Tombstone Thursday - Chaffin

Maple Hill Cemetery

New Harmony, Indiana

Sgt. Chaffin

[Stone is hard to read]

 This is so neat to have a bird house by a grave site!

- Photos taken by Indiana Bones.

"Someone walked on your grave!"

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The other day for lunch, Becky and I were drinking some cold unsweetened ice tea when suddenly I got a very cold chill.  Becky said, "Someone walked on your grave!"  I thought to myself that if I got a cold chill from someone walking on my grave, Becky should have gotten one, also, since we have our grave lots together.  And just then Becky said, "Oh, my!  I got a cold chill, too!"  Now, that gave me goose bumps.  We both laughed about the whole thing.  I have heard people say that goose bumps were caused by a goose crossing your grave. 

We wondered how these old sayings came about.  So, I got on the computer and "Googled" the saying and this is what I found.  This phrase comes from old folk stories that a sudden cold chill or shiver was created by someone walking over the grave where one would end up buried... the saying most likely from the Middle Ages.  Several bulletin board sites said that it comes from ancient times when families purchased burial plots for their family before they had died. Someone walking over your grave showed disrespect, and walking over a person's grave who has not yet deceased, meant you wished them ill.

From Gary Martin's web site http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/someone-is-walking-over-my-grave.html, I found this ~

"The earliest known record of the phrase in print, which is, of course, an indication of the earliest date that we can prove that the phrase was in public use, is in Simon Wagstaff's A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation, 1738. (Simon Wagstaff was one of the many pseudonyms of the celebrated writer Jonathan Swift):  'Miss [shuddering]. Lord! there's somebody walking over my Grave.' "  He mentioned that goose bumps were caused by a goose crossing your grave!

An interesting story was given by someone as a response to how this saying came about and what it meant:

"This does not actually answer the question, but about a year ago I heard that my ex-girlfriend's father had died, but the person I heard it from wasn't too reliable a source. So, I thought I would go to the cemetery where I knew her mother had been buried a few years before and see if the headstone had been altered. Whilst I was looking for the family plot, I saw out of the corner of my eye a recent grave with a brand new headstone that had my name on it!!!! Ridiculous as it sounds, I did think for the briefest second that I really had died and was looking at my own grave. It was a very unpleasant feeling."

Now, this story would cause me "goose bumps!"

- Compiled by Indiana Bones as told by JGWest.

Plaque/Marker/Monument Monday

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Mesker Park Zoo and Beetles...

 [Click on photos to get a larger image to read plaque above.]

Collection of M.C. Berry of Evansville, Indiana

The Entomology Collection is in the Discovery Center at Mesker Park Zoo.

- Photos taken and submitted by JGWest.

News Article Gibson Co., TN

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Russ FORTH, 33, actor, his wife, Irene, 24, and their daughter, 4, formerly of Evansville, Ind., were burned to death in a rooming house at Houston, Texas.

Source: Dyer Reporter (newspaper of Gibson County, TN), 17 Apr 1924, pg. 4.

- Submitted by Taneya Koonce.

Note: From the Browning Genealogical Online Database ~

Mr. Forth, wife and daughter died 01 Apr 1924 in an apartment building fire.  Russ jumped from the second story apartment followed by his wife who was holding the daughter.  They landed in a pile of bricks & glass badly burned.  He was the manager of a stock company playing in Houston.  Formerly, he was with the Orpheum Theater in Evansville.

Allan Forth, a brother died in Palisades Park, N. J. in 1953 at age 60.  Allan was born and raised in Evansville, member of theatrical family started at the old Orpheum Theater.  He managed, acted and produced vaudeville shows.  He had two brothers Russell and Ray who had died many years before him that also was in show business.

1940 Census Index on Ancestry.com

Just in from Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter (EOGN):

This morning Ancestry.com added 15 more states to the 1940 US Census database. The following states are now available free of charge at http://www.ancestry.com/1940-census:

• California
• Washington
• Kansas
• Nebraska
• Oregon
• Alabama
• Indiana
• Georgia
• Kentucky
• Arizona
• New Hampshire
• Michigan
• Wisconsin
• Montana
• Hawaii

Note: the addition of Indiana & Kentucky!!!

Indexed states include: AL, AZ, CA, CO, DC, DE, GA, HI, KS, KY, IN, ME, MI, MT, NE, NH, NV, NY, OH, OR, PA, TN, VA, VT, WA, WI

That is 26 states are done on Ancestry!!!

Good News for Tennessee Researchers

From Dick Eastman's online newsletter, I learned that FamilySearch.org has added a new guide to Tennessee ancestors .  An article by Nathan W. Murphy on 06 Jul 2012 highlights what the guide has to offer:

     "In this guide, you will find a series of research articles packed with helpful ideas for tracing ancestors in all 95 Tennessee counties! There are articles on extinct jurisdictions... and learn useful tips about using the genealogical collections at the Tennessee State Library and Archives in Nashville."

Go to FamilySearch Blog to read more about the guide.

Tombstone Thursday -

West Cemetery

Ovil, Christian Co., KY

(Hidden in the woods)

Nancy Emeline Williams

Wife of

Charles Patterson West

And J.R. Johnson

Died 1913

(Last known burial in this cemetery)

According to the property owners who watch over this cemetery and try to cut back some of the ever-invading woods, a large oak tree fell knocking this tombstone over.  The Maywald family cleared away the tree and re-set the marker as it was!  I am very grateful for their efforts... they have no connections to any family buried here.

Close-up of the etching on the stone, reads: "Nancy E. Wife of C.P. West and J.R. Johnson Died Sept. 27, 1913 Aged about 82 years"  Nancy is the daughter of Stephen Williams and Jane Henderson.  Charles P. West was the half brother of William Ellis West also buried in this cemetery with William E. West having a wife named Cincinnati Williams the niece of Stephen Williams.

- Photos taken by Indiana Bones.

[Tombstone Thursday is dedicated

in memory of Donald G. West 1952-2000]