I had a great visit to the Hazzard Hill Cemetery in Waycross, Georgia, on the day before “Independence Day.”
I went to find the grave of Della Doe – someone who is a stranger with no close known connection – more on this after I complete my research and documentation.
Two gentlemen were very gracious in giving their time to help me, and I want to give them a shout out “Thank You!”.
First was Larry J. Lockey, who is the President of the Waycross Branch NAACP. He started with a gentle curiosity about my photographing activities and, after a long conversation in the sweltering sun, ended up connecting me with Anthony “Amp” James, who is the caretaker of Hazzard Hill and Oakland Cemeteries (maybe others, as well?).
Both of these men went out of their way to help me in my quixotic search for a woman how appears to me to be all but forgotten. Mr. James not only took the time, on his day off, to research his records, he drove from his office at Oakland to Hazzard Hill to interpret the map and (spoiler alert!) show me where Della is buried.
I want her remembered – Della Doe. Soon to be posted on FamilySearch.org (and here!).
In the end, I came away with over 700 grave photos from Hazzard Hill. Find A Grave listed about 1150 graves with 66% photographed. I’m not an expert judge of cemetery size, but it seemed much larger than that. Plus there are many unmarked graves.
As I started posting photos on Find A Grave this evening, I found that out of 20 of the first 21 grave photos, the person was not even listed on the site… I had expected that only 1 of 3 photos I took would add to the site.
While I am saddened that there are so many missing, it does seem my day in the hot sun was much more productive than I had expected.
Now, back to posting on Find A Grave!