Burst Our Bubble

            A very observant reader questioned why the first post said that John B. Reno "was buried in an unmarked grave," yet in the second post, there is a picture of his gravestone. That is because we had initially started this blog for an entirely different purpose. But then our bubble burst. Here's the story.

            My cousin Lori and I met while independently researching the same family in Spencer. After comparing notes, we discovered that we had this Civil War veteran in common.

            While visiting the local cemetery, we asked the caretaker to show us where John was buried. He took us to a blank patch of grass. Knowing the pain and suffering our ancestor had suffered in defense of our country, Lori and I, now joined by Jodie, decided that in this, the anniversary year of the start of the Civil War, we should honor him with a stone. Jodie downloaded an application for a free government-provided, period gravestone from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. Our plans were to contact the local newspaper to do an article on our ancestor and what we were proposing to do. We thought that by creating the blog, descendants would have a place to contact us. In the spring, near the anniversary of his death, we would have a dedication ceremony with many of his descendants present.

            After getting all the paperwork together, I made an appointment with the cemetery caretaker to sign off on the government forms. After getting his signature, he casually remarked that he didn't understand why we were getting another stone when there was already a big one there. After the shock wore off, he took me to John and Dina's gravesite. There it was, a very large, granite stone!

            So we quickly shifted the focus of our blog. We still hope it will be a gathering place for descendants, but without the pomp and circumstance we had hoped for.

            Perhaps John would have preferred it that way.

                                                                                                                -Sandy