Kitchen Sink Omelet

In Section A, Row 2 began with a broken marble headstone. Lifting up the stone to view it was on my list of things to do in the near future. But then three days ago I noticed someone had beat me to it. So I've updated the maps and Treepad file on my Center Cemetery webpage .

Spent the morning at Belcher Cemetery. It's just a short walk up Anson Street from where I live--although it is a bit of an uphill climb. Dorothy Wirth in her book on Franklin County cemeteries states the access is through a private drive you need permission for. But Nancy Porter scoffed at that: Just walk up Anson Street until you see a big white house on the left. Just past it on the right is a wooded area that's city property, and there's a path up to the Belcher Cemetery. Willena and I spent a pleasant morning together, digital cameras in hand. I did video surveys of the site as whole and each row of headstones. Willena took many excellent still images of the stonework and the surrounding woods--and of me doing the video surveys. I was impressed with the quality of the construction of the walls and the gate, especially the foundations stones supporting the corners and the joins of the stones.

Progress! The Center Cemetery Treepad files are  uploaded to my website, The Center Village Recorder . Here are screenshots of what the files look like in the Treepad Viewer . Center Cemetery Section A, showing the maps included with the Treepad files. Center Cemetery Section B, showing the headstone images included with each name/date entry.

Center Cemetery Directory to be uploaded soon (hopefully tomorrow). I ran into a file size limit issue on Google sites. My Treepad file was 72 meg, and file size limit is 20meg. Oh. So I'm re-sizing the images in the Treepad file so it can uploaded. The headstones can still be identified from the Treepad images. I'm going to pack each row of high-res images in separate 7-zip files for download for those interested. The video surveys I did of each row will be posted on Youtube at a future date.

The Center Cemetery web pages have been updated with improved maps. Each "row" has a seperate map with names and dates listed next to the headstones. I will upload the Treepad directory file in the next day or so.

My study of the Center Cemetery and the Butterfield Cemetery in Farmington is focused on the history of Farmington (Center Village), not genealogy. The registries I could find on them were compiled by genealogy researchers; they didn't list children or those who "died without issue." Some names were missing for reasons I can't fathom. So I set aside the registries and grabbed my video camera (thanks, Heather!). Center Cemetery is practically my front yard, so it was a simple matter to just make a walking video for each row. These videos proved to be real time-savers. Just walk slowly, pause a moment for each headstone, and keep going. Because I'm mapping the locations of the headstones, I would keep the camera rolling while I crossed the empty spaces. If the headstone is especially large or tall, I do a slow scan from top to bottom before moving on. For each video I began on the same side, the parking lot by Church St. and walked down each row to Anson St. For t...

Here is the updated map of Center Cemetery in Farmington, Maine. I'm uploading to my website a Treepad file of the Center Cemetery as a directory/database of names and dates. Each name entry has an image of the headstone. A free Treepad viewer can be found here .

Doing research on the Center Cemetery in Farmington is made easier by the fact it's practically in my front yard. So while compiling the data of names and dates, I frequently trot out onto the cemetery grounds to survey the headstones and double-check the info on the headstones (bless my digital camera!). And every time I pass by the Butler family plot (Francis Gould Butler et al) I would pass by a small headstone propped up in the corner of the family plot. I knew it didn't belong there, but I kept telling myself, "later." Butler family plot with odd gravestone So then the other night I stopped on my way back from double-checking some inscriptions and read the wayward headstone. Wayward is right: "John Lewis Cutler." I went, what the heck?  There are no Cutlers buried in Center Cemetery. John Lewis Cutler--and no dates To make it worse, there are no dates carved on the stone--just the name. So I'll check the cemetery records at the town Lib...

My research is on Farmington's Center Cemetery. It's named after the Center Meeting House that stood where the Courthouse now is. My goal is produce an interactive map of the cemetery. Here is a simple image of what I have so far: The burial plots in yellow are confirmed names and dates. The ones in light blue still  need to be cross-checked, or have damaged-missing-unreadable headstones. BTW this is all being produced in Open Office.

I'm researching the Center Cemetery in Farmington, Maine. Because the headstones are so old and weathered, it's easier to read them in the evening; you shine a flashlight across the letters and they stand out better. So there I am, crouched down in the middle of a cemetery at dusk, reading gravestones and dictating what I find into a digital recorder--and the wind wafts the (delicious) smell of cooking hamburgers from a nearby restaurant and my stomach growls. I had to laugh. The moment was just so odd, so incongruous. Then I went inside and fixed myself some dinner.