There’s a reason why we cite sources…
The Legal Genealogist almost wept yesterday.
First, with joy, on finding for the very first time what looked like it might be a specific hint to the burial places of my third great grandparents, Elijah Gentry and Wilmoth (Killen) Gentry of Mississippi.
Then, with frustration, on realizing that the information was at best second hand — and the cited sources don’t support what was written.
Not that I reached that conclusion quickly, mind you.
I didn’t give up on the hope that maybe, just maybe, the hint would pan out until I had walked every inch of the cemetery in Neshoba County, Mississippi, to which my attention had been called.
But — alas — there really are no tombstones for Elijah and Wilmoth in Sand Hill Cemetery… and I have no idea why the author of this one new reference work thought there were.
Now understand I really didn’t expect to find anything except, perhaps, modern tombstones erected by descendants in the last few years.
There is a truly excellent survey of Neshoba County cemeteries that was done in 1987 by the Neshoba County Historical Society which — I noted with enormous regret when I first found that survey years ago — didn’t record any stones for Elijah and Wilmoth.1
And just about a decade later, a revised and updated cemetery survey by local historian and librarian Theresa Ridout didn’t record any stones for the Gentrys either.2
The chances that two separate local surveys would have missed these graves… well… I’ve only been looking for a clue to their death dates and burial locations for, oh, a kazillion years or so, and have been stymied from the outset. So let’s just say I wasn’t holding my breath.
But hope springs eternal, and all that, and I admit that I did, momentarily, have my breath stolen away by the entries in this new reference work.3
Which flat out says that there are 41 gravestones of persons born in the 18th century who died in Neshoba County… including:
Gentry, Rev. Elijah, 1787 GA – 1865
Gentry, Wilmoth Killen, wf of Elijah, 1795 NC – 1870s
And both, it says, were buried at Sand Hill Cemetery.
Now to be fair to the author, she doesn’t say she went out and looked at all these tombstones herself. She cites other reference works and, for Neshoba County, she cites the Ridout book and the Mississippi GenWeb project — without more detail.
Would that either of those actually did say where Elijah and Wilmoth were buried.
But they don’t, and since the author didn’t cite a more specific source for these specific entries…
I am really really annoyed.
And I’m at a loss…
Unless the author is still around, and still reachable at the email address included in the reference work, and still responding to inquiries, and still has her notes underlying her research, I’ll never know why she thought the Gentrys were buried there.
And if she’d cited her sources, in detail, in the first place…
Sigh…
Things like this really drive home why citing our sources, fully and completely, is an essential part of the Genealogical Proof Standard.
SOURCES
- Neshoba County Historical Society, Neshoba County Cemetery Records (Philadelphia, MS: Gregath Co., 1987). ↩
- Theresa T. Ridout, Our Links to the Past : 1833-1996 Cemetery Records of Neshoba County, MS (Philadelphia, MS: Neshoba County Public Library, 1998). ↩
- I am assiduously avoiding dissing the author by name at least until after I see if she still has her work notes… ↩
Her “sources” are obviously in error. I have never none any research in Mississippi, but I wonder if there are any WPA cemetery surveys from the 1930s that might have included these two tombstones (now obviously gone, if they ever existed to being with)?
Looking for graves is frustrating. Cemetery surveys are often disappointing. It is disappointing to visit a cemetery that is in a published survey only to find that the stone is a recent one erected by descendants. This is nice but, how do they know our ancestor is buried there? I have also found surveys that include either a husband or wife but not the other. I found, in one case, that the wife’s name and dates were on the “back” of a stone that had the husband’s name and dates on the other side. The surveyor never looked on the “back”. I found an old, completely eroded stone with no trace of any inscriptions. A new stone from descendants named the occupants, a husband and wife who died many years before the church and cemetery were established. Were the graves moved? There is a family cemetery at their old home site. Why didn’t the descendants place the new marker there? Sometimes I am rewarded by finding the stones I seek and even one or two that I never expected to find!
Seems we spend most of our lives “proving”, proving our age, birth, etc. We even have to prove things to ourselves. Then we bring genealogy into our lives, hunting for our ancestors, now we know true frustration! Prove me wrong!
Judy, it seems to me that I saw something several years ago stating that they were buried in ??? White Oak??? or something like that. Is there or was there a cemetery in the area by that or a similar name. I thought I’d ask while you’re in the area. That information didn’t contain a source, of course, and my memory may be far off (sometimes it just goes out for a walk on its own!!!). If I can turn up that information again I’ll let you know—but it may not happen for ten years!!! I know how frustrated you must be!
No stones for Elijah and Wilmoth, but I’m writing this from my iPad sitting in the car at White Oak… which is just a short hop down the road from the Gentry land. If they’re not buried on their own land, this is a strong contender.
It is possible that they actually are there with no tombstone. My husband’s family have been buried in the same cemetery since about 1850. Both county and city records say his great grandparents were buried there but their location has been lost. They were poor and may have never had a headstone. The cemetery people have a section where we think they are that they say all records have been lost.
In the mid-80’s when I was new to the family and starting genealogy, I got copies of all paper records for all family members I could find. There were several miscarried, stillborn, or very young babies listed in graves with other people (one had 4 in a grave – a grandmother and several babies from her different children). About 10 years ago, I went back to get another updated list and there were missing people and no paper records. They got rid of all of the paper records after ther had been “transferred” into the computer.
Anyway, with stones lost, stolen, broken, or never there in the first place … and paper/digital records you can’t count on … you may never have more than a hint where they were buried. I hope you find them though!!!!
I think they’re more likely at another cemetery closer to where they lived. That’s where their one son who stayed in the area is buried, and others from the community.
I had a similar experience. The cemetery records gave me the specific plot…row X, column Y. All the stones right around there had dates in that range but the spot where my great-grandfather is buried had no stone. The graves on either side had stones with death dates right before/after when he died. Given that he died in 1929, had a not pleasant history (alcoholism and spousal abuse), I could only assume that either there was not money for a stone or no one felt motivated enough to spend money on the stone. But I could at least cite the burial record from the cemetery.
I wish I had proof from the cemetery, but alas… nothing except location and time…
This made me think of an idea. We have micro chipping for pets. Maybe we should have something similar for humans….of course it won’t help the past ones….although that’s an idea too. Even those with unmarkered graves could have a chip buried along with them or their ashes that could be scanned with all identifying and relevant info…..they coukd also be embedded in grave markers……hope springs eternal….
There are microchips for tombstones, and you can put your entire family history in its memory! Of course, it doesn’t do us any good on those 18th and 19th century graves, but…
Hey Judy–good luck with your search; I hope the individual who “cited” the graves will come forward.
Please excuse me for using your post to make a comment about what seems to be a trend in findagrave.com since their takeover by ancestry.com. These “burials unknown” they are allowing for people just drive me berserk. All of a sudden burial places of people for whom I have searched for years pop up as a hint. Going to the original FAG record reveals that — there is only information provided about the deceased with a “burial unknown”. Much of the information about some of these people is the same old guesses that have been posted online for years [by the same old people, I might add].
I certainly understand your frustration–thanks for my soapbox rant!
How frustrating! I have run into something similar before, but not this specific.
Have you tried to find out if there is a graveyard map, like what the undertaker might have used? I discovered where my ancestor was buried (without a tombstone) in this way. Good luck to you!
Thanks. There doesn’t appear to be any historical map for either of the two cemeteries (the one given in the book or the one I think is far more likely to be where the Gentrys are in fact buried).