Besides finding another ancestor, I was able to learn a few more things about the Speck family from this record. They were living at 223 Alliquipa Street at the time of her death.

In addition, the name Alma Mary may provide some clues for family names. Their other children seem to have been named after family members … Agnes(Frank’s mother) Elizabeth (Elizabeth and her mother Elizabeth Barbara) and Frank (Frank) Rudolph(Elizabeth’s two brothers who died as children). I know the names of Elizabeth’s siblings and parents, so Mary may be from her side (Maria was Elizabeth’s middle name and her grandmother’s name). Alma could possibly be from Frank’s side of the family, as I do not know much about his family or where they were from in Germany. Maybe Alma was Frank’s sister or grandmother??  Another possible clue to add to the mysterious Speck family.

 

SOURCE:

Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Death Certificates, 1906-1963, No. 73103, Alma Mary Speck, 1 July 1916; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 30 March 2015); citing Pennsylvania (state). Death certificates, 1906-1963. Series 11.90 (1,905 cartons). Records of the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Record Group 11. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

© 2017 LAURA CUBBAGE-DRAPER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Thriller Thursday – Boys Rescue Pup

Published on by lauracubbagedraper

It’s always fun to go through my parents’ old memorabilia and newspaper clippings – you never know what you’ll find! This article was published in a northern New Jersey newspaper around 1954 or 1955 (I can’t seem to find it on any newspaper sites). My father is one of the Cubbage boys who rescued the pup! He was about 13 or 14 years old and his brother was 10 or 11 years old.

My father had never told us about the big rescue. When I asked him about it, he corrected the newspaper, which reported that the boys jumped into the river. My father told me that they had walked out onto the ice to reach the dog and fell in! The water was about waist deep, so they grabbed the dog, and all climbed out. My father then said, “See, you can’t believe everything you read, even back then!”

It’s another reminder to ask our living family about the pictures, memorabilia, and records that we find. They might have more details about the story … or in some cases, corrections!

© 2017 LAURA CUBBAGE-DRAPER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.