First Grave Hunt Adventure

I had my first grave hunting adventure on June 7th at the Holy Trinity Anglican Cemetery hunting for the unmarked grave of a man's grandfather. Including the grandson, Dan Johnston, there were two others with me, my mom and Art Jones, for a grave hunting group of four members.

Even though it was periodically raining, hailing, and sunny I had a fantastic time and can't wait to go on my next grave hunt.

First off, my mother and I visited Gerald Ernst who has in his possession a map of the Holy Trinity Anglican Cemetery. He let us know that it isn't current as there are at least three burials in the cemetery since the map was last updated. He also explained to us that not all the noted graves have headstones and why some of the noted individuals are buried in the walkways -- either the individual was buried before they really regulated the plots or they were buried in winter when snow hid the plot makers. We borrowed the map for our hunt, with promises to return it, and were pleased to know that as we've expressed interest when the map has been updated copies will be made and we can get some.

The buried grandfather we knew was in Lot 27 Plot 4. This was indicated on the map and in the written cemetery records even though the surname was misspelled on the map. There was little doubt that the map J. J. JOHNSON was the records JOHNSTON because the records precede the map and the initials of the grandfather's first and middle name are consistent. The grandson even explained to us that while he believed his grandfather's correct name is 'John Joseph Johnston' he has regularly come across documentation for 'Joseph John Johnston' as paperwork filled out by the grandfather himself read the former and paperwork that would be completed by someone else read the later.

The trouble with locating Mr Johnston's unmarked grave is that while everything indicates he is buried in Lot 27 comparing nearby gravestones indicated Lot 27 was in one place, but once we located sufficient number of the plot markers for Lot 28 and 29, there was insufficient space in the physical cemetery to hold those three plots and have space for the walkway. So crisscrossing the area, we finally decided to ignore map Lot 28's headstone and compare with other existing headstones in the cemetery. We finally came to the conclusion that Lot 28 and 29 were misprinted on the map -- all other headstones matched their printed location on the map -- and successfully located what we were confident was Mr Johnston's real burial place. Pictures were taken of the area, including sufficient enough landmarks (i.e. gravestones, numbered fence posts) so that Mr Johnston can be locate more easily in the future by his grandson.

But working with the map got me going about mapping the cemetery out with GPS and in future bring in Group-Penetrating Radar to clearly define where the unmarked graves are. I would enjoy learning how to do both, but I think it would be really fun to be trained to use the GPR and an interesting career path. I can see it now "Have GPR: Will Map Your Cemetery!"