Find a Grave® Volunteer of the Month - Find a Grave News (original) (raw)
Chad Comer lives in Gamaliel, Kentucky. He first joined Find a Grave® in 2009 when he began researching his own family’s genealogy.
Family History
Chad knew many of his ancestors are buried in the Gamaliel Cemetery in Gamaliel, Monroe County, Kentucky.
There weren’t many of my family members that had Find a Grave memorials at that time, so I decided to make theirs. After I made their memorials, I decided to photograph and create memorials for an entire row in the cemetery. I really enjoyed it and decided to do another row. Before I knew it, I had completed the entire cemetery of just under 2000 graves at that time. From there I did other cemeteries, completely photographing and creating memorials for those who didn’t have one. Within three years I had completed 37 cemeteries in three counties and two states (Monroe County, Kentucky, & Macon and Clay Counties in Tennessee).
Leaving a Legacy
My favorite cemetery is the Gamaliel Cemetery, in Gamaliel, Kentucky. This cemetery had some 600 burials marked with either a plain fieldstone or nothing at all. I wanted to mark those graves with 5×10” granite markers which had their names and dates on them. The cemetery has kept excellent records over the years, so I got the record book and started gathering their information.
Two days after Christmas 2010, Chad began a Facebook page called “Friends of Gamaliel Cemetery” to help raise funds to add markers to the 600 graves that had no markers to memorialize the life of those laid to rest in the Gamaliel Cemetery. He was able to find a company that could provide 5×10 granite markers with the decedents’ names and dates on them if they were known.
An older part of the Gamaliel Cemetery has five large slabs of stone covering the original graves of some original settlers and their young children. In a desire to honor them, the group made a special marker (see below) to show who was buried in these older graves, including James Crawford. Crawford is in the middle of the slab graves and marked by a modern gravestone. He was a native of Ireland who immigrated to Kentucky as one of the first settlers in the area. He worked as a blacksmith in the community and later served with Andrew Jackson during the War of 1812 as a captain. “Old Jim” Crawford along with another citizen donated 10 acres in which the city of Gamaliel was founded. In 1836, he also donated the land for the Gamaliel Cemetery, which was 28 years before he passed away.
In cases where not much information is known about the individual buried, Chad’s group still honors them as best they can. For instance, they were able to replace a small field stone (see the photo on the left) for 1 Unknown. The stone shown on the right now sits in place of the field stone:
This project has been able to raise enough money to start marking at least a few graves each year. To date, they have marked over 400 graves with only around 200 more to mark! Two examples of the graves that have been marked are: Infant Jenkins and Infant Riggs.
My Friends (of Gamaliel Cemetery) group has leveled and repaired countless headstones in Gamaliel and other surrounding cemeteries. We also flag the veteran graves for Memorial Day and have set or replaced over 40 military markers. All of this started from my love and interest in Find a Grave.
The best part of Find a Grave, for me, is when a descendant who has never seen a loved one’s headstone, thanks me for posting a picture. One person wrote: “You have covered the three counties that most of my mother’s family lived in so I run into your name daily. Just wanted to take a minute to say thank you.” Another person commented, “Thank you so much for posting the headstone picture of my 5th great grandfather! I would like to make a pilgrimage to see the headstone in person.”
I have three children who help with my many cemetery projects. I hope my passion for cemetery preservation carries over to them.
Chad, we appreciate your contributions and efforts in our Find a Grave community. We love that you were able to bring your local community together to take care of your city cemetery and remember those who did not have gravestones. Thank you for all you do!
We know Chad is one of the many wonderful volunteers in our Find a Grave community. Do you know a Find a Grave member who would make a good candidate for Volunteer of the Month? If so, we welcome your suggestions. Please send an email with details of their work to feedback@findagrave.com.