San Jose de Armijo, Albuquerque

Sweet success!  We have finished this interesting cemetery.  The Atrisco Land Grant cemetery has burials from the early 1920's all the way to this week.  Relatives are very dedicated in caring for graves and there are almost always visitors at grave sites.  And this cemetery is unique, different from all the other ones we have recorded through the years.

This cemetery has a heart and soul, not just burials or graves.  So many of the graves are cared for.  Not by groundkeepers, gardeners, office staff or burial personnel.  Many of these graves are cared for almost daily by FAMILY.  Yes - the family of the person who died cares.  They come and visit, keep the weeds and tumbleweeds off the headstones, sweep and clean the headstones and if necessary, re-write the inscription on the headstone as it fades in our harsh sun.  So many graves here tell stories, and many are decorated for every holiday or celebration day.

On the other hand, many graves are also abandoned.  I wonder when we see graves of small children, just where their parents are.  There are three different sets of twins in this cemetery.  Each set died between age 1 and 5.  Their last names are unique.  Each set died around 1950-1955.  There is not another soul in this cemetery with their last names.  Where are their relatives?  In a few cases, there is a grave of a child and right next to it is one (or both) parents.  I think it is the graves of children that grieve me the most.  I always briefly stop and say a prayer for the child as well as the parents who cried over this child, wherever they are.

There is a beautiful fenced area in this cemetery that has 13 graves of members of one family!  How blessed they are to be together.  The fenced area has been cared for and kept clear of debris.  You can tell someone respects their ancestors because they honor them in death.  We all can learn a lesson from this.

And then are the many graves that have no identification other than a cross, a brick, a metal plate, a piece of wood with part of a name.  God knows who each of these people are thankfully.

This lady has.......glue?

This 'stick-to-it' lady is Gloria Henderson and she has been with the Tombstone group since February of 2007.  To date, she has volunteered over 250 hours to this group.  But wait - she also volunteers for lots of other groups too!  Like feeding the homeless at St. Martin's, working the Telephone Museum, Balloon Fiesta and goes wherever she is needed.  I am so lucky that she gives me so  much of her time.  I don't know how she has ANY time!  Regardless of the time of day we meet, or day of the week, I can always count on seeing her smiling face.

Gloria worked for the telephone company for 21 years, left there and then worked at Kirtland AFB for 5 years.  Then nine LONG months at the IRS.  Finally she worked at ATF and loved it for 16 years.  She assisted the agents in criminal investigations and interfaced with other city, state and federal agencies during investigations. 

She was born in San Francisco, California but has lived most of her life in New Mexico.  Her parents are Fernando and Olivama Maestas from Espanola and her mother now lives in Albuquerque.  She has three brothers and two sisters as well as three step-children (Dan, Vicki and Jim).  She has always wanted to visit Italy and her favorite city is Boston.  An avid reader of James Patterson, she would love to see some of his books made into movies.  Her favorite movie now is Terms of Endearment.

When asked why she has stayed with Tombstone, she attributes some of it to her dear friend (and co-vounteer with Tombstone) Betty Lamberti.  She wasn't sure this work would suit her, but decided to try it with Betty.  She got hooked!  HOORAY!  She says, "I feel I am contributing something to the community and for the people who go there to find their loved ones." 

Betty and Gloria, working together, are an awesome force.  I don't have to think twice when they work a section together - it gets done quickly.  Thank you for sticking 'like glue' to Tombstone Transcription.

Happy Days

We are officially back working San Jose de Armijo Cemetery.  Everyone is happy to be back outside, enjoying the cool mornings and clear blue skies.  The mornings are so beautiful and we enjoy the fresh air and crisp temperatures.  It isn't TOO cold yet, so it is still 'fun' to be working.  We'll see how long that lasts when the temperature falls from the 60 degrees this morning to 40 degrees in the future! 

The only problem is the way this cemetery is laid out.  It is absolutely crazy!  There are no definite rows, so writing down the headstones in an orderly manner is almost impossible.  When we started at this cemetery, as always, I mapped out the grounds into sections.  We take each section and work row by row, starting with row one through the end.  But some of the sections in this cemetery are helter skelter, not in a straight line (not even in a semi-straight line) and sometimes you can't even figure out where the next grave is. 

We worked section 20 today - all of us!  We had to just leap frog over each other doing one row at a time.  There was alot of "did you get this grave?", "isn't this one in your row?", "where does this cross belong?"  Heavens knows if we got most of the markers written down, but as crazy as the section is, I'll be grateful if we got 80% of them.  And of course this is the section that holds the oldest burials and was the first section used.  There is history here!

After an hour and a half of trying to read old cement markers, digging out headstones buried in sand, markers covered with ten (or more) plastic flower arrangements, hand painted rocks, and worse, we are all exhausted!  But we feel that we have accomplished our goal - preserving history and writing down things that will soon be lost to weather and time.

