McNeil Cemetery is in a small grove of trees in the middle of a field (private property) in Raccoon township in Parke County, Indiana. Several years ago, we were able to travel to Parke County. The present owner of the land that our John McNeil owned, was kind enough to walk us out to the cemetery and help us find the headstones. All of the headstones had fallen over and were covered with overgrowth and leaves. We had to poke around through the leaves & brush until we felt the hard headstones. Then we wiped and cleaned everything off of the top of the headstones and then took pictures.
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| John McNeil headstone on right |
This first headstone shown below is our ancestor, John McNeil (1784-1852). John was the owner of the land the cemetery is located on. The headstone reads:
John McNeil
Died
May 29, 1852
Aged
68 Y's 3 M's & 11 D's
These next two headstones are of John McNeil's brother, Thomas H McNeil (1795-1850), and his wife, Malinda McNeil (1806-1859).
This last picture is of the present owner of the land and yours truly. We are in front of his barn and workshop. He was writing down his name and address for me. After I got back home, I sent him histories of our McNeil ancestors who lived so many years ago on the property he now owns.
UPDATED June 2023:
The middle initial of "C" was removed from John McNeil name. Since John McNeil is the name etched on the headstone, that is how his name will be presented. There is NO record of his middle initial being "C" or his middle name being Charles.
The name on John's headstone is John McNeil. NO middle initial "C" or middle name of Charles. People have been copying your blog and posting on Ancestry.com your headstone photos and adding the middle name of Charles. Is there a document or record showing a middle name? Where did the name Charles come from?
ReplyDeleteI've already taken off the middle initial C. Since the name etched on the headstone is John McNeil, I will only use that name.
ReplyDeleteYears ago another McNeil researcher gave me the middle initial C but did not tell me where they got it from. I will do some research on John and see if I can come up with an answer.
Thanks for keeping this blog up-to-date and correcting mistakes. Very important to leave a correct record for those who come after us.
ReplyDelete