Happy May Day - Beltaine and Isaac Norman

Celebration of May.  Yay!  It's spring.  And before Memorial Day comes at the end of the month, I'll start the month looking at ancestors!

I'm going to share my exciting adventure of finding the grave of my ancestor, Isaac Norman.  Who?

My mother's mother's mother's...oh you know lots of mother's back there.  Actually in my reckoning, which is the system I devised going back from my grandchildren as generation 1).   This Isaac Norman would be generation 10).  I am generation 3).

(12) Isaac Norman ( 5 Oct 1682 - 7 Apr 1748)
(11) Joseph Norman (1708-16 Feb 1784)
(10) Isaac Norman II (1735 - 1776)
(9) Mary Margaret (Polly) Norman Conn (23 Mar 1792 - 13 Dec 1833)
(8) Hannah Conn Booth (1818-1884)
(7) Richard R. Booth (1846-1879)
(6) Eugenia Booth Miller (1873-1936)
(5) Mozelle Miller Webb Munhall (1897-1960)
(4) Mataley Webb Rogers (1917-2003)
(3) Barbara B Rogers (living)

I've posted several times already about him, a veteran of the War of 1812, Here and Here, and HERE when trying to find his grave.

I also noted that I used to have his generation numbered incorrectly.  Oops.  It's my own system and somehow I jumped him back earlier.  SO hopefuly this is the right amount of generations removed.

And here is my story from last week's actual finding of his grave marker.  (I believe the monument was errected a while after his death, but I don't know when.)

There was no "google map available" when I got into the area of Elk Creek.  So I stopped at a convenience/gas store and asked the clerk.  Fortunately the woman behind me in line knew where the Elk Creek Baptist Church was to be found, off the Old Road on your left.  I went down the Old Road (which had a numeric designation) and it had a "y" and I took the right side, to find many new homes.  Not the Old Road obviously.  Going the other way, I soon saw a beautiful antibellum home through the trees.

And it was situated on Elk Creek!

The Elk Creek Baptist Church had a huge cemetery.

My thinking went that the original founders would be buried close to the church, and here was Isaac Norman's monument right next to the drive.

I left my flowers, and took a lot of pictures.

South face, Isaac Norman, born Aug 25, 1765, Died July 22, 1828

A different person's statistics were carved on each of the 4 faces of the monument.

 

West face, Hannah G. wife of Isaac Norman, born Apr 20, 1762, Died Feb 28, 1845

I had not expected to find 2 more names on the marker. Who were they?

 East face, Abner Norman, born Dec. 30. 1789, Died Jan. 2. 1856. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

 and the other was...

North face, Frances, wife of Abner Norman, born Apr 4, 1788, died March 28, 1864

 Frances Northmore Redman was Abner's wife.  Her marker was really hard to read however.

Frances was the last one to die in 1864, who is memorialized on this marker.  Who might have been the ones burying these elders?  Frances and Abner had a lot of children, several of whom lived into the 1920s.  So I can't speculate on that today.

View of east and north faces of monument, with my car

The Norman marker, center with flag

I did look at other markers nearby, and found the Van Dykes married a grandson of Isaac Norman, Solomon Redman Norman, and many of the graves in that area of the cemetery were of their sons and daughters.

So I said goodbye to these ancestors and went on down the road.  And thanked them for giving me life, to pass along to my own children and hopefully to many more descendents one day.