EOGN's Other News

Churches, club try to map Bonita Springs cemetery

Since Army Gen. John Logan declared May 30 Decoration Day in 1868 to honor the Civil War dead, the holiday has evolved into a day to decorate the graves of all loved ones in remembrance.

It is no different at the Bonita Springs Cemetery — except there are graves that were never marked, headstones that have worn away during the years and records that are incomplete.

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Creating Your Family Tree - With Steve Haney

Are you interested in your Family Tree? Many people are and it is becoming a very popular and fulfilling pursuit with the advent of Internet Genealogy.

As a professional genealogist I also use the internet to search for historical family records. There are many more digitized images and records coming online every day. This opens up ancestral research to those not close by a large record depository such as the National Archives in Ottawa and the Archives of Ontario in Toronto.

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Wales's oldest man left WWI horror diary

The secret World War I diary of Wales' oldest man has been discovered by his family. Alfred Finnigan died this month aged 108. During the funeral reception at his home near Whitland, Carmarthenshire, his niece Kathy Page stumbled across a remarkable handwritten account of the Great War.

The immaculate journal records Private Finnigan's criticism of the "idiotic" war which killed many of his friends. He served with the Royal Field Artillery and together with other veterans was awarded the Legion d'Honneur by the French in 1998. The young solider, who enlisted two days after his 18th birthday in 1914, writes about fallen comrades in the slim, hardback exercise book. Within months the five friends from London he signed up with were all dead.

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Grave concerns

Proud but timeworn, the monuments at Oak Hill Cemetery in Woonsocket, RI feature names as familiar as the city's streets -- names like Harris, Rathbun, Welles and Boyden. The ghosts of the men and women who built the city are at rest here, along with hundreds of combat veterans dating back to the Civil War.

Oak Hill Cemetery may be a treasure trove of history, yet few people know it even exists, let alone worry about saving it for posterity. Superintendent Avery O. Cook is certainly one exception, but with scant resources the longtime caretaker of Oak Hill has enough trouble just keeping up with ordinary maintenance.

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Quest for ancestor brings meaning to Memorial Day

It was July 1776 when James Adams went into the farmlands of central Pennsylvania, recruiting a militia for the budding American Revolution. He "summoned his men from the harvest field," as an article would later say, and, attaining the rank of captain, led the Cumberland County Associators in combat.

After a 4-year search, lots of dead ends and lucky breaks, a writer finds the likely long-lost grave: a headstone marking the grave of Capt. James Adams in the West Kishacoquillas Presbyterian Cemetery near Belleville, Pa. The exact location of the grave of Adams, who died in 1824 after fighting in the Revolutionary War and raising a family, was lost for nine generations.

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W.Va. awards still going out for Civil War

It’s taken nearly 140 years, but a Civil War medal is finally where it belongs. Alexander Eaves of Guyandotte had enlisted in Company H, 13th Regiment of the West Virginia Volunteer Infantry, in Point Pleasant, W.Va., and saw action at Hurricane Bridge, Point Pleasant, New River Bridge and the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

Eaves’ commanding officer, future president Rutherford B. Hayes, wrote to Eaves’ wife that the 13th’s volunteers "behaved splendidly" and were "worthy of special commendation." The Confederates captured Eaves during the Battle of Kernstown-Winchester, Va., on July 24, 1864, and held him as a prisoner of war in Salisbury, N.C., where he died Jan. 25, 1865, at age 29.

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Sunnyview brings lost souls to light

Memorial Day weekend began with a long overdue tribute to some of Winnebago County's forgotten souls. A Friday afternoon dedication ceremony at the recently restored Sunnyview Cemetery helped bring to light the silent stories of more than 400 area residents.

"All of these people have been long forgotten or neglected," said Janet Eilen, president of the Winnebagoland Genealogical Society. "They were just as much a part of this community as we are today. It's about time we recognize them."

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One-of-a-kind Woodman Museum in Dover, NH

Only one place in the world has a 100-year-old bolt from the battleship Maine and four-legged chicken on display under the same roof. The odds and ends of history come together at the Woodman Institute in Dover. Here the stories of distant brawls and wars, romances and tragedies, are told in the shape of a burnt piece of rope, a luxurious dress and letters written in ink from the frontlines.

The institute is a four-building complex, including the Old Garrison House from 1675 that was moved from the river district in Dover to its current location behind the Woodman and Hale houses. The Keefe House, in the very back, holds 7,000 historical and genealogical documents, such as a 1771 tax bill from King George.

"This is a typical turn-of-the-century museum," said  Thom Hindle, trustee of the Woodman Institute. "There're a series of little rooms, every time you turn the corner there's a new adventure."

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Historic home, items within it go on auction block

The home the late Anna, Illinois resident Esther Mary Ayers kept is a house brimming with local history and cherished family memories. One and a half years after the 83-year-old Ayers, a former teacher and art history expert, died, her niece, Ann Ayers Martin, still uncovers lost family treasures and relics of local historical significance inside the home.

Martin, who lives and works as a real estate agent in Houston, has been boxing and organizing more than a century's worth of artifacts in the house, along with her sisters; they are preparing for an estate auction that will be held Monday on the home's site at 301 W. High St. in Anna.

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History slipping away, one record at a time

Lawrence County has some of the oldest public records in Arkansas and many residents of the county -- including county officials, the Lawrence County Historical Society and others interested in the county's history -- want to see them preserved.

The records of concern were being kept at the historic Lawrence County Courthouse at Powhatan. With the courthouse as the centerpiece of the Powhatan Courthouse State Park, the records may not be returned to vaults in the historic building after being removed for the latest renovation of the structure.

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