Friday, March 02, 2012

Visiting the Dead

On Sunday, fellow blogger and my friend, Di, over at Blue Ridge Gal, contacted me about a grave she wanted to find. She's connected with findagrave.com and is off in hot pursuit of chisled marble in the cemeteries these days. She hunts up stones for folks at their request and takes a photo for them.

Her destination this time led her to the Firebaugh Cemetery. A light bulb went off in her lovely head, and she thought, aha! My friend Anita probably knows where this is at.

And indeed I did.

The Firebaugh Cemetery is located in someone's front yard, on a road not far from our farm.


It is rather picturesque. I love the old tree even though it has uprooted a few stones.



The front stones here belong to my husband's great-great-grandparents.



This is the family patriarch. Legend has it that Philip Firebaugh came to Botetourt County around 1818. His saddlebags were filled with gold.




A line-up of the family.



This is the original family homeplace, Stonelea. It is quite old. I don't know when it got out of family hands; decades ago, I know. At one time all of this land was farmland.

Times change.

7 comments:

  1. i love that your husband has all his family history right here...to me that is just awesome to live in the same area where it all started. where did his family originally come from? would love to hear more about the firebaugh's and that home, stonelea....interesting that 2 of his ancestral homes are still standing!

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    1. The Firebaughs originally came over from Germany. I have all of that information somewhere; they came over in the 1700s, landing in PA, and then down to VA. It is a long and interesting heritage. I'm glad you enjoyed the post.

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  2. Looks like a neat house. Is anyone still living in it?

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    Replies
    1. Yes. That is why the picture is from afar. I try not to bother them.

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  3. I love old cemeteries. There's just something about them, isn't there?

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    Replies
    1. They have lots of character and personality. We've kind of lost that in the modern cemeteries.

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  4. Did you find the stone that Di was searching for? Isn't it a small world?!

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