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The Life From The Roots blog topics have changed several times since I began this blog in 2009. I initially wrote only about the family history I had been working on for 20 years. Years later, I was into visiting gardens, historical homes, churches, libraries that had genealogical collections, historical societies, war memorials, and travel/tourism places. I also enjoy posting autographs and photos of famous people I've met or have seen.

Along with my New England roots, other areas include New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and the Eastern Townships of Quebec, Canada.

Please check out the labels on the right side for topics (please note, they need work). Below the labels and pageviews is a listing of my top nine posts, according to Google. Four of them pertain to Lowell, MA. These posts change often because they are based on what people are reading.

Monday, April 14, 2014

Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, MA -- How to locate Records from Home or in Person

Researching for a tombstone at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, MA couldn't be easier, no matter if you do it from home or in person, even with 97,000 people buried there. The instructions on how to do it from home are after the first section of photos in which I show you how to do it in person.

A little bit about the cemetery, information from a flyer. "Today Mount Auburn's 175 acres are still recognized as one of the most significant designed landscapes in the country. The grounds are an internationally renowned arboretum and botanical garden, encompassing more than 9,400 trees and shrubs."


View of the Visitors Center from the main entrance. If you are looking for a site, this is where you would go first.
You enter the small room on the right.
Inside, there is one touch screen, with instructions. First thing you enter is the surname. All those with that name appear, and you select the given name. My example was Fairchild, then Joy (the father). My husband is holding the large map of the cemetery that was just printed out for me. On the lower left are the names of those buried in Lot 241.
Another detailed map shows the location where I need to search. Woodbine Path is in the upper middle, and with so many paths, I felt I needed the exact location, so we went to the office for help.
We were here on Saturday morning and was happy to find it open.
The helpful employee printed out a very detailed map with the exact location marked with the small green circle. In addition, she sent me a pdf to my email. This nice service had me wishing I had more family buried here.

My Rev. Joy H. Fairchild tombstone is shown above and since this is a hilly area, you need to walk, of course when my person was buried in 1859, that is what you had to do. Unfortunately, it was almost impossible to read the inscription. His family of 7 others were buried here, but this was the only marker. He was the father-in-law to Anthony Ten Eyck, I recently wrote about Anthony and his Hawaiian Connection, see HERE.

Huge tree greets you as you enter through the main gate.

Lovely stained glass photo taken from the restroom.

How to search from home

Below is the website to Mount Auburn along with their instructions.

http://mountauburn.org/2011/location-of-burial/
and additional information: http://mountauburn.org/2011/research-requests/

To start your search, you must complete both the name field and provide a range of dates for the burial in the form below.  Click the "Search" button, to see a list of all matching records from our database.  To see the burial location for anyone in the resulting list, simply click on the appropriate record and the location will appear on our map.

A Few Tips:
+  To narrow your search, please type in as much of the name as possible, for example "John James Smith" rather than just "J Smith."

+  Providing a range of dates for burial can either expand or narrow your search results.  If you are unsure when the burial might have taken place, you can always search our records from 1831 to the present.  If you know the approximate date of burial, limiting your search to a few years or even a decade will narrow the results.

+  If you are looking for all individuals buried at the Cemetery with a specific surname, simply type the last name into the form and search all records from 1831 to the present.

(Below is what I filled out at home.) The list of Fairchilds buried there are below.)
  • CARRIE FAIRCHILD
    Interred 7/29/1882
  • FLORINA F. FAIRCHILD
    Interred 4/15/1853
  • JOY H. FAIRCHILD
    Interred 2/24/1859
  • LENNIE JOY FAIRCHILD
    Interred 11/16/1868
  • MARY B. FAIRCHILD
    Interred 1/18/1864
  • MARY JOY FAIRCHILD
    Interred 7/20/1843
  • SENECA CREGEAN FAIRCHILD
    Interred 8/5/1863
UPDATE: JUNE 23, 2015: History of Mount Auburn Cemetery from Mass (Massachusetts) Moments

https://mountauburn.org/?cache Go to Explore Burial Search Tab: https://www.remembermyjourney.com/Search/Cemetery/325/Map

https://mountauburn.org/digitization-days-revealing-the-individuals-in-our-past/

Genealogical Research Requests

 
October 12, 2011

Mount Auburn offers a range of research and genealogy services. Please choose from the services below:
 To request these services, please visit our web store, print out and mail a copy of our research request form, or contact our Historical Collections Department directly at research@mountauburn.org.
 For location of burials, please utilize our map feature by simply entering the surname of the deceased and the approximate dates of interment.