This last picture is the entrance to this wonderful Spanish cemetery where traditions are strong and families are proud of the grounds.  Someone(s) did this wall painting and it is beautiful.  I hope it lasts for many years honoring the dead.

Favorites!

Ah, my favorite time of the year.  Nope, it's not that it is Dixon Apple time, after all they were sold out in three days and we didn't get any.  Nor is it the beautiful Balloon Fiesta, even though we rarely go.  Most years many of the balloons come right over our house in Corrales - even land in the corn fields right next to our house.  This year no balloon came even close!  And it isn't even the beautiful Sandhill Cranes and Canadian Geese that fly over our house by the hundreds every morning, squaking and honking before then land to graze in the cornfields.

Nope - it is my favorite time because it is Fall and the hot weather has left the scene.   Wonderfully cool mornings mean one thing - the Tombstone 'bees' will be returning to the cemetery grounds.  HOORAY!!

All of us love getting back out into the field, so to speak, and completing another cemetery.  It is kind of strange the joy that it brings to all of us to get all those names down.  But we all understand the wonderful history we have created in documenting a particular cemetery.  After it is uploaded to the internet, the information is there forever.  For anyone in the whole world to find their friends and relatives. 

Yes, that is why this is my favorite time of year, why everyone is happy to go back outside, and why we do this job.  Year after year, happily creating history.  Thank you, all you 'bees'.

Eagles Soar

Once or twice a year, I am contacted by Boy Scouts who are looking for a project to complete their work for the Eagle Scout ranking.  Sometimes there are cemeteries to clean, headstones to set or weeds and tumbleweeds to be removed.  This year brought me Logan Pickett, a young man eager to complete his service project and move forward to Eagle Scout.  He wanted to tackle a cemetery because he saw the importance of Tombstone Transcription.  Luckily I had a cemetery in Rio Rancho that needed to be re-walked and it would be perfect for his project.

Logan is a senior at Cibola High School, the son of Glen and Linda Pickett.  He has been a Boy Scout for five years but always wanted to be an Eagle Scout.  This was his final step.

We met several times as I explained and laid out the project.  He organized everyone that would need to work with him and we had a training meeting on Wednesday, August 25.  There were about 25 people who attended and quickly caught on to the process.  We went directly to Vista Verde Cemetery after the training and started work.  Even my grandson, Gregory - also a Boy Scout - came to help.  Logan did an excellent job in pairing people up and getting them into the correct sections.  It was a hot evening but all the scouts, parents and volunteers worked for two plus hours without complaint. 

About 2/3 of the needed re-walk was completed Wednesday night and Logan and a few other scouts returned on Thursday after school and finished.  Then Logan took all the papers and notebooks home to organize the information.  By September 15 he was ready to begin the computer entry part of the project.  After a brief training on databases, he was on his way to finishing up.  On September 28 Logan submitted the final database with all the changes to data and additions with new names and dates.

Logan did an excellent job in completing this project.  It took dedication and perseverance to handle all the data, papers, people and questions.  He had to stay organized and focused, which he did quite well!  Everyone I met in regards to this project was energetic and eager to help.  There were never any complaints or hesitation to jumping in and helping. 

Thank you Logan, your parents and your scout leader, for taking on this project, which ultimately helps everyone around the world searching for a relative.  You have done a terrific job and I am honored to have helped you.

Oh, was I ever wrong!!

Yep, very wrong. All you transcribers are NOT out of a job.  I thought we were getting down to the end of the notebooks that needed to be entered in the computer.  True - we are down to 14 notebooks and not all of them are full.  BUT, I forgot about this little box.

One small innocent box.  One that I totally forgot about.  Until I decided to check what was in that mysterious box on top of my desk.  And suddenly I remembered what was in it.

These are CD's full of death certificates from different counties in New Mexico.  Each CD has between 150 and 400 individual records.  Each record has about 15 pieces of information that will need to be extracted and then entered into the computer. 

So break out the popcorn, sharpen your pencil and get ready to start a new project!  Keep in mind how much I love you all!

Short Timers

Summer is quickly coming to an end.  Most children are back in school now and UNM classes are starting soon.  The days are cooling off (not fast enough for me) and evenings are delightfully cool.  What all this means is that our time at the library is getting short.  We consider ourselves 'short timers' now.  All of us look forward to getting out of the building and back onto cemetery grounds! 

As soon as the weather cools and the mornings are less than 70 degrees, we will return to San Jose de Armijo.  But before we can do that, we have to finish up a few details at the library.  I would like everyone to find a good stopping point in the book they are working in.  Sometimes that works out fine, other times we sort of quit in the middle of a page.  But no fear, it will wait for us when we all too quickly return in December.

And we will miss David and Gail at the library.  We always feel so welcomed!