14, 15, 16, 17......... 20... What?

Yesterday (Sunday) Mr. Brown Eyes and I decided to take a Sunday drive over to photograph some headstones. The headstones are located in Oakwood Cemetery, Lenawee County, Michigan which is about 1.5 hours from our house. With all the family we have staying with us right now, a little drive like this is just what we needed for some time for the two of us.

I had the section & plot numbers and had a pretty good idea of how the cemetery was laid out.

The first headstone(s) we were in search of was that of Frank Britt and his wife Margaret. According to what the cemetery had sent me Frank and Margaret were in section 32. We came in one of the side/back gates and immediately came across section 32. No problem at all. The section was rather small, so we decided to drive around the section to see if we could locate the stone(s)from the drive. As we came full circle, I said guess I'll have to get out and walk it, see if the stone is up in the middle or maybe flat. I took about five steps in and there behind a large bouquet of flowers was the stone for Frank & Margaret. All you could see was the B and then the T at the end. But it was found!

The other stone we were in search of was Howard Fisher. Howard died in 1905, was married three times and I was curious to see which of any of the three wives were buried with him. The cemetery showed Howard as being buried in Section 19. No problem. So we started to drive... 31, 30...27...25...23...Okay try the other way....14, 15, 16, 17.....20... WHAT? What happened to 18, 19..? Maybe we missed it. Drove around yet again. Still no 18, 19... Okay. After several attempts I decided I was NOT going home without this headstone photo.

How was going to search for a headstone in section 19 without finding section 19? Office is closed... hmmm.. I got out the iPad and checkeds my Legacy file, yep, I had written it down correctly. Now what was I supposed to do? Enter technology & buddies.

I called my good friend and best genealogy buddy, Diane. Did she have a map of the Oakwood cemetery by chance? I knew she had been there several times. Sure enough she did. She was able to not only give us directions to section 19, but she texted over the map to make sure! I love technology!

Because of her help we were able to figure out that there was NO signage for those two sections they just sort of blend into the others in that area... and we found Howard Fisher, buried alone, no sign of any of the three wives. A flat stone several rows in. SUCCESS!

So the moral of the story is never leave home without the techie toys... you just never know when you can put them to good use... even the texting!

Thank you Diane!