Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Intro to Christian County, IL cemeteries

Welcome to my 'Graveyard Rabbit' blog of Christian County, Illinois. I'm proud to be associated with the other Graveyard Rabbit's which is the creation of Terry Thornton and footnoteMaven.

Some of you may not know that I site on the Board of the original Christian County Genealogical Society, (CCGS). The website can be found at www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ilchrgs in which the cemeteries of the county are linked to a google map for easy location. We have 31-active; 33-inactive/destroyed; and 16 unknown cemeteries in the county. (I'm pretty sure we do not have as many unknown cemeteries as is shown.) It's just that the CCGS webmaster wasn't sure of the location, so just listed as unknown until she can meet with one of the 'original' Board members and get the proper location.

Today, I would like to write about Joan (Pearson) Blood - She is a CCGS Board member / webmaster of the CCGS site / and cemetery photographer. It is Joan's dream to photograph every gravestone in every cemetery in Christian County. To date she has 14 completed and sending the photo's to the United States Cemetery Project, www.uscemeteryproj.com, which is also linked from the CCGS website.

Joan gives me a copy of each cemetery along with a spreadsheet listing names / filenames / etc. as she completes them. I am going to consolidate each cemetery alphabetically and post the names on our website for those who would like a color photo of their ancestor's gravestone. They could either e-mail / or snail-mail with their request.

A lot of work, and we love doing it to preserve our, and other's, heritage.

Until next time - Chuck

1 comment:

Cheryle Hoover Davis said...

My great-grandmother's family was from Christian County, Illinois. Her sister married a Mr. Blood and they moved to Runnells, Polk, Iowa, where they resided until they died. I wonder if Joan (Pearson) Blood is a relative? The name is quite unusual.

Thank, Cheryle Hoover Davis

see my GY Rabbit blog at: http://thegraveyardsoftherunnellsiowaarea.blogspot.com/