Hi Folks,
My brother and I decided we were going to find the old family graveyard. The problem was that the last time we were there was 40+ years ago and it was hard to find then with someone directing us there. There are several of our family buried there, my grandparents on my dad's side, my dad, uncle, first cousin, and several third cousins that we knew. There are many older ones in my grandparents family buried there that we never met. It was back in the woods off a dirt country road and no houses that I remember anywhere close. We didn't know of any family members that could remember how to get there.
So we decided we would try and remember any thing we saw that would remind us of where it was. We knew it was between Danville Va. and a little past Chatam Va. My grandmother was a Jefferson from the family that fathered Thomas Jefferson. We got to the general area where we thought we might find the graveyard and turned left on a road that was now paved. We drove down about a mile and my brother spotted an old graveyard back in the woods. We investigated and found a couple of Jeffersons and Motelys there, but we decided it didn't seem right as we couldn't find any we could identify definitely as our family.
We tried a couple more roads without success. We then turned off the side road down a little farm road that kept getting rougher (we drove his truck so we could handle this kind of situation) and we came upon an old farmhouse. My brother got out and knocked on the door, an old man about 75 or 80 came to the door. My brother inquired about any old graveyards that he might know of. He directed us to one about a mile or two down the road. When we finally found it we got out and walked around in it and bingo, we found my uncle's grave marker, then a couple of third cousins that we knew years ago. It is and old site, dates back to the 1700s. Most of the graves were marked with just a rock, with no inscription, some had just an initial that was carved by someone in the family.
My dad, grandparents, first cousin and some others who were JWs had no marker at all, you know the thought, Armageddon coming soon, no need to mark the grave, they will be resurrected in a year or two anyway, so why bother. It made me sad to think of the false dreams of my folks. I can't even find the grave of my dad. My dad died at age 45 in the 50s. I buried my mom in a decent graveyard near the old home place where we were raised as kids. She has a decent marker where her grandkids and I can visit and give proper respect. She died in the mid 70s, after giving her whole life after dad's death to special pioneering. I think she felt that she would be reunited with him after the hoped for resurrection. What a waste of her life, although she seemed happy I have to admit, I wonder if it was really true.
Enough of my graveyard search, I've rambled on enough. One more observation though, the country back on those roads was so beautiful, big green pastures bordered by large oak trees and forest. I would love to live out in the open country again. It was like the picture that the borg painted of the new earth that we treasured so dearly before we knew better. It's hard to face reality sometimes.
Ken P.