Back in Time

I know I said earlier that I don't spend a lot of time in cemeteries but here I go again!

We had planned to make a day trip to an historical site or two slightly upstate New York. While researching locations I saw some city names that were familiar to me. I cross-referenced with my family tree and discovered that some of my ancestors had lived in what is now Orange County, New York.

Jacques Caudebec whose name was later Anglicized to Jacob Cuddeback was a French Huguenot who left France and emigrated to New York along with Pierre (Peter) Gumaer. They moved to the Peenpack Valley (named by the Indians). In 1697, they along with five other men applied to the governor for a 1200 acre land grant known as the Peenpack Patent.

(It turns out that descendants of both the Cuddeback and Gumaer families married so I'm related to both.)

Jacques and his wife, Margaretta Provoost Caudebec, my 9 times great grandparents, are special ancestors to me because several years ago I discovered them accidentally on an unrelated web search and that set me on an Ancestry.com journey!

So my research sent us on a trip to find their tombstones today. I had found a museum that was said to have information about the area. The museum is located in a town named Cuddebackville which seemed a good omen. I knew the name of the cemetery and the city it was located in but no address was given. I thought the museum would be able to give me more information. However, contrary to their published hours it turned out that the museum was not open today.

I was disappointed but we decided to drive around a bit before we left the area...and we came across a hand lettered cardboard sign that said "Cemetery". We drove down a narrow dirt road till we saw some cars parked along the road. In another coincidence, there had been a ceremony an hour earlier (hence the sign) to dedicate a new historical marker. We walked in the woods up a little hill and found the cemetery. It was old and most of the tombstones are damaged but we found the relatives! The original stones are broken and unreadable but at some time a couple of metal plaques had been installed.

Without that cardboard cemetery sign we would have never discovered the remote location.

Rest in peace grandpa Jacques and grandma Margaretta. Thanks for the DNA.