Saturday, June 19, 2010

Epitaph - Friends of Mount Hope

As so often happens, I stumbled across treasure while looking for something else entirely. Mt. Hope Cemetery in Rochester, New York has been on my list of cemeteries to visit for a very long time. Both my husband and I have relatives interred there but even if we didn't, it is a very beautiful cemetery.

Today's find was Epitaph, The Friends of Mount Hope Newsletter. A quarterly publication, begun in 1981, all of the issues through Summer 2009 are available online. I started browsing the index and there are many articles that I will enjoy reading.

On to treasure - the article title the caught my interest was McCracken Family. On of my projects is researching the descendants of David and Leatis Carlisle. They had only three children that lived to adulthood, Daniel, David and Leatis or Lettice who married Samuel McCracken. The McCracken's headed west into New York. I admit to having dropped the ball on this line somewhat.

Anyway - I remember that Samuel and Lettice McCracken had a son, Dr. David McCracken who settled in Batavia and later Rochester, New York. Dr. David was originally buried in a family cemetery and then reintered in Mt Hope. However the article was not about Dr. David. It is about Gardner McCracken, his children and the sinking of the transatlantic ship, Arctic! I don't know if Gardner was a son or grandson of Samuel and Lettice but he named one of his sons Carlisle McCracken so I'm betting this is my family and the article went from interesting to treasure!

So, check out Epitaph. You can also search the Mt Hope records online.

1 comment:

Brenda Leyndyke said...

Great find; I am off to check it out. Thanks!