Burial of Thomas and Rebecca (Taggart) Jameson

Thomas and Rebecca (Tagart) Jameson are most likely buried in the Armor (now Hillcrest) cemetery, in Armor, Erie Co., NY.

Well over twenty odd years ago I was at the Hamburg Historical Society looking for anything I could find about Jamesons...

In an index card file I found this entry:

In "those" days the Armor Cemetery was what is now known as Hillcrest Cemetery in Abbott's Corners, hamlet of Hamburg, New York.

I took this information to the office of that cemetery - questioned the office staff and was bluntly told "Not at this cemetery".

Many years ago there was a Presbyterian church on the property of this cemetery at Abbott's Corners. Around 1901 the church building burned to the ground, the resulting destruction taking the cemetery records with it.

In an effort to reconstruct the records every headstone was re-recorded in new books, the cemetery plotted and measured. Illegible headstones were simply recorded as "in line with 'so-and-so'" and unmarked plots were "poked" to determine if anything was buried there.

Just today I have re-visited this cemetery - spoke to the manager - and am again told "No record... however, don't forget about the fire..."

In my humble opinion the index file card could not have just appeared out of thin air. There was - and still is - a reason for it. The cemetery manager agrees. Thomas and Rebecca MUST be buried here - there "just is no record anymore".

John Spengler - 2011 [S70]