Update on: Its not always what it seems or it pays to dig deeper...

The day my husband found this marker at West Newton Cemetery he called me and together we did the "Happy Dance"!  On it is my 3rd great grandfather and grandmother, and my 2nd great grandfather and grandmother.

 I was always told our path to DAR was through Simon McGrew. It is actually through Simon McGrew Cochenour and then his mother Elizabeth Mains then on through Mains until we find Robert Means, our Patriot.

By looking at the stone,  it is relatively new and in great shape. So we thought that some one had placed a new stone on the family plot to replace an old weathered most likely unreadable stone(s) of those buried there. But that's not what this story is about. If you've followed our blogs on R.I.P. you know we did the "Happy Dance" when we found my third Great-Grandmother's, Eliza Duff Frew, marker in the Laurel bushes.    
http://restinginwestmoreland.blogspot.com/2011/09/surname-saturday-finding-frews.html

We had done so much research and got to the point we needed to meet with a family member that has collected all the family data and pictures of our family on my mom's side. So we  visited with the family member to compare notes. We told her we found Eliza Frew, mother of Catherine (Frew) Cochenour, on the pictured stone. She was of the opinion that one of Eliza's great grandchildren (a Davis baby) was buried with her! So off to the cemetery we go.

Going through the old cemetery books with the most helpful caretaker we realized there were 17 people in three different plots.

First at checking Eliza's and her husband J G Frew's site we found 3 adults and two babies interred there. . But the babies were the Frew's two infants  not their great grand child. (We hadn't known about them) The third adult was their married daughter, Olive Caddis. We know in the 1880 census Olive and her three children were living with her parents. Where is Mr. Caddis, Olive's husband? To top that off, the monument only had Eliza Frew's info engraved on it. It had three blank sides. Is this monument for all 5 of them?Or is the blank, weathered and sugared marble monolith beside her's the babies? Olive's? More questions.

So to the next plot we go: the Cochenour's.(as shown in the first picture) We find out there are actually two separate groups of burial's.

One belonged to Catherine Frew Cochenour, Eliza's daughter. 

In The Catherine (Frew) and Simon McGrew Cochenour lots were two adults and 6 babies! Three of these babies are their grandchildren, by their daughter Neva Pearl (Cochenour) Davis, the three Davis babies are Robert, Brynley and Chester Davis.. There were 3 other babies:  George W. Cochenour (baby), Kate Cochenour  (baby) and a baby boy Yukanalis ??. Two were children of Catherine and Simon we never heard of before now and one listed as baby Yukanalis! Who was this? There hasn't been anyone by that name in all of our genealogy research!

In the adjoining lot, the second group of burials: 

I was surprised to find out that Daniel Cochenour and Elizabeth (Mains) Cochenour where buried  with a baby Cochenour  and a Mrs.Kelly ??. Who is Mrs. Kelly?


 If you've been doing your genealogy, as you have come upon much sought information, and done that 'happy dance", you will usually find the very best info almost always comes with more questions that lead to more paths of info to pursue. We now have more questions than we started with at the beginning of this quest. So keep in mind in your genealogical research things may not always be as they appear.

Thank you for reading our blog. See you next time!

Update on baby Yukanalis!

Went to our family reunion this weekend and got new info on the baby with Catherine (Frew) & Simon McGrew Cochenour.

The baby was a child of Alice Cochenour & Thomas Paul Yuknalis.
They, too, are buried in West Newton Cemetery.

We have looked but have not found the names of her parents and exactly how she is related to Catherine Cochenour.

So another mystery solved but more questions.

We'll keep on looking for the answers...

Again thank you for visiting our blog. And don't underestimate all kinds of sources for genealogy research. Happy hunting!