The Mad Genealogist

By Jake Gibson & Steve Centanni, Published June 17, 2010 on FOXNews.com

ARLINGTON, Va. — Several discarded headstones recently discovered in a creek bed near Arlington National Cemetery have left Department of Defense officials scrambling for answers.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell called the discovery “alarming and concerning.”

Pentagon officials as well as officials at the Arlington National Cemetery had no idea about the existence of the headstones until they were made aware by a Washington Post story.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson lambasted the four alleged “graveyard robbers” charged with digging up graves and dismembering bodies buried at a suburban Chicago cemetery in a moneymaking scheme.

The four cemetery workers are accused of taking cash payments from unsuspecting clients for plots of land, falsifying deeds, excavating existing graves and dumping the bones and remains in the back of the cemetery, authorities said at a news conference.

They would then allegedly bury the new corpses in the already-used graves at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Ill. Police called conditions at the historic cemetery “startling and revolting.”

You here the story sometimes how developers and County work crews plow over and cover up old cemeteries in the way. Stuff like that makes me mad but it doesnt really hit home. But today I received this email from a distant cousin (a decedent of Charles Wood):

I drove down Boone Road the other day, taking an alternate route home, and noticed that a few trees were being cut near the Wood Family cemetery.   The cemetery is back behind a house and not really visible from the road.

This burns me up that some idiot would do something like this. I hope this guy resist arrest so the police can subdue him… WELL!

Here is a link to the Lancaster County Courthouse (Built 1828), Lancaster, South Carolina (http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/Population/Photos/ShowCH.asp?FIPS=45057). I have ancestors from this county so this breaks my heart for such a beautiful building to be destroyed for nothing.

Thanks God most if not all records were saved that was stored there. Hats off the the Fire Department for saving these valuable records. Below is the story of the fire then a response to from the people there on the recovery of the records:

GRRRRR! Memorial Day is a United States Federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May. Formerly known as Decoration Day, it commemorates U.S. men and women who perished while in military service to their country. It is not in honor of all veterans. I am a vet myself and have the utmost respect for all vets who serve, but the day that honors them is Veterans Day not Memorial Day. This is the day we honor those who died. All media outlets are doing stories to honor the living vets but nothing on the ones who died which is why this day was originally created. Thats what makes me mad.

Here is the question. Who has more rights? A live landowner or a dead former landowner?

I have seen many stories of genealogist finding old family cemeteries only to have the landowner refuse permission to visit or later willfully destroy the cemetery, Farmers have plowed old family graves over, new construction for roads and homes have quietly paved over these sites. This quite literally “pisses me off” to no end when I see or hear these stories. Anyways back to the story at hand….

Grrrrrrr!!! What makes me a Mad Genealogist. This Kind of thing makes me mad. Although my ancestors fought and died for the Confederacy, I have a great respect for all fallen soldiers no matter the side they fought for or their race. they have all earned my respect.

By MELANIE DABOVICH, Associated Press writer

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Working in secret, federal archaeologists have dug up the remains of dozens of soldiers and children near a Civil War-era fort after an informant tipped them off about widespread grave-looting.