The Candlelight
Sanctuary
Church Page
Acquiring the Benefits of Biblical Wisdom
on Amazon.com
Buckhart Cemetery
and
Family History
Achenbach Cemetery
God Bless America
By Jerry L. Ginther
One thing became apparent as I delved into the research of the family tree. It didn't really matter what I discovered. Whether the ancestors were rich or famous wasn't of primary importance; they were mine. Whatever they did was interesting. Good, bad or ugly I wanted to know whatever was true that could be ascertained. I didn't find the proverbial horse thief who was hanged in a bygone century when hanging was the punishment for such an offence. As a matter of fact, I didn't even find a horse thief. (I did look for him though) Neither did I find any who were above middle class and extremely wealthy, but I wasn't disappointed. What I did find was mostly hard working, honest, God fearing families trying to establish their place in the land as America moved westward. To me, that's about as near perfection as anyone has to get to obtain an ovation from me. That's not to say there were not a few bad apples in the barrel, but thankfully they were the exception and not the majority.
In any case, I found the older, living relatives to be an invaluable source of anecdotes concerning their generation and often times the previous generation or two as well. The handing down of family folklore, probably somewhat embellished, seemed an art form with the older set and always commanded the interest of all present. For me, that source would be my older aunts and uncles who never ran out of such illuminating stories. Fortunately for me, I had an elder brother who had heard those tales, as well, and offered his input as to what was an embellishment.
Glen was fifteen years my senior and somewhat of an historian for our generation. When I returned from the Army in '68 he took me on a few tours of Christian County. He knew the location of every farm that had ever been in the family. Some had been passed down through several generations and then eventually sold to satisfy the divided shares of the heirs. It is my assumption that selling the farms and dividing the cash was the most acceptable form of settlement for all concerned.
It wasn't until I returned from military duty that I really began to get interested in our family genealogy. My wife, Connie, and I have spent many hours in courthouses and cemeteries in our quest for family history. We also conducted many delightful interviews with the older folks. I say delightful, because they were proud and as happy to inform as we were to be informed.
One of the most fascinating finds in our research was right there in Buckhart cemetery. Nowhere had we found so many of one family buried in one place and all members of the same church. I think my brother was even unaware that Buckhart had no less than five sets of our grandparents interred there, and all were members of that church or the one that was later built in Edinburg. All those grandparents were in my paternal grandmother's line. Her name was Ida May Kemmerer Ginther. She and my grandfather, Charles Elmer Ginther, are buried there and are included in the five sets mentioned earlier. The church mentioned as being built in Edinburg is now called Grace Memorial after its separation from the Reformed Church Synod in the 1960's.
Genealogy is a fascinating hobby, but it is sometimes hard work tracking down the facts. They are never all in one place and often there are differing accounts of a deceased person's history. Sometimes you run into dead ends and detective work can get expensive. Determination and perseverance are the key words here, but we have enjoyed it all.
Copyright © 2002 - 2015 Jerry Ginther, All rights reserved worldwide
