The California and Utah GYR's Go Graveyard Hopping!

What do you do when....

a California Graveyard Rabbit comes to visit...



...and you take her to see some really neat cemeteries...




...you think things are going really well...



...you've found some very interesting graves and headstones....




...and then your car won't start, right in the middle of the cemetery?



ORDER PIZZA!

Not many people can say they have had pizza delivered to the Salt Lake Cemetery. Well, it quite possibly is a first - especially for the Graveyard Rabbits!

It was a terrific day - that could have ended up horrible. But Diane (The Graveyard Rabbit Travels Wright) was a real trooper. She was so kind and fun to be with - even when my car wouldn't start!

First we visited the Brigham Young Cemetery, which is actually called the Mormon Pioneer Memorial. It's a beautiful park and small cemetery right in the middle of downtown Salt Lake City.

Then we drove to the Salt Lake City Cemetery - a huge historic cemetery found in the Avenues of Salt Lake City. We got a map from the cemetery office which showed us the locations of well-known people who are buried there.

Our "chauffeur" drove us around to the various stones we wanted to see...

Then my CAR DIED.


And so, to pass the time while we waited for it to start up again,
we ordered pizza!

We ate our impromptu picnic by the Angel statue made famous in "The Christmas Box" by Richard Paul Evans.


We played with a "Graveyard Dog."



And had a wonderful time. I was disappointed that there was snow on the ground. But being from California, Diane thought it gave the cemetery character!

Finally, my car started again. We finished our tour and ended the day with the best donuts in the world!


Thanks for coming Diane! I hope our escapades won't keep you from coming again - you are welcome anytime!

Grave Mappers is Looking For Participants in a Test Mapping Project for Names in Stone - the Cemetery Maps Website

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I posted this article this week at the Grave Mappers blog. I think it would make a great project for the Graveyard Rabbits. I'm planning to map the Brigham Young Cemetery in Salt Lake City for my project and I can't wait to get started!



At Grave Mappers, we are always looking for ways to help preserve small, obscure cemeteries and their vital records – and we are announcing a great opportunity to do just that!

Grave Mappers is honored to be asked to conduct a Test Mapping Project for Names In Stone, the cemetery maps website. The Names in Stone team is continually working to make its site more user-friendly, especially for people who want to map cemeteries. To further this effort, they are planning a test project, which will allow users to have a mapping experience and then give input into how the website might be improved.


Grave Mappers is seeking 50 people to participate in this Test Mapping Project for Names In Stone. This is an exciting opportunity for you to test the website’s mapping capabilities, and to give feedback on how it worked for you.

If you would like to participate, you will be asked to map a cemetery that contains anywhere from one to 200 graves. The project will include three steps.

1. Collect all data at the cemetery, including photos of each headstone, headstone transcriptions, and a sketch with the location of the graves in relationship to each other. (You must map the entire cemetery, not just a portion of it – so choose a cemetery that fits within the criteria and that you will have time to complete.)

2. Create the cemetery map on the Names In Stone website; then add each individual grave to the map along with the headstone data and photo.

3. Fill out a post-mapping questionnaire that will detail your experience as you mapped your cemetery, giving input into what worked for you, and what improvements you would like to see.


All Test Mapping Projects must be completed by May 1, so that the cemeteries can be up and running on the site before Memorial Day. (If you need more time because of weather or other concerns, please let me know.)




If you are interested in participating, please send an email to gravemappers@gmail.com. Include your name, email address, and the city, state, province, or country where you live. You will be sent a confirmation email giving you specific instructions on conducting your mapping project.

This is a great opportunity to help in the preservation of the records of small cemeteries. We hope you will join us!

All screenshots used by permission from Names In Stone.

The Mount Timpanogos GYR Gets an Award!

Dorene at The Graveyard Rabbit of Sandusky Bay has awarded this Graveyard Rabbit the KreativBlogger Award!

Thanks Dorene - it's an honor! I now am excited to pass this award on to seven bloggers - people who author blogs that I really enjoy reading.

