CASEY COUNTY, KENTUCKY CEMETERY NEWSLETTER

VOL. 4   SEPTEMBER 2007

CONTACT: RochelleRiordan@hotmail.com

The following appeared in the on-line version of the August newsletter but was accidentally omitted from the e-mailed copy:

“SONNY COLEMAN and I worked as a joint effort on the 1961-1972 Casey County obits. I copied them, Sonny scanned them and then I cropped and am in the process of posting them to Find a Grave. There are 1570 in total to go with the 9,000+ Sonny had already done.”

In response to last month’s newsletter “Did you know?” ROBERTA TAYLOR JONES writes: “I was told the Peavy/Peavey Cemetery was once known at the Atwood Cemetery.”

Cemeteries that have been completed on Find-a-Grave (FAG) this past month are:

Dunham Cemetery

Peyton Cemetery

Pine Grove Church Cemetery

Brush Creek Cemetery

Salyers

Rich Hill

Trace Fork

Thanks to SHANNA RHEA for proof reading Rich Hill Cemetery.

Thanks to MARY FRANCES WADE who has done a fabulous job with proof reading and documenting Wilkerson Cemetery.

BRENDA SANDERS & LINDA PETERS have been doing an incredible job braving the heat and photographing Middleburg Cemetery as well as taking shaving cream enhanced photos at Rich Hill and Mt. Calvary Cemeteries. The sisters have also begun photographing the Whited Cemetery. Brenda was responsible for obtaining permission from the family of STEPHEN ANDREW MYERS to post the photos he took of Hustonville Cemetery (Lincoln County) for an Eagle Scout project a couple of years ago to FAG. Andrew is currently on a mission in the Philippines for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

With the terrible recent heat wave in Casey County, photography came to a near standstill. But MAX TURPIN is currently in the area soon snapping photos as well as MIKE DENIS between the two of them we will hopefully get the majority of the northern “panhandle” of Casey done.

FUTURE PLANS

Once again THANKS TO ALL THAT HAVE CONTRIBUTED!

I will be out of town from 9/4 to 9/29 and unable to answer any of your e-mails during this period but please do continue to send your corrections, additions and comments. I will be home for four days and then off again to Indiana for a family reunion from 10/3 to 10/7. On 10/8 it is back to Casey Co. for more photography. In the next (October) newsletter updates will be made on our accomplishments after I return.

I thought it might be interesting to include one or two small sketches on our contributors each month and so we begin with RICHARD HOLLIS:

I live in Cypress, Texas. I have worked for the same company Consolidated Electrical Distributors for 25 years as a salesman and a manager. My primary customer is Starbucks, as you are buying that cup of coffee, look up at the light fixtures, my company sold them to Starbucks…. smile.

My interest in genealogy began about 1990, when my sister who began the family history first struck out getting an interview with my one remaining uncle on the Hollis side. I gave the interview a shot and he talked to me and was very soon hooked.

The slight amount of information I got from him on our Hollis family history is what influenced me about the process of my research. Not knowing much, I took the “steam shovel” approach…..any state or county I approached, I just started inputting dates and places from whatever record there was available (birth, marriage, death, census) and that is how I put families together, which meant I have a lot of “extra” information in my data, many people not even connected closely or at all to me. I love to share and findagrave is a perfect place to share as well as preserve the record of the stones as we all know they deteriorate over time if not intentionally damaged by vandals…

My maternal Patterson side (my Casey County roots), was much easier as an aunt of my mother’s had already written out a history going back several generations. I took what she had and fleshed it out using my computer and the Family Treemaker program, made contact with a family historian on the Combest surname in Kentucky, attended a family reunion there some 8 years ago and they elected me President of the Combest Family Association.

I have found numerous “new” cousins and friends these past years and have enjoyed the research immensely.  My wife asked me once, “When will you be finished?” and was surprised by my answer, which was “I can quit, but I will never be finished, anybody I have found has parents, or they have kids or they have siblings”…..smile…

And now a little about myself… ROCHELLE RIORDAN

I live in Phoenix, AZ and am semi-retired (still work two days a week) in Nuclear Medicine and Diagnostic Ultrasound. I began climbing my family tree in 1972 and have been "addicted" ever since. Several years ago I started digging into Casey County in hopes of getting all of the Luttrells straightened out. I collected all of the obituaries, death certificates and burial records I could. When I discovered Find-a-Grave, it seemed like a perfect forum to post my family photos, tombstone photos and obituaries. Last year I again visited Casey Co. and decided to photograph every stone in Antioch Christian Church Cemetery and that was the start of my involvement. My family names in Casey County are McDonald, Baldock and Owens.