September 12, 2025
As I mentioned last time, I’m a big fan of cemeteries. I love to visit the cemeteries where my ancestors are buried. However, there is such a thing as being too focused on cemetery visits.
Many years ago, I asked my husband if he’d like to take a genealogy research trip. Although not a genealogist himself, he has always been happy to tag along on my genealogy excursions.
My plan was to visit either Gloucester County, New Jersey or Meeker County, Minnesota. New Jersey is the home of generations of my husband’s family, and Minnesota is where my Fernelius Family settled after they emigrated from Sweden.
Both locations have great local historical/genealogical libraries. Both counties are the site of several cemeteries I’d long wanted to visit. I had two options because it was January, and I didn’t think tromping through snowdrifts would be a good research strategy. Hopefully, one of the counties would be snow free.
Quick telephone calls to the two libraries confirmed that Minnesota had not had much snow that winter, but New Jersey had had a large snowstorm a few days earlier. Minnesota it was.
Meeker County is about sixty miles west of Minneapolis. Minneapolis is an easy flight from Denver, and we rented a car to head out to Meeker County. We spent the morning at the Meeker County Historical Society at the GAR Hall and found numerous records pertaining to my family.
When I told the librarian that I wanted to find the grave of my great grand uncle, Louis Lindbergh, she helpfully found and copied a handmade map of the local cemetery indicating where he and his family were buried. The cemetery was close to town, and I figured we’d easily locate the graves I wanted to see.
We researched a bit longer, and I realized that it was getting late. The winter sun would soon be going down. My husband and I headed to the cemetery. It was easy to find. Unfortunately, despite having a map, we were quickly lost once we got into the cemetery.
By this time the sun was nearly down. It was about ten degrees, and a sharp wind had picked up. Neither of us wanted to stay outside very long. We split up to see if we could locate my uncle’s grave which didn’t seem to be where the map said it should be.
After what seemed like a long, cold time checking headstones, my husband called from across the cemetery. He’d found the Lindbergh graves. I quickly took some pictures, and we got back in the car. Before we left, we checked the map again to see how two experienced map readers like us hadn’t been able to follow it.
We found that the map was not oriented in the normal way. North is usually at the top of the page, with west on the left side and east on the right side. For some reason, the person who drew this map put north on the left side of the map. The directions were written along the edge of the map in very small, light handwriting. No wonder we couldn’t find the graves. We were looking in the wrong direction.
I was happy to learn where my uncle was buried and to be able to take pictures. However, I learned a couple of things that January day. Never assume that an amateur-drawn map will automatically show north at the top of the page.
Also, just because there’s no snow, that doesn’t mean that January in Minnesota is a good time to visit cemeteries. Winter is a great time to visit archives and libraries, but not such a good time to tromp through cemeteries.
Carol Stetser
Researcher
Larimer County Genealogical Society