We decided we would listen to conference on the way to the Lewistown Cemetery and by the miracle of satellite radio, we were able to do so. It was a quiet, serene morning and as we approached the cemetery, we were greeted by some local wildlife. We took some photos then began the slow and tedious walk up and down every aisle in the cemetery looking for markers of my family ancestors and Deb's family ancestors (yes, Deb's). Her grandpa Rudolph had sisters who came from Illinois to Lewistown and married Neirstiemer boys and they are buried here! Now, for the really weird twist... Jennifer (our daughter-in-law) has ancestors buried here also and her mom was born in Lewistown just like my dad! Now that is a small world... tomorrow we are going to look for her ancestors.
Now my angel story (I am starting to believe)... We had walked for a couple of hours and had not even covered half of the cemetery, looking for ancestors. My hips were killing me because the ground is so uneven and it was extremely difficult at times to walk the rows. As I was finishing a section, an older gentleman drove by and asked if he could help... he explained that his wife was buried in the cemetery and he had a book that she compiled of all the markers and where they were located. He left for about 10 minutes and then returned with a three ring binder full of page after page of alphabetised names and the location of the graves according to a system that she devised before her death. I was able to locate all of my ancestors and Deb's in very short order with his information! Debra just grinned and said she was not surprised he showed up to help us... an answer to her prayers... It was pretty awesome.
After we left the cemetery, we got some lunch, took some photos of downtown Lewistown, then headed back to Moore Cemetery to look for another set of markers for another ancestor that I just learned about last night while doing some research on the web... Tonight Jennifer called and gave us some information to look for and the names of her ancestors that are supposed to be buried here... we will go look for them tomorrow. We are also going to spend time in the county courthouse researching documents tomorrow... I kind of like this detective stuff... don't tell my wife!
Do you think Deb likes deer?
The city installed hitching posts up and down Main street to accommodate the many Amish buggies that come into town from the outlying farmlands... all of the farms around Moore are also now Amish farms.
Looking east on Main Street.
This is the school that my grandmother attended when she was a girl in Lewistown.
Tomorrow, the courthouse and the Catholic Cemetery...
No comments:
Post a Comment