FindAGrave Volunteer Accidentally Damages Tombstones

Damaged Tombstones Scrubbed With Wire Brush

One of Tennessee's oldest church cemeteries had several tombstones permanently damaged recently. A FindAGrave volunteer is suspected of damaging several historic graves with a wire brush  at the New Providence Presbyterian Church on Stoney Point Road in Surgoinsville

When questioned the man told police he wanted to get a better photo of the inscriptions on the tombstones for people who had requested photos. After scrubbing the stones and taking his photos, he uploaded them to the FindAGrave website.

The dark stain that builds up on tombstones over time was scrubbed clean in streaks over the engravings, and in some cases the engravings were rubbed almost smooth — to the point that the words are no longer legible. The cemetery reports that the damage cannot be repaired.

This was an incredibly thoughtless act by a volunteer. It was done out of good intentions but it was a serious error in judgement, and the results were disastrous. But has FindAGrave made it clear to volunteers how tombstones are to be treated? I went to the FindAGrave.com website to see what warnings or instructions are online for those taking photos. In their FAQ page there is a link to an article "How do I clean a headstone or grave marker?" under the topic Cemetery Preservation. However the link to that article is six screens down the page! Most people are not going to scroll down and read that far. 

Had this volunteer read the article, he would have seen "Unless you are related to the interred on the headstone in question, DO NOT do anything to the headstone. Gravestones should never be cleaned with anything but water and a soft brush. Slate gravestones from the Revolutionary era and Pre-revolutionary era are best left alone due to their delicate nature and tendency to erode. Never apply bleach, ammonia, shaving cream, chalk, flour, baking soda, cornstarch, firm pressure or use anything abrasive." [this is part of the article from FindAGrave.com]


I personally think their instructions give a mixed message and are confusing. The first sentence says don't do anything if you aren't a relative. Then it goes on to provide information on how best to do something! (cleaning).  Far better to keep these instructions simple and placed prominently on the website where volunteers will see them. The instructions should, in my opinion, be better worded.

I might have said  "Do NOT attempt to clean headstones. Leave all tombstones untouched"

K.I.S.S. is always a good practice to follow.

 
Read the rest of this story at 'Person of interest' identified in case of damaged historic gravestones at Hawkins church

Tennessee Family Bibles Online

Vance Family Bible page

Tennessee birth certificates were not required until 1908 and thus Family Bibles can be a very important way to prove birth dates.

The Tennessee State Public Library has been collecting more than 1,500 family Bibles since the 1920s and these bibles are now available to the public. Cinnamon Collins is the volunteer who scanned all the Bibles into the database. She scanned the pages with notations on them but also read and examined the materials tucked inside — photographs, locks of a sweetheart’s hair, newspaper clippings, mementos. All the entries she saw were handwritten and sometimes difficult to read.

Read more details at Tennessee has more than 1,500 family Bibles online and State Library & Archives Puts Family Bible Records Online

To see if TSLA holds a Bible record for your family, visit the project online. If you are looking for Family Bibles from other locations, please see Family Bibles Blog

Black History Month: Fisk Jubilee Singers from Tennessee

Prints & Photographs Department, MSRC

I've talked about the Canadian Jubilee Singers and now I want to talk about the original Fisk Jubilee Singers from Fisk University in Nashville Tennessee. The Fisk Jubilee Singers' first tour was in small towns across America from October 1871 to March 1872. By 1873 the group consisted of eleven black singers and they were soon headed for Europe.

Image courtesy of J.D. Thomas of Accessible Archives

Image courtesy of J.D. Thomas of Accessible Archives

The website for the current Fisk Jubilee Singers says that "The original Jubilee Singers introduced ‘slave songs’ to the world in 1871 and were instrumental in preserving this unique American musical tradition known today as Negro spirituals."

Prejudice existed and the Batavia published a small note about the Fisk Jubilee Singers in the early 1880s: 

We can also witness the discrimination and difficulties faced by the singers in their travels:

Collection: African American Newspapers
Publication: THE CHRISTIAN RECORDER

Date: March 2, 1882
Title: Certain hotels in Washington, D.C., refused last week to ac
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Certain hotels in Washington, D.C., refused last week to accommodate the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Some no doubt, truthfully basing their refusal on lack of room, and others squarely on the ground of color. It should not be understood, however, that the best hotels in Washington refuse to accommodate people on account of their color. It is not a fact, and such an impression would do harm. &#150 Indianapolis Leader . 

