A Cautionary Tale: Reading Is Fundamental

This is a cautionary tale about reading what is there and not making assumptions.  Fortunately, in this case, I didn’t lose years of research or spend time randomly driving around York County, South Carolina.  Here is my confession:

My Martin’s are buried in Martin Cemetery in Cherokee County, South Carolina.

martin

I like to pinpoint the cemeteries on a map.  When I start to map their property it gives me a starting place on where to look, especially with family cemeteries.  I found this list of York County Cemeteries on Rootsweb:

rootsweb york county

Now, you the observant reader, probably notice that Find A Grave said Cherokee not York.  But the probates are in York and I got it in my head that it was York.  And I looked and looked in various maps of York and couldn’t find Highways 97 & 80.  I found 97, but no cemetery.

But somewhere around here, I suspect is the cemetery:

smyrna

I started pulling land records and found this tidbit:

state line

State line?  It’s on the state line? But if it is on the state line, it isn’t south of Smyrna.

Could I be wrong? Oh yes.  I turned to The Google and found this little tidbit: Martin’s Cemetery

piedmont

Which had all sorts of my people recorded as being there:

piedmont2

And it was on the NC/SC line.  I did some more searching on Find A Grave and found the Little Bethel Methodist Martin Cemetery in Cleveland County, North Carolina.  The directions led me to Rippy Rd, about 0.3 miles from the southern end.

actual cemetery

This is right in the area where a lot of others in my tree lived.  It is all starting to make sense now.  So much more sense.

So the cemetery isn’t in York.  And it isn’t in Cherokee.  It appears not to be in South Carolina.  It’s in Cleveland County, North Carolina. Now I know a lot of my ancestors lived on county and state lines.  But this appears to be across the state line!

So, first, I hang my head in shame.  No rushing!  Second, read what is there, not what you think is there.  Third, verify what you find.  One source is simply not enough.

And finally, I will be in the area in early April.  I am going to find this one.  More to come……

 

2 thoughts on “A Cautionary Tale: Reading Is Fundamental”

  1. thegenealogygirl

    “Hang my head in shame” 🙂 When I was a baby researcher I had this photocopy of a funeral card for my Scottish 3rd great grandmother. The info reads roughly her name, age at death, date of death, place of death, and few other things. I put her death date into my paf file and said, “I wish I knew her birthdate.” As if it was so completely unknowable. I left her birth info BLANK. The worst part? I didn’t notice my mistake for about two years. I was so black and white back then… Hang my head in shame indeed.

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