Today's agenda included a trip to Pioneer's Rest Cemetery in Fort Worth, a historic cemetery that was reserved for the earliest settlers of the city and their descendants. The highlight was seeing my great-great-great grandmother, Ruth (Smith) Brown's stone,
along with about 35 others who are related to us through the Lovings and Pollards.
It was a lovely setting, but rather neglected and a little forlorn. Maybe it seemed that way to me because some of the gravestones that were most important to me were no longer there, probably small and insignificant in the first place, thus easy victims of time and the elements. Still, like most historic places, this cemetery was not without beauty.
Later in the day Glenn went on a search for probate records at the courthouse,
and I finished the day at the library squinting at microfiche until I was nearly blind.
along with about 35 others who are related to us through the Lovings and Pollards.
It was a lovely setting, but rather neglected and a little forlorn. Maybe it seemed that way to me because some of the gravestones that were most important to me were no longer there, probably small and insignificant in the first place, thus easy victims of time and the elements. Still, like most historic places, this cemetery was not without beauty. 
Later in the day Glenn went on a search for probate records at the courthouse,
and I finished the day at the library squinting at microfiche until I was nearly blind. 
2 comments:
They keep Pioneer Rest locked, and Nancy had to arrange a special appointment for us to get in! Spent 2.5 hrs searching for ancestors. Ruth Smith Brown has quite a life-story that is becoming more vivid the more time we spend in this grown-up cow town...Last year Nancy wrote about her in Ruth's book. We heard that the cemetery sold its minerals rights, and they struck natural gas underneath by slant drilling. Now the cemetery association expects more than $200K in royalties annually, as long as the gas field keeps producing. I think the cemetery will soon look spiffy.
While Nancy went to the Library, I (the research assistant) was in the basement of the courthouse going through Probate...records, that is, searching for who died when and where, leaving what to whom. Thursday was a fun day among the dead.
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