Family history across the seas

Join me on my Cemetery Searching expedition for the 2023 A to Z Blog Challenge. I’ll be re-visiting some cemeteries and preparing for a wish list of others. Some family members will be mentioned but I also have an interest in German family graves as well as those of people born in Co Clare Ireland.

Murphy’s Creek, near Toowoomba, Queensland

This is the cemetery that I probably visit most often. It has a special place in my heart because this is where I discovered my immigrant Kunkel ancestor. George Mathias Kunkel (from Dorfprozelten, Bavaria) and his wife, Mary O’Brien (from Broadford, Co Clare) are my 2xgreat grandparents who are buried in this cemetery along with their son, George Michael Kunkel (my great grandfather) and their daughter Mary Ellen.

When I first saw their gravestone in the late 1980s, it was in a rather sorry condition, having lost the cross from on top of the memorial and sitting crookedly. I suspect our family is lucky to have this stone, since George Michael and Mary Ellen died before their parents. This area is known for its sandstone, some of which was used in Brisbane’s important colonial buildings.

They are buried in what would have been the Catholic section of the cemetery, and at first glance there were no other Catholic burials. I very much doubt this is correct, and it’s more likely they either had no stones or perhaps only wooden crosses.

At our second family reunion in 2007, we had a collection to restore the gravestone and a further donation enabled us to put a plaque on it with more detail including George and Mary’s places of births.

In the non-Catholic section of the cemetery are many of my family’s friends and neighbours from the late 1800s.

Murphys Creek was a relatively small area, especially for those who lived at the Fifteen Mile towards Hampton, and news stories are a great source of information.

Moorgate Churchyard, Retford, Nottinghamshire, England

When we’re travelling and trawling cemeteries, we typically divide the into quadrants. Mr Cassmob usually finds my people, so I was delighted on this occasion to find his ancestors, all clustered together in the church yard and with fabulous inscriptions. When we visited the church the next morning we were swept up by the parishioners and invited to morning tea. These are special memories that come out of nowhere to surprise us when doing genealogical sleuthing.

We had no idea that Elizabeth Walker had relocated from Rye, to be with her daughters who ran a school for young ladies in Retford Notts for many years. Teaching has been a prevailing theme in the Cass family.

Morpeth Cemetery, NSW

We have no family buried here (that we know of) but I wanted to share some memorials for those who came from Co Clare, Ireland.

There are also many memorials to Irish people from different counties.

Missing Person’s Memorial, Pinaroo Cemetery, Brisbane

Cemetery Searching Wish List

Many of Mr Cassmob’s relatives are buried in Melbourne cemeteries and at some stage we need to do a grave search for them. We know his grandparents have no grave marker because he tried to get permission to have one erected. In the meantime we can peruse FindaGrave memorials.