Skip to main content

Cemeteries Aren’t Only for the Deceased

For many years, every time my husband, Rod, and I went on a trip, we inevitably ended up wandering through a cemetery searching for deceased ancestors. Our kids thought we were crazy, but fellow genealogists would know exactly why we were there. Cemeteries are a wonderful source of family information, providing the deceased’s descendents were thoughtful enough to include it on their headstones. Some stones will include only birth and death years, but some include complete birth and death dates, and even names of children.

If you live in Hubbard County and aren’t especially fond of walking through cemeteries, you’re in luck. The Hubbard County Historical Museum’s website has lists of nearly every cemetery in the county, many with tombstone inscriptions and their location in the cemetery. Go to www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mnhchs/ then to Links, Hubbard County GenWeb Project and County Records for cemetery information.

If walking through cemeteries really doesn’t appeal to you, the Hubbard County Historical Museum has both online and print collections of obituaries indexed from local newspapers and, in some cases, going back several years. The online index consists of nearly 5,000 names, listing maiden names, age and date of death, place of burial, and date and name of the publication(s) in which the obituary appeared. Some obituaries, going back to 1995, have been preserved in notebooks and are available at the Museum.

Finally, if your relatives lived outside Hubbard County, or even outside Minnesota, www.findagrave.com is a great source of information. Many cemeteries across the country have been indexed and, in some cases, headstones have been photographed. It may take a bit of time and patience to sort through, but the information is free of charge to all seekers.

By Marie Nordberg

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Brief History of LaPorte:1898-1908

When the village of LaPorte, Minnesota became incorporated in May of 1908, it came after a decade of frontier struggles. The Brainerd and Northern Railway cut its grade through in the spring on 1898, and that same spring, Carl Datte came to settle on Horseshoe Lake in the spot he called home for sixty years. Shortly after, was the Battle of Sugar Point on nearby Leech Lake in Walker. This proved to be the last Indian uprising in the continental United States, but left the settlers in Walker uneasy. Nelson Daughters became the first postmaster on March 23, 1899, but the position was short-lived. Daughters was charged with illegal liquor trafficking, which went against an 1855 treaty with the Indians that forbade the sale of liquor to Indians. Daughters was then taken to Walker, but on an impulse, he slipped away to return home and resume handling the mail. The deputy sheriff at the time learned where Daughters was picking up the mail, and ambushed him, shooting and killing Da...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hubbard County Historical Museum Architect, Milton Beebe

Many of you already know that the beautiful Victorian building that houses the Hubbard County Historical Museum was originally built in 1900 as a courthouse, and did not open its doors as a museum until 1978, after the new courthouse was built. You may also know that the interior remains much the same as it did 100 years ago. The walls are the originally rich green color and the tin ceiling is intact. Names of the original offices still even remain on the doors. But, do you know about the man behind this building? The architect behind this gorgeous, Victorian building was a man by the name of Milton Earl Beebe. He was the oldest child born to Justus and Harriet Beebe in Cassadaga, NY on November 27, 1840. The family lived on a small farm, and at that time, very few farmers were very well off. The children had to forgo many cultural and pleasurable opportunities, and when they worked outside the family farm, their earnings went into a family fund. Milton developed a...
Post a Comment
Read more