Tombstones in the News

The Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, has recently featured a couple of interesting stories on local tombstone mysteries:

• Historical society fills gaps in story of veteran's death
• Civil War tombstone at center of mystery (with a follow-up:  Civil War mystery starts to unravel)

Baby Nelson

My husband often teases me when we drive by a cemetery, pointing out "It's a cemetery!  Should I stop?  Do you want to take a picture?"  I assure him that I do not, in fact, routinely tour random cemeteries.

But on this afternoon in August, he wasn't along, so shhhhh...  My mom and I were on our way to northwest Iowa when we passed this little cemetery, two miles south of Fairview, South Dakota.  We didn't have any relatives there, but something about it was pretty in a long-forgotten, wistful sort of way.

I would love to know who Baby Nelson was and who mourned his or her death in 1889. Someone couldn't afford to buy a gravestone but also couldn't bear to leave the grave unmarked. I love that little sign of devotion.

Baby Nelson, d. 1889
Fairview Cemetery - Lincoln County, South Dakota

Japan's Memory Hunters

Tonight's CBS Evening News included a beautiful story on volunteers who are sifting through the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami, trying to save family mementos before it's too late.  Things are just things--the real tragedy is the lives lost, of course--but it's a good reminder to all of us that our most treasured photographs should be scanned and backed up in a secondary location.

Umps

Argusleader.com (the website of the Sioux Falls, South Dakota, newspaper) is featuring a story on Amanda Clement of Hudson, South Dakota, who was the first woman paid to umpire a baseball game.  What a great story!

TV for Genealogists: Heir Hunters

I stumbled upon this BBC program on YouTube last night, and its website notes that it airs on the History Channel in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand.  (Some episodes are up on the official website, but they're not available for US viewers.  BBC America, you fail me again!  ::sigh::)  It profiles cases in which researchers search for rightful heirs to estates, which requires them to hunt backwards and forwards.  It might have some interesting info on how to find cousins.