Ancestor Research Project

I am choosing to research my great grandmother on my father's side because she lived a very long life and I am unfamiliar with my fathers side of ancestry. I also think that this research project will bring some questions into light about that side of the family. We are typically vague when we don't want the person we're talking to know something and I am interested to see how they feel.

Five Favorites

Our "Beyond the Grave Class" went out on a night expedition to see all of the churchyards around us. We visited ten "houses of worship" and out of those ten "houses", here are my top five:

Starting off at #5, we have Second Presbyterian Church!

The denomination of this church is Presbyterian and is located on 342 Meeting Street. It opened on April 3, 1811. The reason I placed this churchyard at number five was that the church itself was beautiful, the walk up to the building is quaint and has lots of history, however, the churchyard was closed and we could not access it.

Here is a link to the church website: https://www.2ndpc.org/our-living-history





Then at #4, we have the Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim (or KKBE for short)!

This denomination is Jewish and is located on 90 Hasell Street. It opened in 1749, I placed this churchyard at number four because I thought the building had a unique structure, especially the large Greek Doric columns. Again, the churchyard was closed and looked a tad smaller than the other graves we visited.

Here is a link to their website: https://www.kkbe.org/



Transitioning into #3, it's St Mary's!

This denomination is Roman Catholic and is located on 95 Hasell St. It opened in 1789. I placed this church third because I really liked the name, it had beautiful architecture, two churchyards. Although the churchyards were closed, I was able to go back during the day and capture the essence of the graves.

Here is a link to their website: http://www.sma.church/

The runner up, we have the French Huguenot Church!

The domination is Protestant and is located on 136 Church Street. This church was also burnt down in 1796 but then reconstructed in 1800, just four years later. I placed this church in second place because the church is this vibrant pink and was very uniform and I like that in any architecture. The fact that it was burnt down is interesting as well.


Here is a link to their website: https://www.huguenot-church.org/


And finally, my #1 Pick is St Phillips Church!

I absolutely loved this one because it is the largest one we visited, both church and churchyard. The denomination of this church is Anglican and is located on 142 Church St. The church opened in 1723. A fun fact about the churchyard is that the first College of Charleston president is buried here, Robert Smith. I placed this church as number one because I really liked the iron gates that were in front of the west side of the graveyard and I saw lots of different styles of  graves

Here is a link to their website: https://www.stphilipschurchsc.org/


Overall, the expedition was interesting and I found out that there are many more churchyards around me than I thought.

Ruth Miller Carcass Box Talk

On February 3rd, 2020 Mrs. Ruth Miller gave an excellent presentation about the history of Charleston. She talked about the creation of the colonies, how Charleston was one of the richest places in the early 1700s-1800s, special descriptions on art on tombstones, what materials make up a gravestone, and so much more

Her reasoning behind getting into graveyards was because of a group of morticians. They were on one of her tours of Charleston and wanted to see churchyards and cemeteries, they were excited about seeing the dead. So when they got to a graveyard they started pointing out what certain things meant to her and she has been captivated ever since

She reminded us that the main reasons why Charleston was rich were because of the crops we had, which were Rice, Indigo, and Tobacco. Another reason why Charleston was so rich was because of our access to the water and our trading abilities, we traded natural resources and slaves.

Charleston was so popular because it offered religious freedom, and she told us that "it only takes seven people to start a religion" or a special community

She spoke on the portraits of tombstones. If you were rich you would have your portrait etched into stone. Some portraits were modest and depicted the deceased in classic clothing and headwear, for example, she showed us a gravestone of a woman who wore a bonnet and a dress that covered her chest area to represent modesty, but the women also showed off her pretty pearls. Then there were portraits that showed buttons, and buttons were very very valuable and represented wealth, therefore the more buttons they were wearing the more money they had.

She made a point about informing us of the structures of the tombstone themselves. She talked about how, "early tombstones are carved by people in London, England. They used slate stone and it was all hand-carved", and that there were trends in tombs. Some had wooden tombstones which she said, "wooden tombstones didn't mean you were poor but that standard was brought over from central Europe". I thought that was pretty cool because I have never seen an actual wooden grave marker except for Halloween decorations.

We looked at some etchings of the lettering and inscriptions on older tombstones and my group was assigned two from different counties in SC. Our first was a former slave who was buried near the whites which means that he was heavily resected and fortunate enough to be buried with them in the "whites opinion".

