[or-roots] Cemetery listings

[Bill & Chris Strickland]

> Wordsmith wrote:
> 
> What do you like to see in an on-line cemetery index? 

   1) alphabetical because that's easier to locate a name 
   2) value in knowing who is buried next to and near whom

BOTH -- A grave by grave listing, with an alphabetical index to the
listing.

An example:

the online index to the Cemetery Records of Mercer County, Illinois
   http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilmercer/cem/index.htm

looking at the listing for Aikins (Samuel A and Margaret Ebner)
   http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilmercer/cem/a.htm --
do you see the third burial in this group? Nope. She is listed in this
index under the single name Arttaburn, which is a mis-spelling of her
actual name (no 'r'), as it is the single name on her marker -- the
young grand daughter who died of burns in a prairie fire and is buried
next to her grandparents.

In the actual lot by lot listing, there she is, next to her
grandparents.

Of course, with some 4,000 burials in this one cemetery, without the
alphabetical index, one would have spent many hours at the microfilm
reader to find the page they are listed on ...


Another example:

Ebner (Mary A, Samuel S, and Thornton), all listed in vol 3, pg 64 
   http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilmercer/cem/e.htm

Where is their little sister, Inah? Well, she is actually buried with a
marker next to Thornton. Is she in the index? I don't know -- I haven't
found her listed -- but, with good cause. She isn't listed in the
original work. I don't know why. Simply an oversight or an error ...

But, after finding Attaburn Aikins buried next to her grandparents, the
first thought when you can't find Inah Ebner is that the index must be
messed up.

Godspeed!

Bill Strickland