Indiana Law - Cemetery Vandalism

Douglas Keller of the Whitewater Valley Pioneer Cemetery Group on Facebook posted:

 

"Now that Halloween is almost upon us, and being a Board Member of the Fayette County Cemetery Commission, I felt it imperative to post the Indiana State Law regarding vandalizing a cemetery, whether it be public or a Pioneer Cemetery.

Indiana Code 35-43-1-2.1 states:

(b) A person who recklessly, knowingly, or inten

tionally:

1. Damages a cemetery, a burial ground (as defined in Indiana Code 14-21-1-3), or a facility used for memorializing the dead,

2. Damages the grounds owned or rented by a cemetery or facility used for memorializing the dead, or

3. Disturbs, defaces, or damages a cemetery monument, grave marker, grave artifact, grave ornamation, or cemetery enclosure, commits CEMETERY MISCHIEF, a CLASS "A" MISDEMEANOR. However, the offense is a CLASS "D" FELONY if the pecuniary loss is at least $2500.00

If you witness anyone vandalizing a cemetery, or have knowledge of someone vandalizing a cemetery, PLEASE contact the Fayette County Sherrif's Department at 765-825-1110."

 

Indiana Bones states that if any of us witness vandalism of a cemetery to contact that county's Sherrif's Department.  Cemetery Vandalism is one of the most destructive immature acts that people can commit. I know that alcohol & drugs play a role, in addition to childish acts of passing, in many of these cases... besides the physical (& costly) damage to these grave markers, the crimes affect the emotions of family members and the memory and honor of those who have gone on before us. A civilization is judged by how they care for their dead!

Find-A-Grave Search by State

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My buddy, Chris Myers, always sends me some of the neatest links or photos! We both submit memorials & photos to Find-A-Grave to help those who, for whatever reasons, can not visit relatives & ancestors graves (usually they live too far away). Many times people do not know where someone is buried, but you can search Find-A-Grave to see if you can find them across America. Now, you can search by state (we often know that they were buried near where they lived in a certain state). Not all states are included yet (17 to-date), but here is the link for what states are available:

http://search.ancestry.com/search/CardCatalog.aspx#ccat=hc%3D25%26dbSort%3D1%26title%3Dfind%20a%20grave%26keyword%3D%26

Here is the link to Indiana's search site: http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=70510 Indiana, Find A Grave Index, 1800-2011

Here are some related links you can find on the above web site:

Indiana Births, 1880-1920

Indiana Marriage Collection, 1800-1941

Indiana Deaths, 1882-1920

Indiana Spanish American War Records

Listing of over 7800 men who volunteered for military service from Indiana in 1898

Join the Face Book site for Find-A-Grave: http://www.facebook.com/groups/2275168731/

Review of Oak Hill Cemetery on the Internet

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Joy Neighbors posted in Indiana Pioneer Cemetery Restoration Project (INPCRP) on Face Book:

This month's Cemetery Worth the Visit is Oak Hill located in Evansville, Indiana. Gorgeous landscaping, sculpture and lots of tree stones!

http://agraveinterest.blogspot.com/

This is a very nice historical look, as well as, nice photos of cemetery. Did notice that several times the name was Oak View instead of Oak Hill... our local cemetery is always worth a visit, but this blog about the cemetery is worth taking a look at! - JGWest

TSGS Hall of Shame

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Cemetery in Lawrence near Boston, MA

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2011/05/30/lawrence-cemetery-overrun-by-brush-grass-weeds/

There is no excuse for the community to let this problem continue [click on link above!]. Watch the video about the cemetery. The Superintendent may have his hands tied with lack of funds, but recruiting volunteers should not be that hard. A fund raiser would be a good way to generate enough money to hire someone to weed-eat around the markers. Where are the Boy Scouts or 4-H members who are great volunteers for this type of "Good Citizenship!" When I was Superintendent of the Evansville (Indiana) 2 city-owned cemeteries almost 20 years ago. We had "work release" prisoners help maintain the cemeteries, along with people with minor legal infractions that needed to complete a couple hundred hours of "Community Service" as ordered by a judge. A civilized community can be judged by how well they respect their dead. Lawrence is proving to have very little respect for their dead. Sad, indeed!

- Compiled by JGWest [Link & story was posted on FaceBook by Bill West]

From the FIRST MATE's PHOTO ALBUM...

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Contrasts!

My newly discovered cousin from Chicago posted these photos on Facebook over a period of 4-5 months... what a contrast!!!

"The Jeep photo was taken August 31, 2009, in the Hawaiian Paradise Park subdivision, about ten miles south of Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii." - Clint said in his e-mail with the photo. Click on it for a larger, clearer image... great photo of a beautiful, warm scene (noticed jeep with wheels turned for photographic effect!).


The below photo shot out Clint's window taken 08 January 2010 in the Chicago neighborhood of Logan Square, during a "snow storm that dumped about 8 inches ... fairly light for the city, but the first significant snow this winter." Zoomed image of the alley showing the snow coming down.

Photo (below) taken on 08 Jan. 2010 from Clint's window looking down on the snow covered cars on North Maplewood Ave. in Chicago.

