There is nothing I hate more than not solving a good mystery.
I have been bothered by these headstones since discovering them in 2005. How can you order a headstone and not know the persons name? My guess is they were ordered long after they died.
Unnamed Crithers & Unnamed Crouch
These two soldiers are buried in the Wildmead Cemetery where I own my burial plots. Recently I was preparing an updated list for the kiosk to post before Memorial day and my thoughts went back to them. So much so that it kept me awake.
Lying there I wondered "does the government keep the paperwork submitted for headstone requests?" "Where could I look?"
Today I thought I'd work on the names, even though I have more projects than I will ever finish in my lifetime, and hadn't worked on these two in a long while. I typed them into Ancestry.com, adding a military event with the state of service. I hadn't discovered anything, nada, nothing about them... until today. It's not much...but I'll take it.
What this record doesn't tell me:
- When they died
- Name of the person requesting the headstone
What this record does tell me:
- They died BEFORE 1901, which narrows my search since records of any kind for this county start in 1872.
I'm searching the state and federal census but I'm wondering if the spelling is correct on Crithers. I have found Crouch families in the area later than 1901.
I've run out of time for now. Wish me luck!
What a curious problem! You'd think there would be a record somewhere, especially since the stones were actually placed in a cemetery.
ReplyDeleteI posted about a mystery as well:
http://sallysearches.blogspot.com/2012/05/tombstone-tuesday-clifford-mystery.html