Tombstone Tuesday - A Farmer & His Wife

Lee & Phyllis (nee Manmiller) Stitzel

Location: Zion Moselem Lutheran Church, Moselem Church Road, Richmond Township, Berks County, PA 

Although Lee Stitzel was four years younger than my stepfather, Walter C. L. Adam, Lee was actually the much younger half-brother of my stepdad's father, Walter J. Adam. So Lee was my stepfather's uncle, even though he was younger than my stepfather..

Aren't overlapping generations fun in family trees? You'd think from ages that Walt would be Lee's older cousin, but Walt was actually Lee's nephew.

Lee was a proud farmer and hunter and wanted that memorialized in his stone design. His wife, a fan of playing BINGO has her imprint in the BINGO card that also is featured on the stone.

(Photo by Karen Fox 2010)

Click the photo for a larger image

Tombstone Tuesday - A Genealogist's Delight!

Tombstone Tuesday - A Family Tree in Stone

Location: Zion Moselem Lutheran Church, Moselem Church Road, Richmond Township, Berks County, PA

According to my mother, Herbert and Elda Adam were the uncle and aunt of my late stepfather Walter C. L. Adam. Someday, a genealogist will stumble upon their tombstone and do a great big Happy Dance.

The front face of the stone is quite nice and includes a lovely portrait of the couple. But it looks like a typical tombstone, yes?

 photo by Karen Fox 2010

(Click photo to see enlarged image)

But walk around to the reverse of the stone and you'll find the full family tree (father's paternal line and mother's paternal line) back to their immigrant ancestors for both husband and wife! Also there are three photo portraits of the couple's grown sons and their wives and the wives' maiden names are included in the inscriptions identifying the photos.

photo by Karen Fox 2010

(Click photo to see enlarged image)

Now why couldn't my gr-gr-grandfather of the brick wall have a stone like this?