What a contrast from August to January! From the bright, sunny and warm scene in Hawaii to dark, night-lighted and cold alley of Chicago!!!

- Photos taken & submitted by Clint Hadden

Marker/Plaque/Monument Monday

"Our Children: Loved, Missed and Remembered"

This is the message on the Childrens Memorial near the main entrance to the Vanderburgh County 4-H Center

(click on image to enlarge)

I saw this on FaceBook (on the Internet) and asked permission to use it here. From Linda L Young-Niemeier's Photos: "THIS IS WHERE WE HELD THE MEMORIAL FOR CALAB LAY WHEN HE WAS MURDERED BY HIS PARENT'S."

NAVIGATING ALONG the RIVER - Research Tips

Optimizing the Internet for the Genealogical Researcher

I have been using the Internet for genealogical research since 1995... a relatively short time in my tenure of over 50 years of researching my family. However, on the Internet, it is a significant time span. I have explored all sorts of different “new” ideas of getting all sorts of people and/or data together. Right away, in 1996, I (along with about a thousand others) volunteered to be a county coordinator for the USGenWeb Project that concentrated on each individual county in the USA as a method of researching genealogy by location... common families, migrations, lifestyles, etc. Each county holds the legal records and even the legends of your family's journey in that county. We already had “bulletin” type email boards where we could interact with others interested in a location, a surname or even a surname in a specific location. Some of the most significant bulletin boards are RootsWeb.com, Genealogy.com and Ancestry.com. Other ways to interact with family and associates is through blogs, Twitter, YouTube and more.

A similar site, but more specific to a particular family, was developed - known as MyFamily.com, which is a private password protected site that require members be invited to participate. This is great for a specific family or inter-related families to get together to share current events, photos, family lore, genealogy, or team up to go back further in their genealogical research. This site has a small annual fee to maintain it. It is an excellent means of storing & sharing family data. Each family and its members determine how it will interact by posting items in various categories: photos, news, history, file cabinet, recipes, etc.

Not too long ago some other genealogical Internet ideas popped up. These are interactive family trees, where members post, counter post and add information to each others ancestry. Two of these are WeRelate and Geni. Geni is new to me, but WeRelate has some nice features to post notes and documentation. Like anything that you ever uncover in your research... you need to verify everything to ensure that it meets a high standard of validity.

Now comes yet another Internet idea known as Face Book (FB) that utilizes other ideas of mass communications like YouTube, iLike, all sorts of applications & others. FB allows you to set-up your site by recruiting “friends” in your profile. As often as you wish you post your status on your “profile” or “wall” for all of your FB friends to see and possibly add comments. FB becomes an excellent resource to keep up with family, friends & associates that you have known throughout your life. It is great for me to have a place on the Internet that I can briefly chat, post comments, upload family albums of events and just old photos or relay news with all sorts of “lost” cousins, friends and old associates from previous relationships. I have a lot of family members on my FB from sister to nephews, son, 1st, 2nd, 3rd (& more distant) cousins that post little things (along with major events) that are happening in their lives... it is a great way to keep up with your family in these busy days. They also upload photos of them and their friends & family.

Other than just relaying some information about the Internet, I have a purpose behind this discussion. FB, WeRelate, the bulletin boards, USGenWeb can all be used to work together to enhance your genealogical contacts and find cousins that have interest in the family history that just might be willing to work as a team on sites like MyFamily.com to share your knowledge of the family's history and you might be able to find a few cousins that will take DNA tests to further make connections or prove relationships. This is a better method to learning your history than just tracking down databases that may not even pertain to your family. Check these avenues of research out to see if you can optimize your genealogical endeavors on the Internet.

- Submitted by JGWest

RACING DOWN the RIVER -Brief Genealogical Notes

How many of you knew that Ancestry.com was actually The Generations Network? Well, that was the name of the parent company, but they have decided to go back to the name Ancestry.com since that is the name most people know this company. They, of course, have the largest commercial databases of genealogical data on the Internet. They are the latest & current owner of the leading genealogical software - Family Tree Maker. MyFamily.com is a very popular private (password only) Internet family site. Ancestry.com is a lot more... read about them and the name change on Eastman's Newsletter at: The Generations Network Becomes Ancestry.com

Last month Virginia Aldridge announced that she had over half of the Vanderburgh Co.,IN Marriage Applications - index to Volume 26 and images. Here is a link to her site: Marriage Applications, Vol. 26.

Not too long back, one of my sosn talked me into signing on to FaceBook to share information, photos and whatever else. You accept "Friends" to include in your FaceBook and you post items to your profile page that they can see and post comments (if they wish), you can upload photos to show to everyone on your "Friends" list. What has become neat about this is that you communicate with friends, family and associates in a different kind of environment then email, letters, or phone calls. I have been accepting a lot of my second & third cousins that I kind of know their names all of my life... since they live close by in the immediate area. Many have stated that they are very interested in their family history & have begun research. Now I have researched their ancestry for nearly 50 years and they do not know I have documented history done quite a way back, but need help going back further. I think I have some new contacts to join with me to research our common family lines! And it is kind of neat to get to know my cousins on an informal basis. It might be something for genealogists to add to their "tools" to research their family. You can visit their profile at: Facebook.

- Compiled by JGWest