Searching for the Dead

Currently, I am vacationing in the area where much of  the Jackson branch of the family tree originated. Years ago, some of our family learned there was a possible old cemetery across the creek from our current Virginia residence.  After driving around in the that area and not seeing anything, I went to the internet, specifically Facebook, to crowdsource the information and see if I could get an actual location (you can read about that here).  I hit pay dirt, and I had several locations to check out complete with aerial photos, land plats and addresses. So, armed with all the information, my husband and I took off on our bikes to see what we could come up with. 

The first spot we checked was located not too far from the edge of the water off on its own.  There was a large almost rectangular area of boxwoods growing, and that was the supposed sight of the cemetery.  We ventured over to the area to find a pretty massive growth of boxwoods.  At first glance, it doesn't look like it's possible to penetrate the hedge, and I didn't think we would be able to get a look inside.

My husband and I both managed to find openings.  You can see just how tall these shrubs are when compared to him.  He is about 5'11" tall, and the boxwoods are still a few feet taller than he is.  Boxwoods are extremely slow growing shrubs, and to reach a height like this, they are easily a hundred years or more old.  There was a distinct shape to the hedge planting.  There was an area that made an opening, and the boxwoods were planted in a rectangular shape as though it was being used to enclose something.

I climbed in through an opening between the hedges to see if I could find any evidence of grave markers.  Unfortunately, there was nothing visible in the area at all.  Inside the hedge, you could see more clearly that the shrubs were planted in a specific pattern.  The verdict was that this was definitely the site of an old family cemetery though the markers are no longer there or no longer visible. I've only seen boxwood this large in areas like colonial Yorktown.

We still had two more spots to check out along this road.  We rode over to the other two addresses which are located next to one another.  There was nothing obviously visible from the road to indicate there might be a cemetery in the area.  My husband spotted someone on a nearby pier, and we went to ask if he might know something.  I'm lucky that my husband is such an extrovert because I'm hesitant to approach people- definitely something I need to improve upon because in this line of research, people are your number one source of information.  The man we spoke to wasn't aware of any graves in that immediate area, but he told us about another small family cemetery on another road.  As we began walking back up towards the road, I noticed something underneath an arbor that looked promising.  It turned out to be the three graves I had been told about that still existed.

While we were poking around under what we learned was a kiwi arbor, the homeowner came out to speak to us.  She was unaware of who was buried there or what the dates of the graves were.  She also told me that someone had once said that family took some of the graves to another cemetery.  This might be the the same information I had learned through Facebook that some of the graves had been moved to a cemetery in another town. I'm not sure why some of the bodies would have been moved and some wouldn't, but it would be worth checking the cemetery information in the town they were rumored to have been moved to.  She told us other people had been there to check out the graves over the years and some had attempted to take rubbings.  There was also mention that the other house on the other side of the property possibly had graves located under it, though there's no way to know for sure.  She also shared information regarding the boxwood hedge.  It was always known that was a cemetery as well though the markers have been gone for as long as she remembered.  There was once the old Daniel house there that was in disrepair, and it was most likely linked to that house.  We were told we were welcome to come any time to look at them.  After talking with her, we went back over to try to see if there was any carvings left on the markers.

 

While rooting around, I ended up uncovering a fourth grave.  This one was small and definitely that of a child.  So we ended up finding four total grave markers

 

Fortunately or unfortunately, only one seems to have enough etchings left to attempt to take a rubbing to gain information on who might be buried here.  I'm confident whoever they are, they have a link to my family.  Hopefully I'll have some luck when I go back to try to do a rubbing.