Collection: African American Newspapers
Publication: THE CHRISTIAN RECORDER

Date: January 6, 1881
Title: ----- JUBILEE SINGERS' CIVIL RIGHTS CASE. -----
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

----- JUBILEE SINGERS' CIVIL RIGHTS CASE. -----

MR. EDITOR.- As is perhaps wellknown to most of your readers, the national conference of colored man, held in the city of Nashville, Tenn., May 6th, 1879, resolved to prosecute the conductor of one of the Tennessee railways, for roughly seizing by the arm one of the lady members of the Jubilee Singers, and thrusting her from the platform of the ladies' coach to the smoking car. For the conducting of the case, the conference appointed a prosecuting committee consisting of J.H. Burrus, Rev. G.H. Shaffer, and W.H. Yardly, Esq., the first two of Nashville, and the last of Knoxville, Tenn. 

Even Canada was not immune to showing discrimination

Collection: African American Newspapers 
Publication: THE CHRISTIAN RECORDER
Date: November 10, 1881
Title: REFERRING TO THE recent insult offered the Jubilee Singers
Location: Philadelphia, PA

     REFERRING TO THE recent insult offered the Jubilee Singers by the Toronto hotel-keepers, The Citizen of that city, for a copy of which we are indebted to F.J. Louden, says:
  
      “Their recent visit to Canada has been most successful. The action of certain Toronto hotel-keepers in refusing them admission on account of their color, has caused a reaction in their favor, and the citizens, from the Mayor and ex-Vice Chancellor Blake down to the humblest of them, have vied with each other to do them honor. The Press, too, was aroused by the cowardly distinction. Globe, Mail, Telegram, World and News all championed the cause of the signers, and Canada's Cartoonist, Mr. Grip, employed his powerful pencil to the discomfiture of the hotel-keepers and the honor of the singers.”

In the next few weeks during Black History Month I will be publishing biographies based on research I've done on a few of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. They deserve to be remembered.

Image: The Fisk Jubilee Singers in 1882. They are, from left to right, Patti Malone, George E. Barrett, Mattie L. Lawrence, C.W. Payne, Ella Shepard (seated), F.J. Loudin, Maggie L. Porter (seated), B.W. Thomas, and Mabel R. Lewis (seated).

Source for all newspaper accounts from The Christian Recorder from Accessible Archives

Sullivan Co. Tennessee Genealogy Database

The Sullivan County Department of Archives and Tourism announces its newest addition of the Lane Genealogical Research Database to its Special Collections.

Donald W. Lane, Ph.D., has donated his research database containing names and genealogical information on approximately 350,000 individuals and over 139,000 families primarily from the East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia region.

The following family names are found in the database: Allen, Alley, Anderson, Arnold, Babb, Bailey, Baker, Baldwin, Ball, Barker, Barnes, Barnett(e), Begley, Bellamy, Berry, Bishop, Blair, Bledsoe, Blevins, Bowen, Brickey, Brown, Burke, Campbell, Carter, Castle, Childress, Christian, Clark, Cole, Collins, Compton, Combs, Cox, Crawford, Cross, Culbertson, Darnell, Davidson, Davis, Dean, Dingus, Dockery, Dougherty, Edwards, Elliott, Estep, Fields, Flanary/Flannery, Fleenor, Fletcher, Ford, Frazier, Gibson, Gillenwater, Gilliam, Graham, Gray, Hale, Hall, Hamilton, Hammond(s), Harris, Hensley, Herron, Hicks, Hill, Hillman, Hilton, Hood, Horne, Horton, Jennings, Jessee, Johnson, Jones, Ketron, Kilgore, Lane, Lawson, Light, McClellan, McConnell, McDavid, McMurray, Meade, Miller, Moody, Moore, Mullins, Nickels, Osborn(e), Owens, Pendleton, Penley, Pennington, Peters, Phillips, Pierson, Porter, Powers, Price, Quillen/Quillin, Ramey, Reed, Rhoton, Roberts, Robinette, Robinson, Rogers, Roller, Salyer, Sanders, Shelton, Smith, Stallard, Stanley, Stapleton, Starnes, Stewart, Strong, Taylor, Templeton, Thompson, Tipton, Vaughn, Walker, Webb, Wells, White, Williams, Wilson, Wolfe, Wood.

The database is available Monday to Friday at the Sullivan County Department of Archives and Tourism. Visit the website for more information or to find out what other genealogy items are held at the Archives.