[Genealogy] How Many Times, Childless and Foresaken, and More

Wed May 27 13:39:25 CDT 2026

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Genealogy Update 27 May 2026

** How Many Times Have I Been to the Cemetery?
** AI for Genealogy
** Childless and Foresaken
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How Many Times Have I Been to the Cemetery?
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The author’s shadow graces a tombstone in a late afternoon photo taken at
the West Point, Illinois, cemetery.

I’m not a big fan of any sort of meme or “busywork” activity, but as I
looked at the panoramic picture I took at the West Point Cemetery, I got to
wondering “how many times I have been here other than for genealogical
research? Had I ever been at the cemetery without writing down an
inscription or taking a picture.

Had I ever been there for an actual funeral?

And I could only think of once: my grandmother’s funeral in 1994. For some
reason I have the vague memory of attending another funeral there and
interacting with certain relatives, but I cannot think of who it would be.
I must be remembering a different funeral involving my paternal family or
have convinced myself that the interaction did not take place at Grandma’s
funeral. It’s just some additional evidence that memory is a fickle thing.

My grandfather died in 1968 and at six months of age, I was too young to
attend the funeral. I’m not certain where I was, but I think my
great-grandma Ufkes probably watched me while my parents were at the
funeral. My great-grandma Ufkes always seemed so old and ancient to me, but
when she babysat me she would have been in her early seventies, the same
age my mother was when she died. Somehow that does not seem as old now as
it did then.

Other members of my paternal family who died after I was old enough to
attend funerals were not buried in West Point. My grandpa Neill’s siblings
are all buried elsewhere as are my grandma Neill’s. Grandma is the only
member of her family buried at West Point—it’s a Neill cemetery and many of
my grandfather’s relatives are buried there.

And now I am off to think about the other funerals I have attended and
where the internment was afterwards and how many times I had been to those
cemeteries.

“When did you attend funerals at a specific cemetery?” might be a really
good question to ask that family member you are interviewing.
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Childless and Foresaken
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Sometimes ministers have a way of laying things on the line and sometimes
they are just a little too blunt.

But the details always help to paint a picture, even if one has to imagine
that picture with some grains of salt spread over it.

This 1914 entry from the funeral portion of the church register of St.
Peter’s Lutheran Church in Coatsburg, Illinois, mentions my aunt Sophia and
includes a little commentary from the minister as well. In addition to
listing her date of birth and death, he indicated that she “died childless
and foresaken by husband…” One almost wishes he had phrased it differently.

The interpretation of “childless” must be done with care. It seems
reasonable to conclude that there Sophia had no surviving children. It is
possible that she had children who died before she did and that they were
not referenced by the minister. This statement cannot be interpreted as
indicating Sophia never had children.

The “foresaken” part is a little more difficult to interpret precisely as
it covers quite a bit of potential territory. One can safely conclude that
they were parted when Sophia died. They may or may not have divorced and he
may or may not have survived her. One always needs to take care to avoid
concluding things that are not supported by one individual statement.

The minister was apparently so concerned about Sophia being childless and
“foresaken” that he got her names mixed up. She was Mrs. Sophia Driesback
nee Dirks, not Sophia Dirks nee Driesback. Church records can be just as
incorrect as any other record. The transcription of this record should be
exactly as it is written. Any “correction” should be done in a way that
clearly indicates it is not a part of the transcription–preferably in
square brackets [].
This image came from *Ancestry.com’s “*Evangelical Lutheran Church of
America, Records, 1875-1940“

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