About Me

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Lake Mathews (Perris), CA, United States
Born in Illinois, I grew up in Wilmette, a northern suburb of Chicago. I have one sibling, an older brother. I am married, for the 2nd time now, to Butch & got 4 children in the deal. They have gone on to make me grandmother 25 times over & great-grandmother to over 20!. After many years working in industry, I got my bachelors and masters degrees in speech communication, & was a professor in that field for 13 years. I retired in 2001 & returned to school & got my doctorate in folklore. Now I meld my two interests - folklore & genealogy - & add my teaching background, resulting in my current profession: speaker/author/entertainer of genealogically-related topics. I play many folk instruments, but my preference is guitar, which I have been playing since 1963. I write the "Aunty Jeff" column for the Informer, newsletter of the Jefferson County NY Gen. Soc. I work in partnership with Gena Philibert-Ortega & Sara Cochran as Genealogy Journeys® where we focus on educating folks about Social History. More about that: genaandjean.blogspot.com. More on our podcasts: genjourneys.podbean.com. More about my own projects: Circlemending.org.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Tombstone Tuesday, 7 July 2009 - Calvin Wilcox

In 2001, we went searching for the grave of my g-g-grandfather's brother, Calvin WILCOX (b: 6 Jan 1830, Oswego, Oswego, New York; d: 19 Jul 1911, Almena, Van Buren, Michigan), whose grave was reportedly in Prospect Hill Cemetery, Paw Paw, Van Buren, Michigan. We had no indication as to where in the very large cemetery he was buried, so stopped after getting a few turns into the graveyard, towing a large travel trailer. Butch asked, "do you know where we are going?" I replied, "well, how about right here?" We were right in front of the Wilcox plot:

Calvin was buried with his wife, Rosanna Mary STUYVESANT (b: 11 Nov 1832, Watertown, Jefferson, New York; d: 30 Sep 1894, Decatur, Van Buren, Michigan); md: 26 Oct 1851, Watertown, Van Buren, Michigan, and her entire family shared the plot. As I looked around, to see who else was buried nearby, I noticed that fresh flags adorned the graves (it was shortly after Memorial Day, but not all graves were so decorated) . . . could there be a living relative in the vicinity? I had been told that Calvin and his wife had never had children.



It was clear that the gravesite had had a recent visitor and that lead took me to locating my (very much alive) 4th cousin and avid genealogist, George, and his family and the full lineage of Calvin and Rosanna (and their 6 children)! So much for family lore!

1 comment:

  1. very nice photos. Good to see you visit Prospect Hill Cemetery. A beautiful place indeed.

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