Tombstone Tuesday

First things first, let's get something straight, I am not and never will be a fan of walking through cemeteries. Although, due to my love of genealogy it is sometimes unavoidable. In one such instance I was drawn to a cemetery in Trenton, New Jersey, that promised a wealth of information on my maternal grandmother's side of the family.

Since Grandmom Keckler was raised by an aunt, I knew very little of her family history, and my mother knew about as much as I did. Slowly, but surely I processed through an investigation that ultimately named Grandmom's Father as Thornton B. Crosland. His parents are Germaine and Sarah Crosland. There lay my investigation for months, until I happened upon Trenton's Historical Society website with a wealth of information.

From this I was able to learn where the family graves were located, a death certificate from Grandmom's Mom, whom died when Grandmom was very young, and an obituary for Grandmom's paternal grandfather. I was able to order the documents, but my hopes for further information, etched into the tombstones of my ancestor's would have to wait until I went to Pennsylvania.

After many months of waiting I finally managed a trip out there and this is where I made a beginner's mistake, I did not check the cemetery for hours, thus, the sexton's office was closed and I was forced to navigate through this huge cemetery with my sister, in search of the Crosland Family Plot. For some reason we expected a huge tombstone with their names etched to stand the test of time. Instead, we had to rush back to the car before they locked us in overnight. Creepy!

On my next trip to Pennsylvania I carefully checked the office hours of the cemetery, and again, my sister and I were on the hunt. The cemetery sexton verbally gave us the information for the plots and headed us in the vague direction of said plots. We searched and we searched, still looking for the Crosland name displayed proudly, but we couldn't find them at all.

Returning to the sexton's office we were given a document that mapped the location of the family plot. Click here to see that document. As you can see, this gave us little information, but her verbal instructions were slightly better this time around. I guess she spoke slower, understanding that we were new and nervous to be traipsing through a cemetery in Trenton this is not an every day occurrence for us.

Finally, our search paid off when we located this:

Sarah and Germaine Crosland's Burial Plots, Riverview Cemetery, Trenton, NJ.

Though it is difficult to see, they say nothing more than "Mother" and "Father." In fact, I wouldn't have found them if it weren't for the tombstone marked merely, "Milton." I knew Milton was a son based on Germaine's obituary, but my direct ancestor, "Thornton," his grave is unmarked. No wonder they were so hard to find! 

Even though I was looking for more information than I found, locating their resting place was a treasure I won't soon forget.