Overall, I was intrigued by her presentation and impressed by her writings and success.

Sacred Scouting

The "beyond the grave" FYE class took a trip to visit two graveyards, Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St. Paul and St. Patrick Catholic Church. The Cathedral Church of St. Luke and St. Pauls is located on 126 Coming Street, Charleston, SC, 29403 and has been there for a significant amount of time, so long in fact, that it is currently under reconstruction. The St. Patrick Catholic Church is located on 134 St. Phillip St, Charleston, SC, 29403 and was built in 1837. Their first Reverend was Rev. John Fielding.

On this outing, our class was to photograph tomb markers and conduct research on them. We first visited the Cathedral Church where we found a plethora of tomb markers. There are 626 people buried there, including John Drayton (SC Governor) and Thomas Lowndes (US Congressman).

The first tomb is a pedestal, a fancy one, but still a pedestal. The dove represents innocence and purity, what's interesting about this dove is that is descending down, meaning descending into Hell which is kind of contradictory because how can you be innocent but also go to Hell? The name on the grave is Georgeanna Spears Hume, she was born on October 19th, 1819, and died September 7, 1855 (35). Her father died of a common cold a month before she was born. 

Here is an example of a column grave marker. A column grave marker symbolizes a life cut short, the life cut short here was Dr. Christopher Gadsden Hume. He was born on May 13th of 1825 and died on September 30th of 1849 at the age of 24.

Buried under this traditional headstone is Stephen Elliot, one of the most prominent men in Charelston during his time here. He was born on November 11, 1771, and died on March 28, 1830, at the age of 58. He was an "intellectual leader of his time" because he was an elected legislative official and was a co-founder of MUSC. 

This large cradle grave is shared by a husband and wife. Mrs. Sue and Percy Gueraro died almost exactly 9 years apart. Percy was born on December 14th, 1816, and died August 10, 1901. While Sue was born on February 4, 1832, and died on August 3, 1910. There is a small stone at the foot of the cradle grave that says "At Rest". Ther is not a lot of information about them other than Mr. Gueraro died at the age of 85 and Mrs. Gueraro died at the age of 78. 

This Grave is special because it is a box tomb, the stone says "Wife of William Simons/Aged 21 Years 3 Months and 2 Days". She was born on December 6th, 1830 and died March 8, 1852. There is a raised cross on top of her tomb and crosses symbolize Christianity, meaning she regularly practiced her religion. 

The spectacular building gravesite is called a mausoleum, they can house multiple tombs, usually six or more above-ground tombs. This particular mausoleum is for the family of William Johnston. The small plaque on the front of the structure says "This mausoleum built in 1844 by the family of William Johnston 1776-1840 as a resting place for his remains and for those of his descendants who wish to be placed herein". Obviously, William Johnston was placed here but his wife (Anna Maria Pickney Johnston, 1778-1853) was also placed with him. His children are all buried in Horry county.

After the class collected their photographs from the Cathedral, we then went to St. Patricks Catholic Church and found other interesting gravesites. Although this site was much smaller (249 people buried), you could still find out a lot about the area and the people who used to love here.




The following grave is called a ledger, a thick slab of stone covering the entire grave. It belongs to Patrick O'Connell, but what is interesting about this grave is that his daughters are also buried with him. From what it legible from the ledger, it reads "To The Memory of Patrick O'Connell / His Daughters / Mary Ann O'Connell / Catharine O'Connell"  

In the St. Patrick churchyard, I found this tombstone with impeccable artwork and detailing signifying that this man was a devout Christian and the vining represents friendship, therefore we can conclude that this man was a friendly Christian. His name was Dr. John Bellinger, he was born on September 24, 1804, and died August 13, 1860, at the crisp age of 55. However, he did marry three women who were much younger than him. He also had three children. 

The unfortunate events that led to this broken die on socket marker could have been a number of things, someone intentionally broke it, erosion of the rock/stone, flooding, etc. there is not much information you can find about the person buried underneath because the stone is too damaged. 

This is another example of a box top grave. The deceased name is Simon Kennedy, born in 1808 and died on January 20, 1852, estimated 44 years old. His tomb reads "Aged 44 years/ a Native of Ballyrouke / County Tipperary / Ireland Resident of Charleston 18 years/ May he rest in peace". There are no records to indicate if he had a spouse or children. 

Thank you for reading my blog! For more information about me and who I am, look at my previous blog "maddie manifesto"