They are:

• Stephanie of Southern Graves
• 
  
• Claudia of Eternal Addict
• 
  
• Greta of Greta's Geneology Blog
• 
  
• Lee of Lineage Keeper
• 
  
• Russ of My Tombstone Collection
• 
  
• Amy of We Tree
• 
  
• Becky of Grace and Glory
  

Be sure to visit them all!


Here are the rules connected with the KreativBlogger Award:

1. Copy the award to your site.
2. Link to the person from whom you received the award.
3. Nominate 7 other bloggers.
4. Link to those sites on your blog.
5. Leave a message on the blogs you nominate.

Congratulations to all - and thanks again, Dorene!

Oliver and Mary Thornton - Utah Pioneers

Oliver Thornton was born in Pickering, a township in Canada on September 6, 1806, the son of Joseph Thornton and Lucretia Calkins (Sly) Thornton. He married Mary Griswold (born on February 22, 1812) in 1828 or 1829.

In 1838, they joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and began their journey to gather with the Mormon Pioneers. That journey was filled with trials and persecution. They eventually reached the Salt Lake Valley in 1852 and then continued on to settle on the shores of Utah Lake in the new town of American Fork. They arrived in November and their 11th child was born just one week later.

They homesteaded in an area that was called Laketown, which area now borders the state highway between American Fork and Pleasant Grove. Oliver built a little adobe house and dug a well that could be enclosed within the house. He cleared the land and planted an orchard, one of the first apple orchards in the area.

Mary gave birth to one more child in 1855. On April 12, 1858, she passed away at her home, leaving behind 4 children under the age of twelve.

In 1859, a widow named Margaret Stoddard moved to American Fork. Her husband had passed away in one of the handcart companies that had come west in 1856. Margaret and Oliver were married and together raised their children - she had two or three of her own.

Oliver died on January 21, 1891. He is buried beside his two wives, Mary and Margaret, in the American Fork Utah Cemetery. Margaret died on July 15, 1899.

In his obituary (Deseret News 27 January 1891) it says: "Oliver Thornton was known as a man of-sterling integrity, strictly honest in every particular, and a humble and devoted follower of the Master whose precepts he loved. . . He leaves a host of friends and a large family to mourn their loss. The living members of his family numbering as follows: eight children, thirty-four grandchildren and twenty-eight great grandchildren."

You can read more about this family in an excellent history compiled by Zella Hansen Nesbitt, a great-granddaughter of Oliver and Mary Thornton.

Who is Baby Thomas?

This little grave, found in the Fairfield, Utah Cemetery, is heart-wrenching. And all it does is raise questions:

• Who is Baby Thomas?
• When was he buried here?
• Was the cement placed later?
• Are his parents buried nearby?

The mother in me needs the story! But for now, the questions are the story...

A Link is Broken - George Jacklin Jr.

George Jacklin Jr.

Born March 21, 1870

Died February 2, 1882

Aged 11 Years, 10 Months, 11 Days

A link is broken in our household band,

But a chain is forming in a better land.

JACKLIN

George is buried in the American Fork City Cemetery. You can view his grave on the map at Names in Stone.

Ethel Heninger Gunnell - Headstone

This is the headstone of Ethel Naomi Heninger Gunnell - see the photo in the blog article Aunt Priscilla's Sewing Class. Ethel is third from the right in the top photo.

Ethel was the daughter of Henry Clay Heninger and Naomi Fifield Heninger. Her sister was my grandmother, Hazel Heninger Gunnell. Hazel married Joshua Brown Gunnell and they had eight children. Hazel died of a heart attack in 1951. Just over a year later, Ethel married Joshua and helped him finish raising his children. Joshua died in 1973. Ethel died in 1988 and is buried in the Providence, Utah Cemetery.

Joshua and Hazel are buried next to each other in the Logan, Utah cemetery. You can see a map of Joshua and Hazel's graves at Names in Stone.